Authors:

Sangita Choudhury

Abstract:

The paper initially attempts assessing extent of income inequality for various social, religious and regional categories, merging rural and urban areas of West Bengal and applying Gini index on 50^th and 68^th rounds of NSSO employment unemployment survey data. As a comparative study, the result of the paper suggests for almost all categories, irrespective of classification, extent of income inequality increased during the time interval and within a particular time variation in inequality is also found across most of the categories. Further, the paper expands to identify the factors, responsible for variation in income considering different NSSO regions of West Bengal. The results for different NSSO regions show similarity in significance for some explanatory variables and reveals dissimilarity for some others. Age, general education, sector, land possessed, year, religion and socially backward categories appear as significant variables to explain variation in income irrespective of NSSO regions as well as for the state as a whole.

Keywords:

Income Inequality, Gini Index, Regression Models, Empirical Analysis

Vol & Issue:

VOL.13, ISSUE No.4, December 2021