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Power-law Behaviour and Inequality in the Upper Tail of Wealth, Income and Consumption: Evidence from India

Kumar, Rishabh·2025·The Indian Economic Journal
DOI 10.1177/00194662241238471

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Abstract

This article analyses the upper tails of wealth, income and consumption in India over the period 2012–2018 using rich lists, wealth surveys, income tax returns and consumer expenditure surveys. We find the upper tail to obey a power-law in all three economic resources. Comparing our estimates in 2012—where we possess data on wealth, income and consumption simultaneously—we find that the upper tail of wealth is most concentrated, income slightly less, and consumption is much less concentrated. Unlike wealth and income, the Pareto coefficients for consumption are estimated to have a well-defined mean and variance. Our findings are suggestive of convex saving functions in the income distribution. JEL Codes: D31, O16, O53

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FIGURE 1 Rank ordered plots of the richest 100 Indians for 2012 and 2018 on a double log scale, using data from Forbes magazine.
FIGURE 1 Rank ordered plots of the richest 100 Indians for 2012 and 2018 on a double log scale, using data from Forbes magazine.CC-BY · From the PDF
FIGURE 2 Rank ordered plots of the upper tail in survey data for 2012 and 2018 on a double log scale, using data from AIDIS
FIGURE 2 Rank ordered plots of the upper tail in survey data for 2012 and 2018 on a double log scale, using data from AIDISCC-BY · From the PDF
FIGURE 3 Rank ordered plots of the upper tail in pooled survey and rich-list data for 2012 and 2018 on a double log scale, using data from AIDIS and Forbes magazine.
FIGURE 3 Rank ordered plots of the upper tail in pooled survey and rich-list data for 2012 and 2018 on a double log scale, using data from AIDIS and Forbes magazine.CC-BY · From the PDF
FIGURE 4 Rank ordered plots of the upper tail in consumption data for 2012 on a double log scale, using data from NSO consumption expenditure surveys
FIGURE 4 Rank ordered plots of the upper tail in consumption data for 2012 on a double log scale, using data from NSO consumption expenditure surveysCC-BY · From the PDF
FIGURE 5 Complementary CDF plots of income-tax data, pooled for 2012-18 and adjusted for inflation using CPI (2012). Data are sourced from website of Indian income tax authorities
FIGURE 5 Complementary CDF plots of income-tax data, pooled for 2012-18 and adjusted for inflation using CPI (2012). Data are sourced from website of Indian income tax authoritiesCC-BY · From the PDF

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Research works printed but not linked: 18

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Metadata

Authors
Kumar, R.
Affiliations
Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA, United States
ORCID
Kumar, Rishabh
Venue
The Indian Economic Journal
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2024-03-22
Volume
73
Issue
5
Pages
843-853
ISSN
  • 0019-4662
  • 2631-617X
DOI
10.1177/00194662241238471
Cited by
1
References
0
Language
en
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)

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