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Land Distribution, Income Generation and Inequality in India's Agricultural Sector

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  • Sanjoy Chakravorty
  • S. Chandrasekhar
  • Karthikeya Naraparaju

Abstract

This paper is a contribution to understanding income generation and inequality in India's agricultural sector. We analyze the National Sample Surveys of agriculture in 2003 and 2013 using descriptive and regression based methods, and estimate income inequality in the agricultural sector at the scale of the nation and its 17 largest states. We show that: (a) there are significant state‐level differences in the structures/patterns of income generation from agriculture, (b) there is a negative relationship between the amount of land owned by the household and share of wages in total income, (c) income inequality in India's agricultural sector is very high (Gini Coefficient of around 0.6 during the period), and (d) about half of the income inequality is explained by the household‐level variance in income from cultivation, which in turn is primarily dependent on variance in landownership.

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  • Sanjoy Chakravorty & S. Chandrasekhar & Karthikeya Naraparaju, 2019. "Land Distribution, Income Generation and Inequality in India's Agricultural Sector," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 182-203, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:65:y:2019:i:s1:p:s182-s203
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12434
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    6. Mathieu Couttenier & Jeremy Laurent-Lucchetti & Lore Vandewalle, 2023. "Inequality and Social Unrest in India," IHEID Working Papers 08-2023, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    7. Raya Das & Ravi Srivastava, 2021. "Income inequality among agricultural households in India: A regression‐based decomposition analysis," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1128-1149, August.
    8. Abubakar, Ismaila Rimi, 2021. "Predictors of inequalities in land ownership among Nigerian households: Implications for sustainable development," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).

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