DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF INFLATION 73 Engel curves for 10 commodity groups by using weighted least squares, weights being the number of persons in each expenditure class and the estimates are presented in Table A-l. Separate groups of price indices corresponding to the Engel curves for rural and urban areas have been computed by using the weights based on their corresponding mean level itemwise expenditures. Using group price ratios and the estimated Engel curve parameters in equation (3) A and B of (4) are computed (See table A-2). Ideally, we should have taken further disaggregated level of Engel curves and price ratios instead of the ten group levels. But for practical reasons, it was decided to deal with broad groups. There are also a couple of reasons for dealing with broad groups. First, the linear Engel curves will not be suitable at a disaggregate level. Second, the weights will be affected by changing price structure, and more so at a disaggregate level because of substitution effect. The weights are likely to be more stable at a broad group level. Nevertheless some checks at further disaggregate level for a few groups, particularly cereals, indicate that the estimates obtained at the aggregate level are very close to those built from disaggregate level. All the Year A TABLE A 2Rural B A Urban B 1952-53 0.00 100.0 0.00 100.00 1953-54 -7.50 101.75 7.13 102.34 1954-55 -64.62 97.46 -79.40 99.47 1955-56 -58.65 92.92 -88.69 97.39 1956-57 - 6.12 102.60 5.16 102.62 1957-58 1.25 105.84 28.48 104.99 1958-59 12.65 109.50 44.75 109.09 1959-60 -11.88 114.63 5.91 115.15 1960-61 -17.62 121.28 18.43 116.26 1961-62 -33.05 119.71 -15.67 121.25 1962-63 -41.73 124.75 29.53 127.22 1963-64 -28.39 140.94 3.80 135.21 1964-65 99.07 146.30 207.93 143.38 1965-66 69.67 150.66 270.80 147.71 1966-67 267.37 172.41 392.72 169.95 1967-68 388.52 193.23 660.78 181.85 1968-69 272.92 190.10 473.37 183.12 1969-70 291.53 198.14 402.06 197.60 1970-71 207.31 215.05 345.71 217.50 1971-72 87.80 225.61 256.82 224.91 1972-73 259.76 245.45 548.91 237.49 1973-74 338.68 289.04 781.59 281.10