Three important features of Indian labor markets enduringly coexist: rent-seeking, occupational immobility, and caste. These facts are puzzling, given theories that predict static, equilibrium social inequality without conflict. Our model explains these facts as an equilibrium outcome. Some people switch caste-associated occupations for an easier source of rents, rather than for productivity. This undermines trust between castes and shuts down occupational mobility, which further encourages rent-seeking due to an inability of workers to sort into occupations. We motivate our contribution with novel stylized facts exploiting a unique survey question on casteism in India, which we show is associated with rent-seeking.

中文翻译：

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那些无法分类的人，偷窃：印度农村的种姓、职业流动性和寻租


印度劳动力市场的三个重要特征长期共存：寻租、职业固定性和种姓。鉴于预测静态、均衡社会不平等且无冲突的理论，这些事实令人费解。我们的模型将这些事实解释为均衡结果。有些人改变与种姓相关的职业是为了更容易获得租金来源，而不是为了生产力。这破坏了种姓之间的信任并阻碍了职业流动性，由于工人无法对职业进行分类，这进一步鼓励了寻租。我们利用有关印度种姓制度的独特调查问题，通过新颖的程式化事实来激发我们的贡献，我们表明这与寻租有关。