IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2014-05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Hierarchies and Public Distribution of Food in Rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Deepankar Basu

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

  • Debarshi Das

    (Indian Institute of Technology)

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a simple model that shows that consumption of PDS food grains is significantly different between rich and poor households in states where the PDS functions relatively well; in places where the PDS is non-functional, the difference is not significant. Using household-level data from three recent thick rounds of the consumption expenditure survey (2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2011-2012), we find evidence in support of the predictions from the model. This suggests that one way to make the PDS functional is to make it more accessible to poor and underprivileged households.

Suggested Citation

  • Deepankar Basu & Debarshi Das, 2014. "Social Hierarchies and Public Distribution of Food in Rural India," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-05, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2014-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2014-05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Basole, Amit & Basu, Deepankar, 2015. "Fuelling Calorie Intake Decline: Household-Level Evidence from Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 82-95.
    2. Reetika Khera, 2011. "India's Public Distribution System: Utilisation and Impact," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 1038-1060.
    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. Nicholas Li, 2021. "In-kind transfers, marketization costs and household specialization: Evidence from Indian farmers," Working Papers tecipa-700, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    2. Rahul Anand & Naresh Kumar & Mr. Volodymyr Tulin, 2016. "Understanding India’s Food Inflation: The Role of Demand and Supply Factors," IMF Working Papers 2016/002, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Mr. David Coady & Delphine Prady, 2018. "Universal Basic Income in Developing Countries: Issues, Options, and Illustration for India," IMF Working Papers 2018/174, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Swati Narayan, 2021. "Time for Universal Public Distribution System: Food Mountains and Pandemic Hunger in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(3), pages 503-514, December.
    5. Li, Nicholas, 2023. "In-kind transfers, marketization costs and household specialization: Evidence from Indian farmers," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    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. Carpena, Fenella, 2019. "How do droughts impact household food consumption and nutritional intake? A study of rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 349-369.
    2. Kumar, Rishabh & Balasubramanian, Sriram & Loungani, Prakash, 2022. "Inequality and locational determinants of the distribution of living standards in India," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 59-69.
    3. Sudha Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber, 2015. "Social safety nets for food and nutritional security in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2015-031, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    4. Reetika Khera, 2011. "Trends in Diversion of PDS Grain," Working Papers id:3793, eSocialSciences.
    5. Sudha Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber & Udayan Rathore & Karthikeya Naraparaju, 2017. "Can social safety nets protect public health? The effect of India's workfare and foodgrain subsidy programmes on anaemia," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2017-021, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    6. Andaleeb Rahman, 2014. "Revival of rural PDS: Expansion and outreach," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2014-012, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    7. Lentz, Erin C. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2013. "The economics and nutritional impacts of food assistance policies and programs," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 151-163.
    8. Wusheng Yu & Jayatilleke Bandara, 2017. "India's Grain Security Policy in the Era of High Food Prices: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1547-1568, August.
    9. Biswabhusan Bhuyan & Bimal Kishore Sahoo & Damodar Suar, 2020. "Quantile Regression Analysis of Predictors of Calorie Demand in India: An Implication for Sustainable Development Goals," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(4), pages 825-859, December.
    10. Jumrani, Jaya, 2023. "How responsive are nutrients in India? Some recent evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    11. Raghbendra Jha & Simrit Kaur & Raghav Gaiha & Manoj K. Pandey, 2012. "NREGS and TPDS in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh: Complements or Substitutes?," ASARC Working Papers 2012-01, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    12. B. Douglas Bernheim & Debraj Ray & Şevin Yeltekin, 2015. "Poverty and Self‐Control," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(5), pages 1877-1911, September.
    13. Deepthi E. Kolady & Shivendra Kumar Srivastava & David Just & Jaspal Singh, 2021. "Food away from home and the reversal of the calorie intake decline in India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(2), pages 369-384, April.
    14. J. V. Meenakshi, 2016. "Trends and patterns in the triple burden of malnutrition in India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(S1), pages 115-134, November.
    15. Yu, Xiaohua & Abler, David, 2016. "Matching food with mouths: A statistical explanation to the abnormal decline of per capita food consumption in rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 36-43.
    16. Shinoj Parappurathu & Anjani Kumar & M. Bantilan & P. Joshi, 2015. "Food consumption patterns and dietary diversity in eastern India: evidence from village level studies (VLS)," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 7(5), pages 1031-1042, October.
    17. Masiero, Silvia, 2015. "Redesigning the Indian Food Security System through E-Governance: The Case of Kerala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 126-137.
    18. Dalia Fadly & Francisco Fontes & Miet Maertens, 2023. "Fuel for food: Access to clean cooking fuel and food security in India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(2), pages 301-321, April.
    19. 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.
    20. Snehashish Bhattacharya & Surbhi Kesar, 2020. "Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 387-408, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    public distribution system; India; development policy; food security;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ums:papers:2014-05. 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: Daniele Girardi The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Daniele Girardi to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.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.