IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0412006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional Inequality in India: A Fresh Look

Author

Listed:
  • Nirvikar Singh

    (University of California, Santa Cruz)

  • Laveesh Bhandari

    (Indicus Analytics)

  • Aoyu Chen

    (University of California, Santa Cruz)

  • Aarti Khare

    (Indicus Analytics)

Abstract

There are concerns that regional inequality in India has increased after the economic reforms of 1991. This concern is supported by various statistical analyses. In this paper, we show that the conclusions are sensitive to what measures of attainment are used. In particular, human development indices do not show the same increase in regional inequality. Furthermore, looking at consumption and credit indicators for regions disaggregated below the state level also suggests that inequality trends may not be as bad as suggested by State Domestic Product data, although the greater strength of the economies of the western and southern states emerges in our results. Finally, we briefly discuss policy implications within the context of India’s evolving federal polity.

Suggested Citation

  • Nirvikar Singh & Laveesh Bhandari & Aoyu Chen & Aarti Khare, 2004. "Regional Inequality in India: A Fresh Look," Development and Comp Systems 0412006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0412006
    Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/dev/papers/0412/0412006.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. Nagaraj & A. Varoudakis & M.-A. Véganzonès, 2000. "Long-run growth trends and convergence across Indian States," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 45-70.
    2. Angus Deaton and Jean Drèze & Jean Drèze, 2002. "Poverty and Inequality in India: A Reexamination," Working papers 107, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Singh, Nirvikar, 2005. "The Idea of South Asia and the Role of the Middle Class," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3868p628, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    2. Ashish Singh, 2010. "The Effect of Family Background on Individual Wages and an Examination of Inequality of Opportunity in India," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 230-246, September.
    3. Pravin Krishna & Guru Sethupathy, 2010. "Trade and Inequality in India," Working Papers 5555, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, revised Oct 2010.
    4. Singh, Nirvikar, 2008. "Holding India together: The role of institutions of federalism," MPRA Paper 12432, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2010. "Does financial development increase rural-urban income inequality? Cointegration analysis in the case of Indian economy," MPRA Paper 27093, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Rubiana Chamarbagwala, 2010. "Economic liberalization and urban–rural inequality in India: a quantile regression analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 371-394, October.
    7. Ghosh, Saibal, 2007. "Economic Geography of Industrial Location: Evidence from Indian States," MPRA Paper 22441, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reena Kumari, 2016. "Regional disparity in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar: a disaggregated level analysis," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 18(1), pages 121-146, October.
    2. Uma Rani & Jaya Krishnakumar & Maurizio Bigotta, 2017. "Accounting for income inequality: empirical evidence from India," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 193-229, December.
    3. K. J. Joseph & Liyan Zhang & Kiran Kumar Kakarlapudi, 2018. "The Dragon Turns around and the Elephant Moves Forward: Inequality in China and India under Globalization," Millennial Asia, , vol. 9(3), pages 235-261, December.
    4. Michelle Baddeley & Kirsty McNay & Robert Cassen, 2006. "Divergence in India: Income differentials at the state level, 1970-97," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 1000-1022.
    5. K.L. Datta, 2006. "The Debate on the Poverty Estimates of 1999–2000," Development Economics Working Papers 22150, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    6. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty, 2019. "Indian Income Inequality, 1922‐2015: From British Raj to Billionaire Raj?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 33-62, November.
    7. Angus Deaton & Jean Dreze, 2008. "Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations," Working Papers 1071, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    8. Ural Marchand, Beyza, 2012. "Tariff pass-through and the distributional effects of trade liberalization," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 265-281.
    9. Castelló-Climent, Amparo & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop, 2013. "Mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of growth: The case of India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 303-320.
    10. Ahmet Faruk AYSAN & Mustapha Kamel NABLI & Marie‐Ange VÉGANZONÈS‐VAROUDAKIS, 2007. "Governance Institutions And Private Investment: An Application To The Middle East And North Africa," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 45(3), pages 339-377, September.
    11. Marie-Ange Véganzonès-Varoudakis & Arup Mitra & Chandan Sharma, 2012. "Are Reforms Productive? Explaining Productivity and Efficiency in the Indian Manufacturing," Post-Print hal-03058727, HAL.
    12. Alokesh Barua & Aparna Sawhney, "undated". "Structural Change, Economic Growth and Trade: Case for Regional Reallocation of Investment in India," Centre for International Trade and Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Discussion Papers 10-06, Centre for International Trade and Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
    13. Arvind Panagariya & Megha Mukim, 2014. "A Comprehensive Analysis of Poverty in India," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-52, March.
    14. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-114 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Amit Nandan & Hrushikesh Mallick, 2022. "Do growth-promoting factors induce income inequality in a transitioning large developing economy? An empirical evidence from Indian states," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 1109-1139, May.
    16. Peter Lanjouw & Rinku Murgai, 2009. "Poverty decline, agricultural wages, and nonfarm employment in rural India: 1983–2004," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 243-263, March.
    17. Sulekha Hembram & Souparna Maji & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Club Convergence among the Major Indian States During 1982–2014: Does Investment in Human Capital Matter?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 184-204, September.
    18. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/10184 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Thierry Mayer, 2006. "Policy Coherence for Development: A Background Paper on Foreign Direct Investment," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 253, OECD Publishing.
    20. Dani Rodrik & Arvind Subramanian, 2005. "From "Hindu Growth" to Productivity Surge: The Mystery of the Indian Growth Transition," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 52(2), pages 193-228, September.
    21. repec:kqi:journl:2018-2-1-2 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Kumar, Rishabh & Balasubramanian, Sriram & Loungani, Prakash, 2022. "Inequality and locational determinants of the distribution of living standards in India," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 59-69.
    23. Sanjay G. Reddy & Camelia Minoiu, 2005. "Has world poverty really fallen during the 1990s?," Development and Comp Systems 0509005, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    regional inequality; federalism; human development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wpa:wuwpdc:0412006. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: EconWPA The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask EconWPA to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    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.