Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

About: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research is a facility organization based out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Monetary policy & Inflation. The organization has 307 authors who have published 1021 publications receiving 18848 citations.

Is Price Transmission in the Indian Pulses Market Asymmetric

Abstract: Pulses form an integral part of the Indian diet. In the recent past, the domestic wholesale-retail price differential has risen rapidly. The retail prices continued to increase without responding to any changes at the wholesale level. The government enquiry into the same suspected collusive behaviour amongst the major traders. This article attempts to test for asymmetric wholesale to retail price transmission in India using the threshold autoregression and momentum threshold autoregression models for four commonly consumed pulses: arhar, moong, masur and urad. We find that the asymmetric price transmission does characterize the market for pulses. The wholesale and retail prices behave independent of each other in the short-run. The results support the hypothesis of imperfect agricultural markets which lends credence to the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

The Political Economy of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Spending in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract: While government spending on pro-poor community asset creation and income-transfers could have compounding positive effects on poverty reduction, it is important to first study trends in the allocation of funds, particularly as they relate to the susceptibility of the program to political clientelism. This paper uses expenditure data at the local level in Andhra Pradesh from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a rights-based program distributing both public and private goods, to investigate the relationship between voting outcomes and program intensity in the seven years straddling a major election. By focusing on one state where accountability and transparency mechanisms have been employed and implementation efforts have been applauded, the authors do not find evidence of blatant vote buying before the 2009 election but do find that patronage played a small part in fund distribution after the 2009 election. Indeed most variation in expenditures is explained by the observed needs of potential beneficiaries, as the scheme intended.

Geographic Neighbourhood and Cluster Formation: Evidence from Indian Agriculture

Abstract: We study an empirical occurrence largely overlooked in studies on income clusters: (i) most clusters include geographic neighbours and non-neighbours; and (ii) not all geographic neighbours are cluster-co-members. Using agricultural income across Indian states, we find a similar pattern in income-clusters over the last 45 years. Logistic regressions that consider state-pairs as the unit of analysis show that cluster membership is not driven by geographic variables but rather by non-geographic factors like weather shock, resource constraints, technology/input usage, extent of crop diversification, infrastructure, policy and institutions

Impacts of oil price shock on carbon emissions in India: An econometric analysis

Abstract: Oil price shock has two interrelated impacts, GDP growth rate impact and energy impact, that induce a change in carbon emission level. This article seeks to find out, in the Indian context, whether the past oil shocks of the 1970s had any significant effect on carbon emission growth rate and then to simulate the impact on future GDP growth rate and carbon emissions if an oil price shock were to recur. Statistical diagnosis of the series confirms a structural break in the carbon emissions growth rate in 1975 following the 1973 oil shock. A Bayesian vector autoregressive model is developed with four variables: CO2 emission level, GDP, population, and oil price for the period 1970-1988. The carbon emissions and GDP for the period 1989-1995 are projected, given various simulated oil price scenarios. The oil price shock gives rise to a persistently high carbon emissions level with a time lag and an immediate negative impact on GDP that decreases within a short period.

Group Differential for Attainment and Failure Indicators

Abstract: The study revisits the properties of group differential (GD) measures and extends it to include monotonicity and policy sensitivity axioms. Imposing level sensitivity, which indicates that a given gap is worse off at higher (lower) level of attainment (failure), the study concurs that ‘simple difference’ and ‘simple ratio’ are the most basic GD measures for attainment and failure indicators, respectively. It proposes two new measures, one each for attainment and failure, which have certain advantages from a policy implication perspective. An empirical illustration has been provided by taking two indicators from Millennium Development Goals for different regions of the world. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.