Trends and Patterns in Consumption Expenditure: A Review of Class and Rural-Urban Disparities

This paper primarily aims to capture the changing patterns of consumption expenditure of three broad classes, namely, the ‘upper’ ‘middle’ and ‘bottom’ classes in the rural and urban India. In contrast to what is generally held that differences in consumption of necessaries across classes decline more the economy grows, this paper argues that there had been hardly any sign of convergence. Furthermore, in the cases of most of the food and non‐food items, especially, education and medical services the consumption expenditure in real terms is showing trends of a widening gap between the upper and the bottom classes.