The Department of Economics, SRM University–AP, invites faculty members, researchers, scholars, and students to the November edition of the SRMAP Economics Virtual Seminar Series.
The session will feature Dr Aditi Singh, Assistant Professor, Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL). The seminar will explore the identification of hand-to-mouth households in India, with a focus on understanding household financial circumstances, consumption behaviour, and access to liquid financial resources.
The discussion will offer valuable insights into household financial vulnerability and the economic factors that influence financial decision-making and consumption patterns.
Speaker: Dr Aditi Singh, Assistant Professor, Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL)
Title: When is Wealth Liquid? Gold and Household Financial Constraints in India
Date: November 18, 2026
Time: 3:45 PM – 5:00 PM
Mode: Online via Zoom
Abstract: Households can own substantial wealth and still lack the liquidity required to sustain spending when income falls. We construct a joint household income and balance-sheet dataset for India by combining the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey with the All-India Debt and Investment Survey. We harmonize their common information and use machine learning to predict the missing assets and liabilities in the income and consumption panel. We then measure financial constraints and compare consumption responses to income shocks. Under the benchmark definition, 6% of CPHS households are poor hand-to-mouth and 40.7% are wealthy hand-to-mouth. Gold changes this classification. Counting it as illiquid wealth shifts households from the poor to the wealthy group; allowing for its potential collateral value further distinguishes households within that group. We apply the Blundell-Pistaferri-Preston method to annual income and consumption. We find that households that own sufficient gold to use as collateral pass through only 18.7% of transitory shocks, compared to 22% for households that own little to no gold. The joint dataset thus connects the composition of wealth to financial constraints and consumption adjustment. It also illustrates how other countries can combine existing surveys to study household finance when no single source records all the required information.
The seminar will provide a platform for participants to engage with contemporary research in household finance and deepen their understanding of financial behaviour in the Indian context.