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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
To Reform And To Procure: An Analysis Of The Role Of The State And The Market In Indian Agriculture, Kartik Misra, Deepankar Basu
To Reform And To Procure: An Analysis Of The Role Of The State And The Market In Indian Agriculture, Kartik Misra, Deepankar Basu
Economics Department Working Paper Series
Since the early 2000s, many Indian states started reforming their agricultural marketing policies and allowed private traders to buy directly from farmers outside the state-regulated market system. The experience of these states during the period 2000 - 2012 can shed light on the impact of market-oriented reforms and the role of public procurement. Using individual-level National Sample Survey Data on agricultural wages and a new dataset on state-level average real farm income per cultivator for 18 major Indian states between 1987 – 2012, this paper shows, using both a difference-in-difference and a triple difference framework, that marketing reforms alone did …
Women’S Workforce Participation And Spousal Violence: Insights From India, Arpita Biswas, Anjana Thampi
Women’S Workforce Participation And Spousal Violence: Insights From India, Arpita Biswas, Anjana Thampi
Economics Department Working Paper Series
Intimate partner violence is a serious form of unfreedom inflicted on women across the world. How does the incidence of such violence vary with women’s workforce participation – a factor that is supposed to enhance their economic well-being? Our study examines this relationship using a nationally representative dataset from India. Given vast heterogeneity among Indian women, we investigate how this link varies by their class and socio-religious identities. Treating women’s employment as endogenous, we find that it is associated with a significantly higher probability of reported spousal violence for women from all wealth quintiles except the topmost and across all …
Revisiting India’S Growth Transitions, Deepankar Basu
Revisiting India’S Growth Transitions, Deepankar Basu
Economics Department Working Paper Series
This paper reconsiders two questions relating to India’s economic growth: structural breaks in growth and the impact of equipment investment on aggregate economic growth. First, statistical tests of structural change show that economic growth in post-independence India has witnessed four structural breaks: in 1964-65, in 1978-79, in 1990-91, and in 2004-05. However, substantial growth accelerations, i.e. increase of more than 1.0% per annum in the growth rate of per capita real GDP, occurred only at two points: 1978-79 and 2004-05. Second, to analyze the impact of equipment investment on growth, I use an ARDL bounds testing methodology. I find a …
Economic Transition, Dualism, And Informality In India, Surbhi Kesar
Economic Transition, Dualism, And Informality In India, Surbhi Kesar
Economics Department Working Paper Series
In much of the literature on economic development, sustained economic growth is expected to be accompanied by several interrelated processes of structure change, which involve a shift in economic activities from ‘traditional’ / agricultural / informal to ‘modern’ / industrial / formal sectors. Such transitions are usually accompanied by a transition in the economic dependence of households towards relatively ‘modern’ and formal segments of the economy, along with a rise in their general economic well-being. In this paper, we examine the Indian economy using the only available household-level pan-India panel data over the high growth period between 2005 and 2011-12, …
An Approach To The Problem Of Employment In India, Deepankar Basu
An Approach To The Problem Of Employment In India, Deepankar Basu
Economics Department Working Paper Series
The challenge of employment in the Indian economy, especially after it growth acceleration since the mid-1980s, relates to its quality rather than its quantity. While employment growth has kept pace with the labour force over the long run, what has grown is informal employment. The coexistence of rapid capital accumulation, robust output growth and lack of growth of formal employment can be understood using the well-known Harris-Todaro model of a dual economy. This framework highlights the key role of the wage gap between the modern and traditional sectors as a determinant of urban informal employment. Hence, one of the most …
Farmer Suicides In India: Levels And Trends Across Major States, 1995-2011, Deepankar Basu, Debarshi Das, Kartik Misra
Farmer Suicides In India: Levels And Trends Across Major States, 1995-2011, Deepankar Basu, Debarshi Das, Kartik Misra
Economics Department Working Paper Series
In the paper, we use data on farmer suicides from the National Crime Records Bureau and population data from the Censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011 to estimate the suicide mortality rate (SMR) of farmers and non-farmers for 19 major states of India and for the country as a whole. We use movements in the SMR ratio ratio of farmer SMR and non-farmer SMR) to understand the level and trend of the problem of farmer suicides across states and over time. For the country as a whole, and for many individual states, the SMR ratio has increased over time. This …
The Effect Of Public Health Expenditure On Infant Mortality: Evidence From A Panel Of Indian States, 1983-84 To 2011-12, Andrew Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, Ceren Soylu
The Effect Of Public Health Expenditure On Infant Mortality: Evidence From A Panel Of Indian States, 1983-84 To 2011-12, Andrew Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, Ceren Soylu
Economics Department Working Paper Series
Using a panel data set of Indian states between 1983-84 and 2011-12, this paper studies the impact of public health expenditure on the infant mortality rate (IMR), after controlling for other relevant covariates like per capita income, female literacy, and urbanization. We find that public expenditure on health care reduces IMR. Our baseline specification shows that an increase in public health expenditure by 1 percent of state-level GDP is associated with a reduction in the IMR by about 8 infant deaths per 1000 live births. We also find that female literacy and urbanization reduces the IMR.
Bjp’S Demographic Dividend In The 2014 General Elections: An Empirical Analysis, Deepankar Basu, Kartik Misra
Bjp’S Demographic Dividend In The 2014 General Elections: An Empirical Analysis, Deepankar Basu, Kartik Misra
Economics Department Working Paper Series
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the 2014 General Elections in India and emerged as a single party with absolute majority, a result not witnessed since 1984. Not only did it win a majority of seats, it also managed to increase its vote share in almost all states between 2009 and 2014. Using state-level data, we show that BJP’s extraordinary poll results relied crucially on attracting young, especially first time, electors.
Social Hierarchies And Public Distribution Of Food In Rural India, Deepankar Basu, Debarshi Das
Social Hierarchies And Public Distribution Of Food In Rural India, Deepankar Basu, Debarshi Das
Economics Department Working Paper Series
In this paper, we develop a simple model that shows that consumption of PDS food grains is significantly different between rich and poor households in states where the PDS functions relatively well; in places where the PDS is non-functional, the difference is not significant. Using household-level data from three recent thick rounds of the consumption expenditure survey (2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2011-2012), we find evidence in support of the predictions from the model. This suggests that one way to make the PDS functional is to make it more accessible to poor and underprivileged households.
The Calorie Consumption Puzzle In India: An Empirical Investigation, Deepanker Basu, Amit Basole
The Calorie Consumption Puzzle In India: An Empirical Investigation, Deepanker Basu, Amit Basole
Economics Department Working Paper Series
Over the past four decades, India has witnessed a paradoxical trend: average per capita calorie intake has declined even as real per capita monthly expenditure has increased over time. Since cross sectional evidence suggests a robust positive relationship between the two variables, the trend emerges as a major puzzle. The main explanations that have been offered in the literature to address the puzzle are: rural impoverishment, relative price changes, decline in calorie needs, diversification of diets, a squeeze on the food budget due to rising expenditures on nonfood essentials, and decline in subsistence consumption (due to commercialization). Using a panel …
Relations Of Production And Modes Of Surplus Extraction In India, Amit Basole, Deepankar Basu
Relations Of Production And Modes Of Surplus Extraction In India, Amit Basole, Deepankar Basu
Economics Department Working Paper Series
This paper uses aggregate-level data, as well as case-studies, to trace out the evolution of some key structural features of the Indian economy, relating both to the agricultural and the informal industrial sector. These aggregate trends are used to infer: (a) the dominant relations of production under which the vast majority of the Indian working people labour, and (b) the predominant ways in which the surplus labour of the direct producers is appropriated by the dominant classes. This summary account is meant to inform and link up with on-going attempts at radically restructuring Indian society.
Relations Of Production And Modes Of Surplus Extraction In India: An Aggregate Study, Amit Basole, Deepankar Basu
Relations Of Production And Modes Of Surplus Extraction In India: An Aggregate Study, Amit Basole, Deepankar Basu
Economics Department Working Paper Series
This paper uses aggregate-level data, as well as case-studies, to trace the evolution of some key structural features of the Indian economy, relating both to the agricultural and the informal industrial sector. These aggregate trends are used to infer: (a) the dominant relations of production under which the vast majority of the Indian working people labour, and (b) the predominant ways in which the surplus labour of the direct producers is appropriated by the dominant classes. This summary account is meant to inform and link up with on-going attempts at radically restructuring Indian society.