Studies have found a plutocratic bias in the traditional Laspeyres‐type consumer price index (CPI), attaching greater importance to expenditure by rich households compared to the poor, while the democratic CPI attaches equal weight to all. The authors calculate the democratic index and estimate the plutocratic bias for the new Indian CPI (launched in 2012), the rural and urban CPIs, and the CPIs of three Indian states from 2012 to 2015. They further develop democratic indices for commodity groups and separate indices for three expenditure brackets. The biases found against less developed states and the poorer sections of the population have important implications for monetary policy and indexation of transfer payments.
Résumé
Des études montrent que les indices des prix à la consommation (IPC) de type Laspeyres, plutôt calqués sur la structure des dépenses des ménages aisés, souffrent d'un biais ploutocratique. Les auteurs recherchent ce biais en Inde de 2012 à 2015, en construisant un indice démocratique qui met tous les ménages sur un pied d'égalité. Ils analysent la situation pour plusieurs sous‐indices (rural, urbain, régionaux), différentes fonctions de consommation et trois tranches de dépenses. Ils soulignent que le biais mis en évidence, qui pénalise les ménages et régions les plus pauvres, a des répercussions potentielles sur la politique monétaire et l'indexation des paiements de transfert.
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