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Caste, Ethnicity and Poverty in Rural India

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  • Ira N. Gang

    () (Rutgers University)

  • Myeong-Su Yun

    () (Tulane University)

  • Kunal Sen

    () (University of East Anglia)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the determinants of rural poverty in India, contrasting the situation of the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) households with the non-scheduled population. The incidence of poverty among SC and ST households is significantly higher than non-scheduled households. Using a probit decomposition analysis, we decompose the difference in the poverty rates between the scheduled castes (or tribes) and non-scheduled households into a part explained by the differences in characteristics and a part explained by the differences in probit coefficients. The paper finds that for SC households, differences in characteristics explain the gap in poverty rates more than differences in coefficients; while for ST households, it is the reverse. Differences in educational attainment explain about one quarter of the poverty gap for both social groups. Occupational structure strongly matters in determining the poverty gap for both SC and ST, as does differences in returns to individual occupations. While poverty rates are not very different between SC and ST households, the analysis suggests that the underlying factors for the higher incidence of poverty in these social groups are to a large extent different.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Rutgers University, Department of Economics in its series Departmental Working Papers with number 200225.

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Date of creation: 21 Oct 2002
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Handle: RePEc:rut:rutres:200225

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Keywords: caste; ethnicity; poverty; probit decomposition;

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References

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  1. Ashwini Deshpande, 2000. "Does Caste Still Define Disparity? A Look at Inequality in Kerala, India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 322-325, May.
  2. Ronald Oaxaca, . "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," Working Papers 396, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  3. Deshpande, Ashwini, 2001. "Caste at Birth? Redefining Disparity in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 130-44, February.
  4. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin & DEC, 1994. "Poverty and household size," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1332, The World Bank.
  5. Jean Drèze & Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 1999. "School Participation in Rural India," STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers 18, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
  6. Akerlof, George A, 1976. "The Economics of Caste and of the Rat Race and Other Woeful Tales," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 599-617, November.
  7. Dreze, Jean & Srinivasan, P. V., 1997. "Widowhood and poverty in rural India: Some inferences from household survey data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 217-234, December.
  8. J.V. Meenakshi & Ranjan Ray, 2000. "Impact of Household Size and Family Composition on Poverty in Rural India," ASARC Working Papers 2000-02, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Alessandrini, Michele & Buccellato, Tullio & Scaramozzino, Pasquale, 2008. "Whither the Indian Federation? Regional Disparities and Economic Reforms," MPRA Paper 23416, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Luis Ayala & Antonio Jurado & Jesús Pérez‐Mayo, 2011. "Income Poverty And Multidimensional Deprivation: Lessons From Cross‐Regional Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(1), pages 40-60, 03.
  3. Carlos Gradín, 2012. "Poverty among minorities in the United States: explaining the racial poverty gap for Blacks and Latinos," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 44(29), pages 3793-3804, October.
  4. Shankaran Nambiar, 2011. "Capabilities and Constraints," Forum for Social Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 179-195, July.
  5. Mehtabul Azam, 2009. "A Distributional Analysis of Social Group Inequality in Rural India," Working Papers id:2047, eSocialSciences.
  6. Timm Bönke & Carsten Schröder, 2011. "Poverty in Germany – Statistical Inference and Decomposition," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Department of Statistics and Economics, vol. 231(2), pages 178-209, April.
  7. Rohit Mutatkar, 2005. "Social group disparities and poverty in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2005-004, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
  8. Rohit Mutatkar, 2005. "Social Group Disparities and Poverty in India," Development Economics Working Papers 22342, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
  9. Yun, Myeong-Su, 2003. "Decomposing Differences in the First Moment," IZA Discussion Papers 877, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  10. Rafael Muñoz de Bustillo & José-Ignacio Antón, 2011. "From Rags to Riches? Immigration and Poverty in Spain," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 661-676, October.
  11. Bhaumik, Sumon K. & Chakrabarty, Manisha, 2006. "Earnings Inequality in India: Has the Rise of Caste and Religion Based Politics in India Had an Impact?," IZA Discussion Papers 2008, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  12. Rohit Mutatkar, 2009. "Social Group Disparities and Poverty in India," Working Papers id:1980, eSocialSciences.
  13. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2008. "Poverty In Rural India: Caste And Tribe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(1), pages 50-70, 03.
  14. Mihails Hazans & Ija Trapeznikova & Olga Rastrigina, 2008. "Ethnic and parental effects on schooling outcomes before and during the transition: evidence from the Baltic countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 719-749, July.
  15. Ira N. Gang & Kunal Sen & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "Poverty in Rural India: Ethnicity and Caste," Departmental Working Papers 200634, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
  16. Anyanwu John, 2012. "Working Paper 149 - Accounting for Poverty in Africa: Illustration with Survey Data from Nigeria," Working Paper Series 383, African Development Bank.
  17. Somnath Chattopadhyay, 2011. "Inter-regional Poverty Comparisons: Case of West Bengal," Journal of Quantitative Economics, The Indian Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 104-122, July.

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