How Livelihood Diversification and Institutional Credit Help to Improve Household Well-Being in India?

Abstract

Using nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) collected in 2011-12, this study examined the impact of livelihood diversification and accessibility to institutional credit on the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) of households. The data provided information about 42,152 households, and our study focused on only the households that had taken a loan from any source, thus reducing the sample size to 22,630 households. The estimate suggested that, if a household had taken a loan from a formal source, then it was likely to have a higher MPCE by approximately 24.68 percent on average. We also found that households whose main source of income belonged to the secondary sector had a negative and insignificant coefficient while the coefficient of the tertiary sector suggested that they had about a 29 percent higher MPCE compared to those households who belonged to the primary sector. The results also suggested that Hindus had a higher consumption compared to Muslims. However, Christians and Sikhs had about 36 percent and 23 percent higher consumption, respectively, than Hindus. The study also found that households belong to lower social groups (OBC, SC, and ST) had lower consumption compared to households that belonged to the general category of the caste system.