Inequality, Social Mobility and Convergence: Patterns Across the Indian States

Bharatee Dash and Stanley L. Winer

No 12014, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Inequality and social mobility in India are longstanding social issues. We document patterns of absolute inequality, relative inequality and social mobility for India as a whole as well as for Indian states grouped by level of development. The analysis uses easy to understand indexes constructed using selected percentiles and percentile ratios of household consumption expenditures from the National Sample Surveys for 1983 to 2011-12. We augment the analysis of inequality and social mobility with an assessment of the degree to which the states are diverging in these respects over time. Throughout the paper, we compare the patterns revealed by the percentile measures with those based on corresponding Gini coefficients. The investigation reveals three distinct subperiods across major Indian states during which inequality and social mobility stand in different relation to each other. Contrasts uncovered among the three subperiods identified in our analysis may prove useful to scholars who want to study connections between inequality, social mobility, economic growth and public redistributive policy actions.

Keywords: absolute and relative inequality; social mobility; percentile-based indexes; Gini coefficient; absolute divergence; Gini decomposition; household consumption expenditure survey; Indian states; Bimarou vs. Non-Bimarou states (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12014

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