The Plutocratic bias in the Indian CPI

Dilip M Nachane (nachane@igidr.ac.in) and Aditi Chaubal
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Dilip M Nachane: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India

Abstract: The Laspeyres-type consumer price index (CPI) is traditionally used to measure the changes in cost-of-living over time. Studies indicate this CPI suffers from a plutocratic bias, attaching greater weightage to expenditure by rich compared to poor; while democratic CPI uses equal weights. We calculate the plutocratic bias for the new Indian CPI (launched in 2012), rural and urban CPI, and CPI of three Indian states from 2012-2015. We develop democratic CPI indexes for commodity groups: necessities, luxuries, housing and others; and separate indexes for three consumption brackets. Our analysis has important implications for monetary policy and indexation of transfer payments.

Keywords: Laspeyres index numbers; plutocratic bias; democratic CPI; expenditure elasticity; consumption brackets; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 E3 E31 E52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-mon
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Working Paper: The Plutocratic Bias in the Indian CPI (2017)
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