Social Hierarchies and Public Distribution of Food in Rural India

摘要

In this paper, we develop a simple model to show that consumption of PDS food grains is significantly different between rich and poor households in states in which the PDS functions relatively well; in states in which 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.