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Changing Contours of Income Stratification and Decomposition of Income Inequality: Evidence from Recent Longitudinal Survey in India

Author

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  • Aswini Kumar Mishra

    (BITS, Pilani-K K Birla Goa Campus)

  • Viral M. Parmar

    (BITS, Pilani-K K Birla Goa Campus)

Abstract

The paper, based on India Human Development Survey (IHDS) data, tries to address the question- how unequal is India in terms of income distribution? Accordingly, the paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality in India between 2005 and 2012. Three important results stemmed from our analysis. First, in this paper we use Gini as a measure of inequality and find that income inequality in rural India has increased from 0.50 to 0.54 between 2005 and 2012, whereas, in urban India income inequality has increased from 0.48 to 0.49 during the same period. Next and most importantly, we decompose income inequality by income sources and find that amongst different sources of income inequality; the contribution of farm income in total inequality has decreased from 35 percent in 2005 to 21 percent in 2012 in rural India. On the other hand, the contribution of salaried income in total inequality has plummeted drastically from 65 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2012 in urban India. Finally, we use Theil’s T index from the class of Generalized Entropy (GE) inequality measures, while decomposing income by four most important factors; namely, place of residence, social, educational and occupational groups. It is irrespective of these factors; the relative share of within-group inequality is not only much higher than that of between-group inequality, also its share has increased between these two periods. Thus, our paper suggests that these mutually reinforcing inequalities, in the long run, if not addressed effectively, will create a hard-hitting division between the privileged and the rest in Indian society.

Suggested Citation

  • Aswini Kumar Mishra & Viral M. Parmar, 2017. "Changing Contours of Income Stratification and Decomposition of Income Inequality: Evidence from Recent Longitudinal Survey in India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 15(2), pages 395-422, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jqecon:v:15:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s40953-016-0057-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s40953-016-0057-0
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    Cited by:

    1. Aswini Kumar Mishra & Vedant Bhardwaj, 2021. "Wealth distribution and accounting for changes in wealth inequality: empirical evidence from India, 1991–2012," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 585-620, May.
    2. Aswini Kumar Mishra & Vedant Bhardwaj, 2022. "The Determinants of Access to Informal Credits in India: An Application of Quantiles via Moments Method," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 20(1), pages 1-22, March.

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