Estimating Consumption Deprivation in India Using Survey Data: A State-Level Rural-Urban Analysis Before and During Reform Period
Abstract
This paper assesses deprivation in India employing a measure proposed by Sitaramam and using consumption data at the household level. As cereals constitute a staple food and form a major portion of expenditure on food, the deprivation measure considered here is deprivation in cereal consumption. The total expenditure at which the Engel curve for cereals turns from concave to convex is taken as the cut-off to determine the deprived households. It is shown that cereal deprivation at the all-India level exhibits a declining trend over the period 1987-1988 and 1999-2000 in the rural sector, while there is little change in the urban sector. Further, this decline in cereal deprivation seems to have been slowing down during the reform period. The estimates of deprivation are poorly correlated with the Head Count Index (HCI) and Poverty Gap Index (PGI) at state level, both in rural and urban sectors. They, however, have better temporal correlations with those poverty measures. We offer some explanation for these observed differences in alternate deprivation indices. The trends in cereal deprivation are accompanied in some cases by a decline, in real terms, in maximum cereal consumption of each group of consumers. Whether this is an improvement or otherwise of the living standards of the poor, must await further analysis of per capita food consumption in general, with an analysis of prices and quantities of various food items. It is hoped that this kind of study on deprivation of essential commodities may increase our understanding of poverty, and even suggest direct intervention strategies.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Journal of Development Studies.
Volume (Year): 45 (2009)
Issue (Month): 4 ()
Pages: 441-470
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Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- T. Krishna Kumar & Sushanta Mallick & Jayarama Holla, 2007. "Estimating Consumption Deprivation in India using Survey Data: A State-Level Rural-Urban Analysis before and during Reform Period," Working Papers 7, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
References
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Rama Pal, 2012. "Measuring incidence of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure: with application to India," International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 63-85, March.
- Rama Pal, 2010.
"Analysing catastrophic OOP health expenditure in India: Concepts, determinants and policy implications,"
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers
2010-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
- Rama Pal, 2010. "Analysing Catastrophic OOP Health Expenditure in India: Concepts, Determinants and Policy Implications," Working Papers id:2420, eSocialSciences.
- Rama Pal, 2010. "Analysing Catastrophic OOP Health Expenditure in India : Concepts, Determinants and Policy Implications," Microeconomics Working Papers 22775, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
- M.H. Suryanarayana, 2011. "Policies for the Poor: Verifying the Information Base," Journal of Quantitative Economics, The Indian Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), pages 73-88.
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