Abstract : We use a novel income tax data set to present evidence on the evolution of income concentration in the last 60 years of colonial rule in India. These data allow us to study the evolution of income concentration at the country level as well as the location of top income earners across provinces. We identify three key facts: (1) the evolution of income concentration in British India was nonlinear, following a U-shape, (2) the majority of top income earners were non-Europeans, and (3) the geographical location of top income earners changed over time with the province of Bombay gaining in importance in the early XXth century. We provide an interpretation of these results in the light of the economic and political changes in British India over the period.
https://hal-pjse.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01626656
Contributeur : Caroline Bauer
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Soumis le : mardi 31 octobre 2017 - 10:20:43
Dernière modification le : jeudi 11 janvier 2018 - 06:28:13
Facundo Alvaredo, Augustin Bergeron, Guilhem Cassan. Income concentration in British India, 1885–1946. Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, 2017, 127, pp.459 - 469. 〈10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.01.005〉. 〈hal-01626656〉
