International Journal of Pure & Applied Bioscience (IJPAB)
Year : 2017, Volume : 5, Issue : 2
First page : (621) Last page : (633)
Article doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.2661

Measurement and Sources of Income Inequality among Rural and Urban Households in Tamil Nadu

M. Uma Gowri* and T.R. Shanmugam
Department of Agricultural Economics, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003, India
*Corresponding Author E-mail: umanomics@gmail.com
Received: 7.03.2017  |  Revised: 15.03.2017   |  Accepted: 18.03.2017  

ABSTRACT

The present study was undertaken to determine the level of income inequality in Rural and urban households in Tamil Nadu by employing the Lorenz curve and Gini ratio. The study also aimed to briefly examine the contribution of each income sources to overall income inequality and determine the effect of some socio-economic characteristics of households on per capita income in the study region. The study examined 180 rural and 180 urban households distributed in Western Tamil Nadu region. There was a wide variation between the rural and urban households on asset ownership pattern and the most important asset owned by the households was agricultural assets in the rural and house property in the urban. Livestock assets formed relatively larger proportion of the rural asset, viz., 14.32 % against 2.08 % in the urban. Ownership of the selected consumer durables and business assets were more among the urban consumers than rural. Agricultural and livestock were the dominant sources of the income in the rural than urban among the income groups. The Gini coefficient in the rural sector among the different income groups ranged from 0.25 to 0.45, and it was 0.28 to 0.49 for urban sector. It revealed that the distribution of income in rural area was moderate or medium among the different income groups of people compared to urban areas. The income inequality was more pronounced among urban consumers.

Key words: Income, Households, Lorenz, Gini Ratio, Inequality.

Full Text : PDF; Journal doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782

Cite this article: Gowri, M.U. and Shanmugam, T.R., Measurement and Sources of Income Inequality among Rural and Urban Households in Tamil Nadu, Int. J. Pure App. Biosci.5(2): 621-633 (2017). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.2661