Does Affirmative Action Reduce Productivity? A Case Study of the Indian Railways

Our objective is to shed empirical light on a claim often made by critics of affirmative action policies: that increasing the representation of members of marginalized communities in jobs comes at the cost of reduced productive efficiency. We undertake a systematic empirical analysis of productivity in the Indian Railways-the world's largest employer subject to affirmative action-in order to assess whether higher proportions of affirmative action beneficiaries in employment have reduced efficiency in the railway system. We find no evidence for such an effect; indeed, some of our results suggest that the opposite is true.