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POVERTY IN RURAL INDIA: CASTE AND TRIBE
Author(s) -
Gang Ira N.,
Sen Kunal,
Yun MyeongSu
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.2007.00259.x
Subject(s) - caste , poverty , per capita , tribe , economics , population , socioeconomics , demographic economics , rural poverty , incidence (geometry) , geography , demography , economic growth , sociology , mathematics , political science , geometry , anthropology , law
This paper analyzes the determinants of rural poverty in India, contrasting the situation of scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) households with the non‐scheduled population. The incidence of poverty in SC and ST households is much higher than among non‐scheduled households. By combining regression estimates for the ratio of per capita expenditure to the poverty line and an Oaxaca‐type decomposition analysis, we study how these differences in the incidence of poverty arise. We find that for SC households, differences in characteristics explain the gaps in poverty incidence more than differences in transformed regression coefficients. In contrast, for ST households, differences in the transformed regression coefficients play the more important role.