IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/rp2006-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Distribution of Household Wealth in India

Author

Listed:
  • Sreenivasan Subramanian
  • D. Jayaraj

Abstract

This paper reviews the principal source of India's wealth distribution statistics, which is constituted by the five decennial Reserve Bank of India National Sample Survey Organization Surveys on Debt and Investment of 1961-62, 1971-72, 1981-82, 1991-92, and 2002-03. The data available are described, critically appraised, and analyzed to present some salient findings in terms of the levels of debt, the levels of asset-holdings across the states of the Indian Union and over time, wealth composition, and aspects of vertical and horizontal inequality in the distribution of wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Sreenivasan Subramanian & D. Jayaraj, 2006. "The Distribution of Household Wealth in India," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-116, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2006-116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/rp2006-116.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mervyn A. King & Jonathan I. Leape, 1987. "Asset Accumulation, Information, and the Life Cycle," NBER Working Papers 2392, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Sinha, Sitabhra, 2006. "Evidence for power-law tail of the wealth distribution in India," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 359(C), pages 555-562.
    3. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2000. "Land Reform, Poverty Reduction, and Growth: Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 389-430.
    4. Amartya Sen, 1976. "Real National Income," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(1), pages 19-39.
    5. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    6. Anthony F. Shorrocks, 1983. "The Impact of Income Components on the Distribution of Family Incomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(2), pages 311-326.
    7. René Morissette & Xuelin Zhang & Marie Drolet, 2003. "The Evolution of Wealth Inequality in Canada: 1984-1999," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_396, Levy Economics Institute.
    8. Andrea Brandolini & Luigi Cannari & Giovanni D’Alessio & Ivan Faiella, 2006. "Household Wealth Distribution in Italy in the 1990s," Chapters, in: Edward N. Wolff (ed.), International Perspectives on Household Wealth, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Davies, James B. & Shorrocks, Anthony F., 2000. "The distribution of wealth," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 11, pages 605-675, Elsevier.
    10. Villasenor, JoseA. & Arnold, Barry C., 1989. "Elliptical Lorenz curves," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 327-338, February.
    11. Roland Spånt, 1981. "The Development Of The Distribution Of Wealth In Sweden," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 27(1), pages 65-74, March.
    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. Rishabh Kumar, 2019. "The evolution of wealth-income ratios in India, 1860-2012," World Inequality Lab Working Papers hal-02876998, HAL.
    2. Anoop S. Kumar & P. Yazir & G. G. Gopika, 2019. "Consumption Inequality In India After Liberalization: A Caste Based Assessment," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 139-155, March.
    3. Aswini Kumar Mishra & Vedant Bhardwaj, 2021. "Wealth distribution and accounting for changes in wealth inequality: empirical evidence from India, 1991–2012," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 585-620, May.
    4. Davies, James B. & Sandstrom, Susanna & Shorrocks, Anthony & Wolff, Edward N., 2006. "The World Distribution of Household Wealth," Conference papers 331490, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    5. Mishra, Aswini Kumar & Gupta, Akul & Bhardwaj, Vedant, 2022. "Permanent inequality versus earnings instability and transmission of income shocks to consumption expenditure in India," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 80-91.
    6. Zacharias, Ajit & Vakulabharanam, Vamsi, 2011. "Caste Stratification and Wealth Inequality in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1820-1833.
    7. K. J. Joseph & Liyan Zhang & Kiran Kumar Kakarlapudi, 2018. "The Dragon Turns around and the Elephant Moves Forward: Inequality in China and India under Globalization," Millennial Asia, , vol. 9(3), pages 235-261, December.
    8. Amy Y. C. Liu, 2009. "Inequality among the rural poor: A tale of two cities in India and Vietnam," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec09-04, International and Development Economics.
    9. D. Jayaraj & S. Subramanian, 2018. "The Distribution of Household Assets in India: 1991–1992 to 2012–2013," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 181-203, August.
    10. Patrick Honohan, 2006. "Household Financial Assets in the Process of Development," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-91, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Saurabh & R. V. Ramanamurthy, 2023. "Employment status and wealth inequality between scheduled caste and other caste households in India," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 25(1), pages 1-16, June.
    12. Mr. S.Hirashima, 2009. "Growth-Poverty Linkage and Income-Asset Relation in Regional Disparity: Evidence from Pakistan and India (The Allama Iqbal Memorial Lecture)," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 48(4), pages 357-386.
    13. Ghosh, Saibal & Vinod, D., 2017. "What Constrains Financial Inclusion for Women? Evidence from Indian Micro data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 60-81.
    14. Azad, Rohit & Chakraborty, Shouvik, 2020. "Green Growth and the Right to Energy in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    15. Alistair Munro & Bereket Kebede & Marcela Tarazona-Gomez & Arjan Verschoor, 2013. "Autonomy and Efficiency: An Experiment on Household Decisions in Two Regions of India," NBER Chapters, in: Experiments for Development: Achievements and New Directions, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Swati Dutta & Lakshmi Kumar, 2016. "Is Poverty Stochastic or Structural in Nature? Evidence from Rural India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 957-979, September.
    17. Swati Dutta & Lakshmi Kumar, 2013. "Poverty Dynamics in Rural India: An Asset-Based Approach," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 7(4), pages 475-506, November.
    18. Swaminathan, Madhura & Nagbhushan, Shruti, 2022. "Wealth Inequality: Evidence from Two Villages in Bihar," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 12(1), June.

    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. Francisco Azpitarte, 2008. "The Household Wealth Distribution in Spain: The Role of Housing and Financial Wealth," Working Papers 83, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Francisco Azpitarte, 2010. "The household wealth distribution in Spain: The role of housing and financial wealth," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 194(3), pages 65-90, October.
    3. Ilias Georgakopoulos, 2019. "Income and Wealth Inequality in Malta," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 7(5), pages 58-71, September.
    4. Fräßdorf, Anna & Grabka, Markus M. & Schwarze, Johannes, 2011. "The Impact of Household Capital Income on Income Inequality - A Factor Decomposition Analysis for the UK, Germany and the USA," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 35-56.
    5. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt, 2002. "Agriculture and Income Distribution in Rural Vietnam under Economic Reforms: A Tale of Two Regions," Working Papers benjamin-02-01, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    6. Mauricio De Rosa, 2018. "Wealth distribution in Uruguay: capitalizing incomes in the dark," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 18-07, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    7. Juan Antonio Duro & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Emilio Padilla, 2017. "The Causal Factors of International Inequality in $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Emissions Per Capita: A Regression-Based Inequality Decomposition Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 683-700, August.
    8. Teixidó Figueras, Jordi & Duro Moreno, Juan Antonio, 2012. "Ecological Footprint Inequality: A methodological review and some results," Working Papers 2072/203168, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    9. Jonathan Morduch & Terry Sicular, 2002. "Rethinking Inequality Decomposition, With Evidence from Rural China," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 93-106, January.
    10. Felipe Rivera, 2017. "Health opportunities in Colombia," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 87, pages 125-164, Julio - D.
    11. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt & Paul Glewwe & Guo Li, 2002. "Markets, Human Capital and Inequality: Evidence from Rural China," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard B. Freeman (ed.), Inequality Around the World, chapter 5, pages 87-127, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Adams, Richard H., Jr., 1996. "Remittances, income distribution, and rural asset accumulation," FCND discussion papers 17, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Andrea Brandolini & Luigi Cannari & Giovanni D’Alessio & Ivan Faiella, 2006. "Household Wealth Distribution in Italy in the 1990s," Chapters, in: Edward N. Wolff (ed.), International Perspectives on Household Wealth, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Uchimura, Hiroko, 2005. "Influence of Social Institutions on Inequality in China," IDE Discussion Papers 26, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    17. Ayal Kimhi, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and income inequality in southern Ethiopia," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 81-91, January.
    18. Juan Antonio Duro & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Emilio Padilla Rosa, 2014. "The causal factors of international inequality in CO2 emissions per capita: A regression-based inequality decomposition analysis," Working Papers wpdea1402, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    19. James B. Davies & Susanna Sandström & Anthony Shorrocks & Edward N. Wolff, 2011. "The Level and Distribution of Global Household Wealth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(551), pages 223-254, March.
    20. Teixidó-Figueras, Jordi & Duro, Juan Antonio, 2015. "The building blocks of International Ecological Footprint inequality: A Regression-Based Decomposition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 30-39.

    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:unu:wpaper:rp2006-116. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    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.