Value-added disaggregated social accounting matrix for the Indian economy of the year 2007–2008

Abstract India is pioneer in constructing the social account matrices for its economy for various years, but limited efforts have been made to construct a SAM for India with detailed description about types labour input employed in various economic activities and subsequently the distribution of labour income across various households groups. To bridge this gap, we have constructed a 78-sector SAM for India which takes into account 48 types of labour input for economic activities and 80 types of households classes in India. Integrating the existing input–output database of the year 2007–2008, a 78-sector SAM of the year 2007–2008 and unit-level data published by National Sample Survey Office of India. This SAM differs from the existing 78-sector SAM in terms of its sectoral classification and especially the level of disaggregation of value-added and households account. Further, in this study we have illustrated some applicability of this SAM in analysing income inequality across various social groups of households in India and their contribution to the national income of India. It is observed from this SAM that the rural other social category of households constituted 17% of total population in India and contributed 13% of its net national income, whereas the special social category households of rural areas (SC, ST and OBC) contributed significantly lower in India’s NNP than their share in population. Hence, these categories of households in rural India remain unproductive than the other social category of households. Contrary to this fact, the urban counterparts of these social groups of households are more productive in India. We have also estimated the Gini coefficients corresponding to each social group of households as a measure of level of income inequality. Further, the SAM multiplier model has been applied to observe the impact of agricultural growth on rural income and income equality. The estimated Gini coefficients revealed the facts that the growth in paddy crops will lead to high increase with low income inequality among the SC and ST households, whereas for the OBC and other category households the same phenomena is observed corresponding to livestock sector.