We investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on income levels, poverty, and inequality in both the immediate aftermath and during the uneven recovery until December 2021 using high-frequency household survey data from India. We find that the average household incomes dropped sharply during...

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The making of British India -- Chapter 3: The business of the cities -- Chapter 4: Unyielding land -- Chapter 5: A poor state -- Chapter 6: End of famine -- Chapter 7: A different story? The princely states -- Chapter 8: Conclusion

This paper undertakes an assessment of the evolution of inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure in India over the last quarter-century, from 1983 to 2009-10, employing data available in the quinquennial 'thick' surveys of the National Sample Survey Office. We find that...