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.

Small is Efficient: A Frontier Approach to Cost Inefficiencies in Indian State Road Transport Sector

Abstract: The Indian bus transport industry is dominated by the publicly owned State Road Transport Undertakings (STUs). Over the years, most of the STUs have accumulated deficits and have not been able to meet the increasing transport needs of the public. The state governments control the STUs' fares and, to a large extent, the most relevant aspects of their supply. Overall, the STUs have relatively few incentives to run their business efficiently. This paper attempts to measure cost-inefficiency of nine major STUs for the period 1983-1984 to 1996-1997, in a manner that allows the inefficiency to vary both across time as well as across STUs. The authors find that given the size distribution of the STUs and relevant measures of their working conditions, the potential for reduction in cost inefficiency is very high. Further, there is evidence of wide disparity among STUs' inefficiency levels. On average, smaller STUs appear to be more efficient than their larger counterparts. Mostly, there has been stability in the cost-inefficiency ranks across STUs. The average cost curve is U-shaped, i.e., economies of scale are present up to a certain level of production and then diseconomies of scale set in. A policy that aims to change the size distribution of the STUs will help in increasing the efficiency of the Indian bus transport industry.

Analysing catastrophic OOP health expenditure in India: Concepts, determinants and policy implications

Abstract: The present paper attempts to modify definition of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure by characterising it based on consumption of necessities. In literature, catastrophic expenditure is defined as that level of OOP health expenditure which exceeds some fixed proportion of household income or households capacity to pay. In the present paper, catastrophic health expenditure is defined as one which reduces the non-health expenditure to a level where household is unable to maintain consumption of necessities. Based on this definition of catastrophic health expenditure, the paper examines determinants of catastrophic OOP health expenditure in India. Findings suggest that it is important to carefully revise the concept of catastrophic health care spending and the method developed in this paper can be considered as one of the possible alternatives. We find that education is one of the important policy instruments that can be used to reduce incidence of catastrophic spending in India. The findings also suggest that even after efforts to reduce differences among various social classes in India, socially deprived classes are still vulnerable as they are more likely to experience financial catastrophe due to illness.

MGNREGA Works and Their Impacts A Study of Maharashtra

Abstract: MGNREGA works support agriculture, and benefit a large number of small and marginal farmers. An overwhelming 90% of the respondents considered the works very useful or somewhat useful, while only 8% felt they were useless. Further, most works continue to be maintained and are in a good condition. Overall, this study suggests that the widespread perception that the

Price discovery across multiple spot and futures markets

Abstract: India is the leading producer and exporter of castorseed in the world. Spot and futures markets for castorseed are found in Ahmedabad, the capital of the state of Gujarat, and in Bombay, which is a port and the commercial capital of the country. A large fraction of India’s castorseed production is in Gujarat. Upto 1998, most of the export took place from the port of Bombay. As a consequence, the large trading houses are located in Bombay.