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.

Psychology, cyclicality or social programs: Rural wage and inflation dynamics in India

Abstract: The paper analyzes causes of movements in Indian wages for rural unskilled male laborers, and assesses their impact on inflation. Theoretical priors derived from an analytical framework based on the concepts of fair wages, salience and over-reaction are tested using a State level rural wage data panel. [IGIDR WP-2014-014].

Heterogeneity in Farmers’ Social Preferences and the Design of Green Payment Schemes

Abstract: We examine how social preferences affect the workings of voluntary green payment schemes and show that a regulator could use facilitation services along with a social reward to generate better ecological outcome at less cost by exploiting a farmer’s social preferences to gain a green social-image/reputation. To motivate our model, we first present the results of an incentivized elicitation survey in Scotland which shows that there is a social norm of biodiversity protection on private land among farmers. Moreover, the results of a discrete choice experiment reveal that farmers are willing to give up economic rents for more publicity of their conservation activities; this confirms the relevance of reputational gain in the context of green payment schemes. Our model assumes two types of farmers, green and brown, with a green farmer taking more biodiversity protection actions than a brown farmer. We design a menu of contracts that offers both monetary incentives and non-monetary incentives (a facilitation service with social reward) to induce both type of farmers to join the scheme and to exert first-best levels (i.e., symmetric information levels) of action. Results show that under asymmetric information the regulator can implement the symmetric information equilibrium levels of biodiversity protection actions with only non-monetary incentives for the green farmer and only monetary incentives for the brown farmer. This implies that a regulator can ensure better environmental outcomes, at a lower cost, by exploiting farmers’ social preferences and by offering non-monetary incentives.

A multilevel analysis of drought risk in Indian agriculture: implications for managing risk at different geographical levels

Abstract: Drought is an important downside risk in Indian agriculture; and the spatial differences in its intensity and probability of occurrence are considerable. To develop strategies to manage the risk of drought, and to coordinate and implement these strategies, it is essential to understand the variation in drought risk across geographical or administrative levels. This paper, using a multilevel modeling approach, decomposes the variation in drought risk across states, regions, districts, villages and households, and finds it disproportionately distributed. About half the variation is attributed to between-individual (i.e., household) differences and the rest to between-population differences, mainly to states and villages. These findings suggest the potential for a critical role of states (policies) and local institutions (communities) in enhancing resilience of agriculture to droughts through the correct targeting of policies and support for the most appropriate geographic level.

An exploratory analysis of messages on a prominent LIS electronic discussion list from India

Abstract: The study analyses some of the aspects of e-mail postings such as number of posts, contributors and the topics of discussion on India’s leading e-mail discussion list, LIS-Forum between 2006 and 2011. It has been found from the study that during the period of study on an average; about 1600 postings per year, are being circulated on the LIS-Forum, out of which ‘announcements’ are forming the major posting. It shows, even in an era of several powerful social media and Web 2.0 tools, the e-mail based discussion list which is the earliest kind of social medium, continues to retain its relevance and popularity and it is evident from its usage by professionals in India to form their virtual network. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology , 2014, 34(1), pp. 23-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.34.5942