URL:
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29597/w29597.pdf?utm_campaign=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&%3Butm_medium=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&%3Butm_source=PANTHEON_STRIPPED
Authors:
Anup Malani
University of Chicago Law School
Arpit Gupta
New York University Stern School of Business
Bartek Woda
University of Chicago Law School
Published:
Working Paper
JEL Codes:
I15, O15, O53
Versions:
● Inequality In India Declined During COVID

We use a large, representative panel data set from India with monthly data on household finances to examine the incidence of economic harms during the COVID pandemic. We observe a sharp spike in poverty, peaking during India's sharp but short lockdown. However, there was a striking decrease in income inequality outside the lockdown. There was a smaller decrease in consumption inequality, likely due to consumption smoothing. Evidence supports two mechanisms for the decline in income inequality: the capital income of top-quartile earners covaries more with aggregate income, and demand for labor fell more for higher quartiles.

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