Intergenerational Transmission of Between-Group Occupational Disparity: Some Indian Evidence

Abstract

During the development process inter alia convergence or divergence among the people vis-à-vis convergence or divergence of well-defined groups in the dimensions of well-being is rather common in any society. The relative strength of improvement or deterioration of the members across the groups from one to the next generation de facto determines this convergence or divergence of the groups in some specific dimension. To put it another way, we may explain the convergence or divergence of the groups in some specific dimension by examining the relative strength of upward and downward mobility of the members of these groups from one to the next generations in the respective dimension. From this point of view, one previous study proposes two summary measures of the persistence of between-group inequality. We employ these summary measures on Indian data to investigate the persistence of occupational inequality across social groups non-parametrically. However, before using these summary measures we examine the structural properties of these measures by using a set of axiomatic properties.