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Revisiting Between-Group Inequality Measurement: An Application to the Dynamics of Caste Inequality in Two Indian Villages

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  • Lanjouw, Peter
  • Rao, Vijayendra
Abstract
Summary Standard approaches to decomposing how much group differences contribute to inequality rarely show significant between-group inequality, and are of limited use in comparing populations with different numbers of groups. We apply an adaptation to the standard approach that remedies these problems to longitudinal household data from two Indian villages--Palanpur in the north and Sugao in the west. In Palanpur we find that the largest Scheduled Caste group failed to share in the gradual rise in village prosperity. This would not have emerged from standard decomposition analysis. However, in Sugao the alternative procedure does not yield any additional insights because income gains have applied relatively evenly across castes.

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  • Lanjouw, Peter & Rao, Vijayendra, 2011. "Revisiting Between-Group Inequality Measurement: An Application to the Dynamics of Caste Inequality in Two Indian Villages," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 174-187, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:2:p:174-187
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    3. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.
    4. Rawal, Vikas & Swaminathan, Madhura, 2011. "Income Inequality and Caste in Village India," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 1(2), December.
    5. Abraham, Vinoj, 2012. "Wages and earnings of marginalized social and religious groups in India: Data sources, scope, limitations and suggestions," MPRA Paper 37799, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Peter Lanjouw & Rinku Murgai & Nicholas Stern, 2013. "Nonfarm diversification, poverty, economic mobility, and income inequality: a case study in village India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(4-5), pages 461-473, July.
    7. Shareen Joshi & Nishtha Kochhar & Vijayendra Rao, 2022. "Fractal inequality in rural India: class, caste and jati in Bihar," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pages 1-13.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality decomposition India caste village study;

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

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