IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecq/wpaper/5555.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade and Inequality in India

Author

Listed:
  • Pravin Krishna

    (Johns Hopkins University)

  • Guru Sethupathy

    (Johns Hopkins University)

Abstract

To study the effects of the dramatic economic reforms undertaken in India in the early 1990s on inequality, this paper uses the Theil inequality measure constructed using Indian household expenditure survey data from 1988-2005. Overall inequality shows some variation over the period, rising between 1988 and 1994 and again between 1994 and 2000, but falling by 2005 to roughly the pre-reform level. Furthermore, in the post reform period (between 1994 and 2005), inequality fell in most Indian states, with rural areas in most states and urban areas in about half the states experiencing a statistically significant reduction in inequality. The change in inequality across households within states is found to uncorrelated with the change in state-level measures of tariff and non-tariff protection.

Suggested Citation

  • Pravin Krishna & Guru Sethupathy, 2010. "Trade and Inequality in India," Working Papers 5555, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, revised Oct 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecq:wpaper:5555
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://indianeconomy.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/wp_2010-5_v2.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parthapratim Pal & Jayati Ghosh, 2007. "Inequality in India: A survey of recent trends," Working Papers 45, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    2. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1953. "Shares of Upper Income Groups in Income and Savings (1953)," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn53-1.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    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. Sripad Motiram & Nayantara Sarma, 2011. "Polarization, inequality and growth: The Indian experience," Working Papers 225, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Mehtabul Azam, 2022. "Household income mobility in India, 1993–2011," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 1902-1943, November.
    3. Sripad Motiram & Nayantara Sarma, 2014. "Polarization, Inequality, and Growth: The Indian Experience," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 297-318, September.
    4. Sripad Motiram & Ashish Singh, 2012. "How Close Does the Apple Fall to the Tree?: Some Evidence on Intergenerational Occupational Mobility from India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-101, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Aadil Ahmad Ganaie & Sajad ahmad Bhat & Bandi Kamaiah, 2018. "Macro-determinants of Income Inequality: An Empirical Analysis in case of India," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(1), pages 309-325.
    6. Maria Berrittella & Jian Zhang, 2014. "A Global Perspective on Effectiveness of Aid for Trade," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 289-309, April.
    7. Sripad Motiram & Ashish Singh, 2012. "How close does the apple fall to the tree? Some evidence on intergenerational occupational mobility from India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    8. Amit Basole & Deepankar Basu, 2015. "Non-Food Expenditures and Consumption Inequality in India," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2015-06, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    9. Ashish Singh & Kaushalendra Kumar & Abhishek Singh, 2015. "The Changing Structure of Inequality in India, 1993-2010: Some Observations and Consequences," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 590-603.

    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. Chalasani, Satvika, 2012. "Understanding wealth-based inequalities in child health in India: A decomposition approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2160-2169.
    2. Fernandes, Ana M. & Sharma, Gunjan, 2012. "Together we stand ? agglomeration in Indian manufacturing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6062, The World Bank.
    3. Bajar, Sumedha. & Rajeev, Meenakshi., 2015. "The impact of infrastructure provisioning on inequality : evidence from India," ILO Working Papers 994882713402676, International Labour Organization.
    4. Ashish Singh & Kaushalendra Kumar & Abhishek Singh, 2015. "The Changing Structure of Inequality in India, 1993-2010: Some Observations and Consequences," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 590-603.
    5. 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.
    6. Balakrushna Padhi & Mohammad Kashif Khan & Lalhriatchiani, 2020. "A Poverty Decomposition Analysis for the Northeastern Region of India," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 25(2), pages 237-255, December.
    7. Amit Basole & Deepankar Basu, 2015. "Non-Food Expenditures and Consumption Inequality in India," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2015-06, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    8. Azam, Mehtabul, 2019. "Accounting for growing urban-rural welfare gaps in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 410-432.
    9. 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.
    10. Sanjay K. Mohanty & Dipti Govil & Rajesh K. Chauhan & Rockli Kim & S.V. Subramanian, 2016. "Estimates of Poverty and Inequality in the Districts of India, 2011–2012," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 1(2), pages 142-202, July.
    11. K.L. Datta, 2006. "The Debate on the Poverty Estimates of 1999–2000," Development Economics Working Papers 22150, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    12. 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.
    13. 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..
    14. 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.
    15. Piketty, Thomas & Bozio, Antoine & Garbinti, Bertrand & Goupille-Lebret, Jonathan & Guillot, Malka, 2020. "Predistribution vs. Redistribution: Evidence from France and the U.S," CEPR Discussion Papers 15415, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Thomas Blanchet & Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Clara Martínez-Toledano, 2018. "Applying Generalized Pareto Curves to Inequality Analysis," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 114-118, May.
    17. Thomas Blanchet & Juliette Fournier & Thomas Piketty, 2022. "Generalized Pareto Curves: Theory and Applications," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(1), pages 263-288, March.
    18. Arvind Panagariya & Megha Mukim, 2014. "A Comprehensive Analysis of Poverty in India," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-52, March.
    19. Facundo Alvaredo & Anthony Atkinson & Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2016. "Distributional National Accounts (DINA) Guidelines : Concepts and Methods used in WID.world," Working Papers 201602, World Inequality Lab.
    20. Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "Income Inequality in France, 1900-2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts," PSE Working Papers halshs-02658875, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    India; Trade; Inequality; Economic reforms; Household expensiture; tariff and non-tariff protection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

    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:ecq:wpaper:5555. 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: Ursula Schwarzhaupt (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/siclbus.html .

    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.