IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jqecon/v16y2018i3d10.1007_s40953-017-0099-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequality in Food Expenditure in India and the Contributing Factors

Author

Listed:
  • Kakoli Borkotoky

    (Population Council)

  • Sayeed Unisa

    (International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS))

Abstract

One of the most important implications of nutrition transition is the change in food expenditure along with the changes in food consumption pattern. While inequalities in income have been extensively documented, relatively less is known about the inequality in food expenditure in India. In the Indian context, the diversity in agriculture offers enough scope to examine expenditure inequality across regions. The study examined the inequality in food expenditure in India and the contributing factors using household level expenditure data from the National Sample Survey Organisation. The study first examined the pattern of food expenditure and then the factors associated with the inequality in food expenditure. The study identified that inequality in food expenditure by place of residence, geographic and agro-climatic regions has increased over time. Moreover, type of occupation and household size had significant contribution to inequality in food expenditure. The findings from Gini decomposition suggests that with the increase in food expenditure inequality, share of cereals in total food expenditure increased for the poor; and share of milk products, vegetables and processed food increased for the rich. The geographic variations within the country and the share of each expenditure category within state will also help in explaining the food expenditure inequality in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Kakoli Borkotoky & Sayeed Unisa, 2018. "Inequality in Food Expenditure in India and the Contributing Factors," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 16(3), pages 647-680, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jqecon:v:16:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s40953-017-0099-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s40953-017-0099-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40953-017-0099-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40953-017-0099-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    2. Raghav Gaiha & Nidhi Kaicker & Katsushi Imai & Vani S. Kulkarni & Ganesh Thapa, 2012. "Has Dietary Transition Slowed Down in India: An analysis based on 50th, 61st and 66th Rounds of NSS," ASARC Working Papers 2012-07, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    3. Mitsuhiro Hayashi & Mitsuhiko Kataoka & Takahiro Akita, 2012. "Spatial Dimensions of Expenditure Inequality and the Role of Education in Indonesia: An Analysis of the 2008-2010 Susenas Panel Data," Crawford School Research Papers 1211, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    4. Barry M. Popkin, 2003. "The Nutrition Transition in the Developing World," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 21(5-6), pages 581-597, December.
    5. P. Lazaridis, 2000. "Decomposition of Food Expenditure Inequality: An Application of the Extended Gini Coefficient to Greek Micro-Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 179-193, November.
    6. Raghav Gaiha & Nidhi Kaicker & Katsushi S. Imai & Vani S. Kulkarni & Ganesh Thapa, 2014. "Dietary shift and diet quality in India: an analysis based on the 50th, 61st and 66th rounds of NSS," Chapters, in: Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Anil B. Deolalikar (ed.), Handbook on Food, chapter 8, pages 177-203, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Raghav Gaiha & Raghbendra Jha & Vani S. Kulkarni, 2010. "Child Undernutrition in India," ASARC Working Papers 2010-11, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    8. Hupkens, Christianne L. H. & Knibbe, Ronald A. & van Otterloo, Anneke H. & Drop, Maria J., 1998. "Class differences in the food rules mothers impose on their children: a cross-national study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1331-1339, November.
    9. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Slemrod, Joel, 1991. "Welfare Dominance: An Application to Commodity Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 480-496, June.
    10. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Thirsk, Wayne, 1990. "Welfare dominance and the design of excise taxation in the Cote d'ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-18, July.
    11. Nguyen, Minh Cong & Winters, Paul, 2011. "The impact of migration on food consumption patterns: The case of Vietnam," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 71-87, February.
    12. Nidhi Kaicker & Vani S. Kulkarni & Raghav Gaiha, 2011. "Dietary Transition in India: An Analysis Based on NSS Data for 1993 and 2004," ASARC Working Papers 2011-10, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    13. Mitsuhiro Hayashi & Mitsuhiko Kataoka & Takahiro Akita, 2012. "Spatial Dimensions of Expenditure Inequality and the Role of Education in Indonesia: An Analysis of the 2008-2010 Susenas Panel," Working Papers EMS_2012_21, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    14. David Neumark, 1988. "Employers' Discriminatory Behavior and the Estimation of Wage Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    15. Lerman, Robert I & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1985. "Income Inequality Effects by Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 151-156, February.
    16. Lerman, Robert I. & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1984. "A note on the calculation and interpretation of the Gini index," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 15(3-4), pages 363-368.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sayema Haque Bidisha & Tanveer Mahmood & Md. Biplob Hossain, 2021. "Assessing Food Poverty, Vulnerability and Food Consumption Inequality in the Context of COVID-19: A Case of Bangladesh," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 187-210, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mitsuhiro Hayashi & Mitsuhiko Kataoka & Takahiro Akita, 2014. "Expenditure Inequality in Indonesia, 2008–2010: A Spatial Decomposition Analysis and the Role of Education," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 389-411, December.
    2. Mitsuhiro Hayashi & Mitsuhiko Kataoka & Takahiro Akita, 2012. "Spatial Dimensions of Expenditure Inequality and the Role of Education in Indonesia: An Analysis of the 2008-2010 Susenas Panel," Working Papers EMS_2012_21, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    3. Hisham S. El‐Osta, 2010. "Inequality decomposition of farm family living expenditures and the role of the life cycle," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 70(2), pages 245-266, August.
    4. Michele Zenga, 2016. "On the decomposition by subpopulations of the point and synthetic Zenga (2007) inequality indexes," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 74(3), pages 375-405, December.
    5. I. Josa & A. Aguado, 2020. "Measuring Unidimensional Inequality: Practical Framework for the Choice of an Appropriate Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 541-570, June.
    6. Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2000. "Consumption Dominance Curves: Testing for the Impact of Tax Reforms on Poverty," Cahiers de recherche 00-05, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    7. D'Errico, Marco & Macchiarelli, Corrado & Serafini, Roberta, 2015. "Differently unequal: Zooming-in on the distributional dimensions of the crisis in euro area countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 93-115.
    8. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2008. "Socially Improving Tax Reforms," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1505-1537, November.
    9. Magne Mogstad, 2007. "Measuring Income Inequality under Restricted Interpersonal Comparability," Discussion Papers 498, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    10. Babulo, Bedru & Muys, Bart & Nega, Fredu & Tollens, Eric & Nyssen, Jan & Deckers, Jozef & Mathijs, Erik, 2009. "The economic contribution of forest resource use to rural livelihoods in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 123-131, March.
    11. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Abdelkrim Araar, 2009. "Pro-Poor Tax reforms, with an Application to Mexico," Working Papers 0907E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    12. Chi, Wei, 2012. "Capital income and income inequality: Evidence from urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 228-239.
    13. Arthur Charpentier & Stéphane Mussard, 2011. "Income inequality games," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(4), pages 529-554, December.
    14. John Cockburn & Hélène Maisonnave & Véronique Robichaud & Luca Tiberti, 2013. "Fiscal Space and Public Spending on Children in Burkina Faso," Cahiers de recherche 1308, CIRPEE.
    15. Marco Ranaldi, 2016. "On the Measurement of Functional Income Distribution," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 16051, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    16. Mario Fortin & Andre Leclerc & Jean-Baptiste Nesmy, 2006. "L’impact des opérations transactionnelles sur la croissance de la productivité dans le secteur bancaire," Cahiers de recherche 06-01, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    17. SOLOGON Denisa & ALMEIDA Vanda & VAN KERM Philippe, 2019. "Accounting for the distributional effects of the 2007-2008 crisis and the Economic Adjustment Program in Portugal," LISER Working Paper Series 2019-05, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    18. Luis Huesca & Arturo Robles Valencia & Abdelkrim Araar, 2015. "Progressivity and decomposition of VAT in the Mexican border, 2014," Estudios Regionales en Economía, Población y Desarrollo. Cuadernos de Trabajo de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. 25, Cuerpo Académico 41 de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, revised 01 Jan 2015.
    19. Kazi Arif Uz Zaman & Takahiro Akita, 2011. "Spatial Dimensions of Income Inequality and Poverty in Bangladesh: An Analysis of the 2005 Household Income and Expenditure Survey Data," Working Papers EMS_2011_20, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    20. Francesca Battisti & Francesco Porro, 2023. "A multi-decomposition of Zenga-84 inequality index: an application to the disparity in CO $$_2$$ 2 emissions in European countries," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 32(3), pages 957-981, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jqecon:v:16:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s40953-017-0099-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.