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Cost of living differences between urban and rural areas in Indonesia

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  • Ravallion, Martin
  • van de Walle, Dominique

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that the cost of living is much higher in cities than in the country because housing rents are higher in urban areas and food staples cost more. This assumption has important implications for sectoral comparisons of welfare levels and distributions. The authors suspect that comparisons of housing rent and food prices overstate the cost-of-living differential. For one thing, the quality of dwelling stock is better on the whole in urban areas, reflecting income differences. For another, the urban consumer is able to substitute in favor of other goods and services which do not cost any more in urban areas. This paper finds that the true cost of living in cities is substantially overestimated by conventional methods. This is more pronounced at low incomes, since the marginal cost of utility is larger (relative to expenditures) in urban areas - implying that the relative cost of urban living increases with income. In a neighborhood on the poverty line, the results suggest that an urban-rural cost-of-living difference of about 10 percent is closer to the truth than the values (as high as 66 percent) used in past work on Indonesia.

Suggested Citation

  • Ravallion, Martin & van de Walle, Dominique, 1989. "Cost of living differences between urban and rural areas in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 341, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:341
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Abuzar Asra, 1999. "Urban-Rural Differences in Costs of Living and Their Impact on Poverty Measures," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 51-69.
    2. G. D'Alessio, 2018. "Well-being, the Socio-economic Context and Price Differences: the North-South Gap," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 471-498.

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