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Purchasing power parity exchange rates from household survey data: India and Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Angus Deaton

    (Princeton University)

  • Jed Friedman

    (World Bank)

  • Vivi Alatas

    (World Bank)

Abstract

Purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates are extensively used by researchers and by policymakers. This paper proposes and implements a new methodology for calculating PPPs using information on unit values from household surveys. Although unit values are not identical to prices, they have compensating advantages. Large household surveys contain several million unit values, they are tied to actual transactions, and they are naturally linked to household characteristics such as income. In consequence, it is possible to calculate PPPs for different social groups, including PPPs for the poor. The paper calculates multilateral price indexes for the states and sectors of India, as well as PPPs for rural and urban Indonesia together with rural and urban India. PPPs for the poor are distinguished from general PPPs. The internal PPPs for India are not very different from previous estimates based on bilateral comparisons, but the estimated PPP between India and Indonesia is very different from the numbers calculated by either the Penn World Table or the World Bank. It implies that either India is much better-off, or Indonesia much poorer (or both) than is generally supposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Angus Deaton & Jed Friedman & Vivi Alatas, 2004. "Purchasing power parity exchange rates from household survey data: India and Indonesia," Working Papers 173, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:rpdevs:pppexchangerates.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray & Kompal Sinha, 2014. "A Unified Framework for the Estimation of Intra and Inter Country Food Purchasing Power Parities with Application to Cross Country Comparisons of Food Expenditure: India, Indonesia and Vietnam," Monash Economics Working Papers 31-14, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    2. Brian Dillon & Joachim De Weerdt & Ted O’Donoghue, 2021. "Paying More for Less: Why Don’t Households in Tanzania Take Advantage of Bulk Discounts?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(1), pages 148-179.
    3. repec:pri:rpdevs:deaton_price_trends_in_india_and_their_implications_for_measuring_poverty is not listed on IDEAS
    4. McKelvey, Christopher, 2011. "Price, unit value, and quality demanded," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 157-169, July.
    5. Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray & Kompal Sinha, 2011. "Estimating Intra Country and Cross Country Purchasing Power Parities from Household Expenditure Data Using Single Equation and Complete Demand Systems Approach: India and Vietnam," Monash Economics Working Papers 34-11, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    6. John Gibson & Trinh Le & Bonggeun Kim, 2017. "Prices, Engel Curves, and Time-Space Deflation: Impacts on Poverty and Inequality in Vietnam," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 504-530.
    7. Stefano Marchetti & Luca Secondi, 2017. "Estimates of Household Consumption Expenditure at Provincial Level in Italy by Using Small Area Estimation Methods: “Real” Comparisons Using Purchasing Power Parities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 215-234, March.
    8. Ingvild Almas, 2012. "International Income Inequality: Measuring PPP Bias by Estimating Engel Curves for Food," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 1093-1117, April.
    9. Ingvild Almås & Anders Kjelsrud, 2016. "Pro-poor Price Trends and Inequality - The Case of India," CESifo Working Paper Series 5740, CESifo.
    10. Gibson, John & Le, Trinh, 2019. "Using local expert knowledge to measure prices: Evidence from a survey experiment in Vietnam," MPRA Paper 92533, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Angus Deaton & Alan Heston, 2010. "Understanding PPPs and PPP-Based National Accounts," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 1-35, October.
    12. John Gibson & Trinh Le, 2018. "Improved Modelling of Spatial Cost of Living Differences in Developing Countries: A Comparison of Expert Knowledge and Traditional Price Surveys," Working Papers in Economics 18/08, University of Waikato.
    13. Almås, Ingvild & Kjelsrud, Anders, 2017. "Rags and Riches: Relative Prices, Non-Homothetic Preferences, and Inequality in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 102-121.
    14. Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray & Kompal Sinha, 2015. "Estimating Purchasing Power Parities from Household Expenditure Data Using Complete Demand Systems with Application to Living Standards Comparison: India and Vietnam," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 302-328, June.
    15. D.S. Prasada Rao, 2004. "The Country-Product-Dummy Method: A Stochastic Approach to the Computation of Purchasing Power Parities in the ICP," CEPA Working Papers Series WP032004, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    16. Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray, 2020. "National and subnational purchasing power parity: a review," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 47(2), pages 103-124, June.
    17. Lant Pritchett, Marla Spivack, 2013. "Estimating Income/Expenditure Differences across Populations: New Fun with Old Engel's Law-Working Paper 339," Working Papers 339, Center for Global Development.
    18. Sudhir Anand & Paul Segal, 2008. "What Do We Know about Global Income Inequality?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 57-94, March.
    19. Diewert, W. Erwin & Nakamura, Alice O. & Nakamura, Leonard I., 2009. "The housing bubble and a new approach to accounting for housing in a CPI," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 156-171, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    PPP exchange rates; unit values; household surveys; poverty; India; Indonesia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

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