India, April 20 -- For decades, West Bengal's economic trajectory has been narrated as one of decline - a once-industrial powerhouse that lost its edge and never recovered. While not entirely wrong, this narrative is incomplete. A closer look at the evidence suggests a more nuanced reality: Not a collapse, but a structural imbalance - one where rural gains have quietly sustained living standards even as urban dynamism has faltered.

Our joint research with Dilip Mookherjee shows that once we adjust for differences in inflation across states, West Bengal's per capita net state domestic product (NSDP) has grown roughly in line with the national average over the long run. The apparent "decline" in West Bengal's NSDP per capita relative to th...