The Distribution of Household Assets in India: 1991–1992 to 2012–2013

D. Jayaraj and S. Subramanian

Indian Journal of Human Development, 2018, vol. 12, issue 2, 181-203

Abstract: This article is a fairly straightforward quantitative assessment of the distribution of household assets in rural and urban India, based on data available in the All-India Debt and Investment Surveys (AIDIS) over the last three decadal survey years: 1991–1992, 2002–2003 and 2012–2013. The article reviews some limitations of the data base and examines the magnitudes and trends in the levels of average per household assets, it describes the composition of household assets, it traces the over-time evolution of both vertical (inter-household) and horizontal (inter-group) inequality in the distribution of household assets, and briefly appraises levels and disparities in wealth holdings among the very small number of ultra-rich households. The article concludes that both vertical and horizontal inequalities have evolved into levels that could be socially disruptive and pose a threat to the democratic viability of the country.

Keywords: Average household asset holdings; inequality; relative Gini; absolute Gini; intermediate Gini; relative group disadvantage; the ultra-rich (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973703018789244 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:inddev:v:12:y:2018:i:2:p:181-203

DOI: 10.1177/0973703018789244

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Indian Journal of Human Development
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().