IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v77y2026icp302-312.html

Inequality, urbanization, and the Kuznets process: Evidence from India’s annual periodic labour force surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Chandrasekhar, S
  • Naraparaju, Karthikeya
  • Sharma, Ajay

Abstract

We provide annual estimates of inequality in monthly per capita household earnings in India over the period 2017/18 to 2022/23 based on analysis of India’s Periodic Labour Force Surveys. Over the six years, the estimate of inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient is in the range of 0.40 to 0.44 and, as measured by the Mean Log Deviation, between 0.28 and 0.34. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the level of urbanization may increase the Mean Log Deviation by 0.5 to 0.7 per cent. Our analysis suggests that inequality will start declining only when India’s urbanization rate is in the region of 63 to 74 per cent. Further, after accounting for variation in sectoral means and inequalities, we find that the development of the inequality–urbanization relationship at the sub-national level conforms to the Kuznets process.

Suggested Citation

  • Chandrasekhar, S & Naraparaju, Karthikeya & Sharma, Ajay, 2026. "Inequality, urbanization, and the Kuznets process: Evidence from India’s annual periodic labour force surveys," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 302-312.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:77:y:2026:i:c:p:302-312
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2026.01.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X26000172
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2026.01.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:77:y:2026:i:c:p:302-312. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.