Determinants of economic mobility in India
- IASSI Quarterly: Contributions of Indian Social Science
- 41(1& 2), Jan-Jun, 2022: p.48-60
In this paper, authors analyse the trends pertaining to the transition of households out of poverty and into the middle class over time. Further, we look at the factors affecting upward income mobility of urban Indian households, particularly the effect of the urban infrastructure development. The analysis of factors affecting poverty alleviation and upward economic mobility among households has been well documented in literature. The motivation of this study is to investigate whether investment in urban infrastructureis actually an important determinant of household economic mobility. Firstly, we study the state wise transitions in the income distribution of urban households over time. Secondly, we study the relationship of these economic transitions with various social and institutional factors that may have influenced them. The results indicate that infrastructure investment does not have a positive impact on transition out of poverty, but affects upward household mobility at higher income levels. However, factors such as the length of pucca roads in the district, and urban electrification (%) have a positive impact on household mobility out of poverty and middle class mobility respectively. The use of 2SLS probit regression model in order to tackle the problem of endogeneity reinforces the result that while the JNNURM spending does not affect out of poverty mobility, it significantly impacts mobility of households into global middle class. – Reproduced
Income mobility, Female education, Urban, Infrastructure.