Growth and Deprivation in India: What does Recent Evidence Suggest on “Inclusiveness”?
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between growth and deprivation in India, and found that while growth has “trickled down”, it has not benefited the poor sufficiently.
Abstract: We investigate the relationship between growth and deprivation in India, an issue of immense interest. Given that there is continuing controversy over poverty lines, we use a framework that rigorously addresses this issue over a range of poverty lines. Using National Sample Surveys on consumption expenditure, we show that while growth has “trickled down”, it has not benefited the poor sufficiently. Extending this framework, we show that growth has not benefited the poor among disadvantaged caste groups and lower classes adequately. Our findings raise concerns about the “inclusiveness” of Indian growth. We discuss plausible explanations for our findings and policy implications.
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TL;DR: Poverty amid plenty in the new India, by Atul Kohli, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012, xiii + 239 pp., ISBN 978-0-521-73517-9.
Abstract: Poverty amid plenty in the new India, by Atul Kohli, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012, xiii + 239 pp., ISBN 978-0-521-73517-9 In a lucid, penetrating treatment of India’s political econo...
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed 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.
Abstract: This paper is a contribution to understanding income generation and inequality in India's agricultural sector. We analyze 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.
16 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the National Sample Surveys of agriculture in 2003 and 2013 using descriptive, decomposition, and modelling tools, and estimate income inequality in the agricultural sector at the scale of the nation and its 17 largest states.
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, decomposition, and modelling tools, and estimate income inequality in the agricultural sector at the scale of the nation and its 17 largest states. We show that: (a) income inequality in India's agricultural sector is very high (Gini Coefficient of around 0.6 during the period), (b) 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, and (c) there are significant state-level differences in the structures/patterns of income generation from agriculture. These findings are important for two principal reasons. First, these measurements of inequality challenge the widely-held belief-based on consumption rather than income data-that India is a low-inequality country. Second, these findings reinforce the idea that the extreme fragmentation of agricultural land is the root cause of poverty in India, and the fact that the fragmentation continues to grow more intense is the singular challenge of Indian development.
14 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors developed a measure of unemployment that takes into account both the level and intensity of unemployment and satisfies several desirable properties, including distribution sensitivity (dealing with differences among the unemployed) It can also be decomposed into mean and distributional components and contributions to unemployment by various subgroups of the population.
Abstract: We develop a measure of unemployment that takes into account both the level and intensity of unemployment and that satisfies several desirable properties, including distribution sensitivity (dealing with differences among the unemployed) It can also be decomposed into mean and distributional components and contributions to unemployment by various subgroups of the population We then apply this measure to understand unemployment in India using data from National Sample Surveys on employment and unemployment during the period 1993-2012 We show that unemployment has generally fallen in this period, but this finding has to be seen in light of considerable underemployment Moreover, unemployment is driven to a greater extent by higher educated groups; the unemployment among these groups is also fairly substantial The distribution of unemployment has also worsened We explain these findings and suggest some policies
6 citations
Book•
17 May 2018TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the coexistence of high rates of economic growth and unparalleled prosperity (including a review of the decline in poverty levels in China and India and many other developing countries) with rises in income and wealth inequality in the United States, China, and India.
Abstract: The precipitous rise in global and national economic inequality, which the inexorable force of globalization promised to address with affluence and abundance for all, has returned with a vengeance. The problem of worsening socioeconomic inequality and how best to ameliorate this pernicious resurgence occupies center stage of national and international politics. This study investigates the coexistence of high rates of economic growth and unparalleled prosperity (including a review of the decline in poverty levels in China and India and many other developing countries) with rises in income and wealth inequality in the United States, China, and India. This book examines the overall effectiveness of the measures taken by these three countries to address such anomalies, and what they should do to tackle the problem of widening inequality. This study breaks new ground by providing an original comparative analysis of the challenges facing the world's three major economies.
5 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss basic education as a political issue in India and China, and gender inequality and women's agency as well as security and democracy in a nuclear India.
Abstract: 1 Introduction and Approach 2 Economic Development and Social Opportunity 3 India in Comparative Perspective 4 India and China 5 Basic Education as a Political Issue 6 Population, Health, and the Environment 7 Gender Inequality and Women's Agency 8 Security and Democracy in a Nuclear India 9 Well Beyond Liberalization 10 The Practice of Democracy
1,074 citations
"Growth and Deprivation in India: Wh..." refers background in this paper
...It is worth noting that public provision of many basic services (e.g. health, education) is inadequate and of poor quality (Dreze & Sen, 2002, Motiram & Osberg, 2012, Dreze & Sen, 2013) and therefore even the poor are forced to access these services privately (and at considerable cost)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measure the rate of pro-poor growth by the mean growth rate of the poor, which equals the change in the Watts index of poverty normalized by the headcount index.
807 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed properties of measures of inequality, applied to income inequalities but meaningful for practically any measure of dispersion in economics, and showed that these properties are equivalent to each other: positivity out of equality, rectifiance, quasi-convexity, and concavity.
710 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: Dreze and Sen as discussed by the authors argue that India's main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially of the poor, and often of women.
Abstract: When India became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial rule, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced the economic stagnation of the Raj The growth of the Indian economy quickened further over the last three decades and became the second fastest among large economies Despite a recent dip, it is still one of the highest in the world
Maintaining rapid as well as environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and achievable goal for India In An Uncertain Glory, two of India's leading economists argue that the country's main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially of the poor, and often of women There have been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make good use of the public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions There is also a continued inadequacy of social services such as schooling and medical care as well as of physical services such as safe water, electricity, drainage, transportation, and sanitation In the long run, even the feasibility of high economic growth is threatened by the underdevelopment of social and physical infrastructure and the neglect of human capabilities, in contrast with the Asian approach of simultaneous pursuit of economic growth and human development, as pioneered by Japan, South Korea, and China
In a democratic system, which India has great reason to value, addressing these failures requires not only significant policy rethinking by the government, but also a clearer public understanding of the abysmal extent of social and economic deprivations in the country The deep inequalities in Indian society tend to constrict public discussion, confining it largely to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent Dreze and Sen present a powerful analysis of these deprivations and inequalities as well as the possibility of change through democratic practice
708 citations
"Growth and Deprivation in India: Wh..." refers background in this paper
...It is worth noting that public provision of many basic services (e.g. health, education) is inadequate and of poor quality (Dreze & Sen, 2002, Motiram & Osberg, 2012, Dreze & Sen, 2013) and therefore even the poor are forced to access these services privately (and at considerable cost)....
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01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are concerned with the number of individuals in poverty in the world as a whole, not with who they are, or where they live.
Abstract: Current thinking about development places individuals firmly at the centre of concern, the basic building block for analysis and policy. This is as true of the innovations led by Amartya Sen, which move us away from a focus purely on incomes to incorporate wider perspectives on well-being, as of the more traditional neoclassical welfare analysis which underpins most development policy. The present overriding concerns with reduced poverty and inequality, which stem from both types of analysis, are equally individual-focused. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for example, are concerned with the numbers of individuals in poverty in the world as a whole, not with who they are, or where they live. Measures of inequality relate to the ranking of individuals (or households) within a country (or sometimes the globe). The issues of individuals’ poverty and inequality are, of course, extremely important, but they neglect a vital dimension of human well-being and of social stability: that is, the group dimension.
647 citations
"Growth and Deprivation in India: Wh..." refers background in this paper
...3 On the importance of addressing horizontal/group-based disparities, see Stewart (2002)....
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