The Earnings and Conversion Gaps for Persons with Disabilities: Evidence from India

We evaluate the earnings and conversion disadvantages that persons with disabilities face in India, which has amongst the highest numbers of persons with disabilities globally. Our study is unique in that we use two major nationally representative household surveys consisting of over 85,000 households, alongside a qualitative study to explore the nature and the magnitude of these disadvantages. We find that persons with disabilities and the households they live in experience lower earnings (earnings gap) and incur higher costs of translating those earnings into living standards (conversion gap). Because of such costs, persons with disabilities and the households to which they belong are likely to be at disproportionately higher risk of being poor. These disadvantages vary across gender, by rural–urban residence and by severity of disability and considerably exceed government contributions to the well-being of people with disabilities. JEL Codes: I15, I18, I31, J3 J7