Distribution Of Consumption Expenditure Research Articles

Foreign Value Added along the Consumption Distribution

We measure the share of foreign value added embedded in the domestic consumption expenditure of the Italian household sector as a whole and of households along the distribution of consumption expenditure. We find that for each euro spent for consumption by households, almost irrespective of their affluence, about 20 to 40 cents remunerate foreign production factors; around two fifths of this foreign value added originate in other euro-area countries. Because of their heterogeneous bundles, households consume foreign value added through different expenditure items; less affluent ones do so through price-inelastic varieties and necessities.

Autarchy Along the Distribution

We measure the share of foreign value added embedded in the domestic consumption expenditure of the Italian household sector as a whole and of households along the distribution of consumption expenditure. We find that for each euro spent for consumption by households, almost irrespective of their affluence, about 20 to 40 cents remunerate foreign production factors; around two fifths of this foreign value added originate in other euro-area countries. Because of their heterogeneous bundles, households consume foreign value added through different expenditure items; less affluent ones do so through price-inelastic varieties and necessities.

Levels, Patterns and Distribution of Consumption Expenditure of Farmers and Agricultural Labourers in Rural Punjab

The objective of the present paper is to analyse levels, patterns and distribution of consumption expenditure by farmers and agricultural labourers in rural Punjab. An attempt has also been made to analyse the same trends across social groups and observe how caste interacts with resource ownership and leads to unequal outcomes. The study reveals a positive relationship between farm size and consumption levels, and also shows that caste-based discrimination becomes overt at higher levels of living. The farming communities may show a level of equality in deprivation but not in achievements. We see that most poor farmers and agricultural labourers spend on basic needs, thus leaving lesser amounts to be spent on durables and services. Things worsen for socially marginalised groups. The majority of households belonging to these categories have an average propensity to consume greater amounts which forces them to borrow money to make both ends meet. Finally, this study offers some policy suggestions to save such communities from a vicious debt trap and help them improve their living standards.

Levels, Pattern and Distribution of Consumption Expenditure among Farmers in Rural Punjab

The objective of the present paper is to analyze levels, pattern and distribution of consumption expenditure among farmers in rural Punjab. The study concludes that the large farmers give priority to marriages and other socio-religious ceremonies and durables while the landless, marginal, small and medium farming categories spend more on non-durable items. The expenditure made by the large farmers on these items is reflective of theirbetter economic condition due to ownership of land. The per capita consumption expenditure analysis clearlyshows that the farmers belonging to large and medium farm-size categories are maintaining a relatively better levels of living than those of the other three categories. The average propensity to consume is greater than one for all farm-size categories except the large farm-size category. This fact has an important implication that in the rural areas of Punjab these poor categories try to maintain a minimum level of consumption whether they can afford it or not. The present study is based on 631 farm households and relates to the year 2010–11.

Accounting for Heterogeneity in Growth Incidence in Cameroon Using Recentered Influence Function Regression

This paper frames growth incidence analysis within the logic of social impact evaluation understood as an assessment of variations in individual and social outcomes attributable to shocks and policies. It uses recentered influence function (RIF) regression to link the growth incidence curve (GIC) to household characteristics and perform counterfactual decomposition a la Oaxaca-Blinder to identify sources of variation in the distribution of consumption expenditure in Cameroon in 2001-2007. We find that the structural effect is driven mostly by the sector of employment and geography and is the main driver of the observed pattern of growth. The composition effect accounts for the lion’s share of the observed variation in the social impact of growth. In particular, that effect tends to reduce poverty while the structural effect tends to increase it. This conclusion is robust with respect to the choice of poverty measures and RIF regression models.

The Evolution of Consumption and Wealth Inequality in India: A Quantitative Assessment

In this paper we undertake a fairly straightforward quantitative assessment of trends in inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure and of household wealth in India. While it is customary to employ, in applied work, only relative measures whose value basis is seldom subjected to any serious critical scrutiny, the present paper assesses inequality in terms of both absolute and intermediate measures, in addition to relative measures. It is found that our judgment of inequality trends is indeed influenced by the particular conception – relative, absolute or intermediate – of inequality that we may be inclined to favour. In particular, intermediate measures avoid the arguably “extreme” values underlying relative and absolute measures, and if we go by intermediate rather than relative indices, then we find that inequality in India must be judged to be increasing rather than essentially trend-less, as relative approaches to assessing inequality suggest.

Analyzing and Comparing the Impact of Alternative Concepts of Resources in Distributional Studies: Greece, 2004/5

The usual practice in empirical distributional studies is to use either disposable income or consumption expenditure as a proxy for welfare. Essentially, both variables are used as approximations of the unobserved “permanent income” of the population members. This paper exploits the information in the Greek Household Budget Survey of 2004/5 and constructs an indicator of “permanent income” using a latent variable approach. The distributions of disposable income, consumption expenditure and permanent income are compared regarding their level and structure of inequality and poverty. Both inequality and poverty appear to be substantially lower using the distribution of permanent income instead of either the distribution of disposable income or the distribution of consumption expenditure, while differences are also evident when decomposition analysis of inequality and poverty is employed using appropriate indices.

Why Is Consumption More Log Normal than Income? Gibrat’s Law Revisited

Significant departures from log normality are observed in income data, in violation of Gibrat’s law. We show empirically that the distribution of consumption expenditures across households is, within cohorts, closer to log normal than the distribution of income. We explain this empirical result by showing that the logic of Gibrat’s law applies not to total income, but to permanent income and to marginal utility.

Models for Anchoring and Acquiescence Bias in Consumption Data

Item non-response in household survey data on economic variables such as income, assets or consumption is a well-known problem.Follow-up unfolding bracket questions have been used as a tool to collect partial information on respondents that do not answer an open-ended question.It is also known, however, that mistakes are made in answering such unfolding bracket questions.In this paper, we develop several limited dependent variable models to analyze two sources of mistakes, anchoring and acquiescence (or yeasaying), focusing on the first bracket question.We use the experimental module of the AHEAD 1995 data, where the sample is randomly split into respondents who get an open-ended question on the amount of total family consumption - with follow-up unfolding brackets (of the form: is consumption $X or more?) for those who answer don t know or refuse - and respondents who are immediately directed to unfolding brackets.In both cases, the entry point of the unfolding bracket sequence is randomized.We compare models in which the probability of a mistake depends on the deviation between the true consumption amount and the entry point amount $X and models in which it does not.We find that allowing for acquiescence bias substantially changes the conclusions on the selective nature of non-response to the open-ended question and on the distribution of consumption expenditures in the population.Once acquiescence bias is taken into account, anchoring in the first bracket question plays only a minor role.

Decomposing inequality under alternative concepts of resources: Greece 1988

The structure of inequality in Greece is analyzed using the information of a survey which contains both consumption and income data. Due to life-cycle factors and measurement errors, the correlation between the two variables is not very high and, hence, an approximation of the “permanent income” of the population members is attempted. Although the level of inequality of the new distribution is substantially lower than the levels of inequality of either the distribution of consumption expenditure or the distribution of disposable income, the structure of inequality in Greece is only slightly affected by the choice of distribution.

Aspects of inequality in Greece: Measurement, decomposition and intertemporal change: 1974, 1982

Inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure per equivalent adult is measured and decomposed using the primary data of two Greek Household Expenditure Surveys (1974, 1982). Among the factors included in the decomposition analysis, only education accounts for a relatively large part of aggregate inequality. Between 1974 and 1982 inequality declined substantially both ‘within groups’ and ‘between groups’, although changes in the structure of the population had an adverse effect on inequality.

Rural poverty in Bihar 1961–62 to 1970–71

This paper seeks to analyse the distribution of consumption expenditure and the incidence of poverty in rural Bihar during the 1960s. While inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure remained more or less unchanged between 1961–62 and 1970–71, there was a fall in the average real per capita expenditure of all segments of the rural population. Moreover, this period witnessed a marked increase in the proportion of the rural poor, and, in 1970–71, it is estimated that 60 per cent of the rural population in Bihar lived below the poverty line.

A Short-Term Planning Model for the Indian Economy

HE purpose of this paper is to present a T short-term planning model for the Indian economy. It involves (a) the formulation and implementation of an input-output model for India, closed with respect to all household consumption except that originating from government employees, and (b) an endogenous determination of the distribution of consumption expenditure among several groups of households, each group having a specific consumption pattern. The paper is divided into three sections. An attempt is made in section I to classify the economy into several sectors. In section II, we calculate the intersectoral transfers of intermediate products as well as final goods and services. Section III presents the planning model and considers the possibilities of using it for planning purposes.