Design and impacts: a review of the contemporary research on household mobility in India's rural agrarian economy

Study of social and economic mobility at the household level is a vital area of research. Relatively little has been done in this realm as it relates to India’s agrarian economy. This paper seeks to examine those studies of household social mobility that have been carried out since the time of the first introduction of green revolution technologies in India. The merits and limitations of the design and methodology of these studies are considered. The insights their findings impart are synthesized in the context of the agricultural and rural development history of India, and ultimately, taken up in a discussion of dynamics of agrarian change. The final conclusions of this research are that large-scale inequalities in India’s economy persist; although India’s particular development trajectory is ultimately uncertain, our understanding of it can be strongly augmented by comprehensive research at the village level.