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Land distribution, income generation & inequality in India's agricultural sector

Author

Listed:
  • Sanjoy Chakravorty

    (Temple University)

  • S Chandrasekhar

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

  • Karthikeya Naraparaju

    (Indian Institute of Management, Indore)

Abstract

This paper is a contribution to understanding income generation and inequality in India's agricultural sector. We analyse 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanjoy Chakravorty & S Chandrasekhar & Karthikeya Naraparaju, 2019. "Land distribution, income generation & inequality in India's agricultural sector," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-018, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    • Handle: RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2019-018
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    File URL: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2019-018.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. 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.
    5. 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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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural Households; Sources of Income; Income Inequality; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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