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Rahul Lahoti
Rahul Lahoti is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a Master's in Public Administration from Columbia University, New York. His research focuses mostly on issues of poverty, inequality, gender and political economy.
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Covid-19: Impact on income inequality in India
Even as global inequality was falling, income inequality in India increased during 1990-2019. With the occurrence of Covid-19, the trend of increasing income inequality in the country is expected to not only continue but worsen. Analysing data from the Consumer Pyramids Households Survey, this article shows that inequality has risen sharply during the pandemic, with lower income households having experienced a larger decline in earnings.
Pandemic as a lens: Identifying and addressing livelihood vulnerabilities
Based on the findings from a phone survey of around 5,000 Indian workers, the authors explore the impact of the Covid-19 economic lockdown on two forms of livelihood vulnerabilities: employment insecurity and food insecurity. They argue that the policy response needs to go beyond addressing the immediate consequences of this specific shock; this juncture posits the need for structural reforms that seek to address and fill these gaps concretely rather than suturing temporarily.
Improving survey quality using paradata: Lessons from the India Working Survey
To improve the credibility of survey data, several monitoring tools are used by researchers – such as ‘paradata’, which have gained prominence with the growth of computer-aided interviewing. In this post, Goel et al. discuss how paradata were used in the ‘India Working Survey’ conducted in the states of Karnataka and Rajasthan in 2020, to streamline enumerator practices and enhance data quality.