Changes in the household expenditure basket in India during Covid-19
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8238353 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pallavi Choudhuri, Desai (0000-0003-3562-8853), Sonalde Desai |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Pages | 405-440 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Demographic Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1435-9871 • E-ISSN: 2363-7064 |
| Publisher | Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.4054/demres.2026.54.13 |
| OpenAlex | W7133521332 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 42 |
BACKGROUNDThe COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across countries, causing an unprecedented healthcare crisis and supply chain disruptions.Our paper focuses on how households coped and the role of expanded Indian government food subsidies in mitigating food insecurity. OBJECTIVEWe use panel data from two rounds of household surveys (2019 and 2021) to examine changes in per capita household expenditure and how these differed across occupation and income groups.We also discuss the role of in-kind assistance, extended during the pandemic, in smoothing food consumption. METHODSWe use fixed effects panel regression to estimate changes in per capita expenditure on various items in the household budget before and after the onset of the pandemic.We also estimate shifts in the composition of the household food basket between the two time periods. RESULTSIn the survey area, both per capita incomes and per capita household expenditure decreased, but the expenditure decrease was largely concentrated in discretionary items, leaving food consumption unchanged.The government policy of distributing practically free cereals, combined with household emphasis on protecting food expenditure, helped avert a substantial decline in food consumption and even led to a slight increase in dietary diversity
Consumption (sociology · Household income · Population · Work (physics · Agricultural risk and resilience · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Social and Economic Development in India
Falling living standards during the Covid-19 crisis
Transfers in Cash and In-Kind
Saving and Liquidity Constraints
Risk and Insurance in a Rural Credit Market
Risk and Insurance in Village India
Income Risk, Coping Strategies, and Safety Nets
Quadratic Engel Curves and Consumer Demand
Covid-19 and women's nutrition security
Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty
Cash vs. in-kind transfers
Covid-19 and food security
Recent Social Security Initiatives in India
How do Households Cope with Aggregate Shocks? Evidence from the Mexican Peso Crisis
Household response to an extreme shock
Pandemic, informality, and vulnerability
Wild foods and household food security responses to Aids
It is Hard to Swim Upstream
A Simple Test of Consumption Insurance
Nutritional Status During an Economic Crisis
The Consumer Response to the Mexican Peso Crisis
Socioeconomic impacts of Covid-19 in low-income countries
Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing
The Covid-19 pandemic's unequal socioeconomic impacts on minority groups in the United States
The weight of school entry
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |