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Is India Really a Country of Low Income-Inequality? Observations from Eight Villages

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  • Swaminathan, Madhura
  • Rawal, Vikas

Abstract

There is a misconception in the literature that income distribution in India is less unequal than, for instance, in China or the countries of Latin America. This misconception is based on a comparison of like with unlike. Studies of income distribution for most countries are based as they should be on household income data, while corresponding studies of income distribution for India are based on household consumption expenditure data, and it is well known that consumption expenditure, by its very nature, is less unequally distributed than income. This paper examines levels of household income inequality in rural India using data from in-depth village surveys conducted in eight villages from four States of the country. Although the data-set is relatively small, the exercise is rather unique because of the lack of regular survey data on household incomes for rural India. The Gini coefficient is used as a summary measure of income inequality. Our estimates show high values of the Gini (close to 0.60) in these eight villages; these are comparable to levels reported for Latin America. Of the eight villages, inequality was relatively high in the three canal-irrigated villages.
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Suggested Citation

  • Swaminathan, Madhura & Rawal, Vikas, 2011. "Is India Really a Country of Low Income-Inequality? Observations from Eight Villages," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 1(1), July.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ragrar:308574
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.308574
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    1. Xuehua Shi & Xiaoyun Liu & Alexander Nuetah & Xian Xin, 2010. "Determinants of Household Income Mobility in Rural China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 18(2), pages 41-59, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chandrasekhar, C. P. & Ghosh, Jayati., 2014. "Growth, employment patterns and inequality in Asia a case study of India," ILO Working Papers 994869853402676, International Labour Organization.
    2. Viviana Meixner Vásquez & Regine Andersen, 2023. "Community seed banks: Instruments for food security or unsustainable endeavour? A case study of Mkombezi Community Seed Bank in Malawi," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(4), pages 1087-1108, August.
    3. Aswini Kumar Mishra & Viral M. Parmar, 2017. "Changing Contours of Income Stratification and Decomposition of Income Inequality: Evidence from Recent Longitudinal Survey in India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 15(2), pages 395-422, June.
    4. Himanshu, 2019. "Inequality in India: A review of levels and trends," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-42, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Abraham, Vinoj, 2012. "Wages and earnings of marginalized social and religious groups in India: Data sources, scope, limitations and suggestions," MPRA Paper 37799, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Susmita Sengupta & Sanat Kumar Guchhait, 2021. "Inequality in Contemporary India: Does Caste Still Matter?," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 37(1), pages 57-82, March.
    7. Kanitkar, Tejal & Banerjee, Rangan & Jayaraman, T., 2019. "An integrated modeling framework for energy economy and emissions modeling: A case for India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 670-679.
    8. Vikas Rawal & Madhura Swaminathan, 2011. "Income Inequality and Caste in Village India," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 1(2), pages 108-133, July-Dece.
    9. Porras, Laila, 2015. "Croissance, inégalités et pauvreté au sein des pays émergents : le cas des BRICS," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 18.
    10. repec:ilo:ilowps:486985 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. S. Mahendra Dev, 2018. "Inequality, Employment and Public Policy," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(1), pages 1-42, March.

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