Income Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility in India

TL;DR

This paper investigates the link between income inequality and intergenerational mobility in India, revealing low mobility and high inequality that vary regionally and are not tied to social classes, using multiple analytical approaches.

Contribution

It introduces diverse methods to assess intergenerational income mobility in India, highlighting the complex relationship with income inequality across regions.

Findings

India has low intergenerational income mobility.

Income inequality is high and varies regionally.

The relationship between inequality and mobility is complex and not tied to social classes.

Abstract

Using three rounds of NSS datasets, the present paper attempts to understand the relationship between income inequality and intergenerational income mobility (IGIM) by segregating generations into social and income classes. The originality of the paper lies in assessing the IGIM using different approaches, which we expect to contribute to the existing literature. We conclude that the country has low-income mobility and high inequality which is no longer associated with a particular social class in India. Also, both may have a negative or positive relationship, hence needs to be studied at a regional level.