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.

Home Market and the Artisans in Colonial India: A Study of Brass-ware

Abstract: Studies on Indian artisans in the recent times have tended to be guided by the notion of a world market which, it is believed, drove them towards obsolescence through changing tastes or productivity. This framework, however, is not without problems. First, the presence of older industries in modern India, or their long continuance, tends to be seen in terms of ‘survivals’ or ‘revivals’, which terms deny them any inherent dynamics. On the other hand, the impression that many of them ‘survive’ today in strikingly modernized forms, utilizing production and marketing institutions vastly different from those that prevailed a hundred years ago, would demand of historians an account of how old industries evolve, and become integrated into the rest of the economy. Secondly, the crux of the world market story is the economy's opening up to trade. That foreign trade had a critical impact on crafts such as textiles, partially decimated by imports, or leather, where trade commercialized an erstwhile custom-bound exchange, is indisputable. But there are other notable examples where the effect of trade was benign, minor, or indirect, where artisans remained producers of a mass consumable; and where neither did they face significant competition from imported goods, nor were reduced to fodder for metropolitan industrialization. Yet they changed profoundly. In a way, their history reflects not the play of a dominant exogenous process, but the totality of the economy's structural change. Crafts history does not yet provide us with prototypes of this endogenous transformation.

Crowding-out effect of tobacco expenditure and its implications on intra-household resource allocation

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine if tobacco consumption crowds-out consumption of basic needs and whether it has implications for nutrition intake and intra-household resource allocation in developing countries. In the process we also examine whether preference over other commodities for tobacco users and non users vary significantly. Using a nationally representative household sample survey from India for the year 1999-2000, we analyze the pattern of spending on various groups of commodities by the status of tobacco consumption of households. Average per capita per diem intake of nutrients such as calorie, fat and protein were reported to be lower among the high tobacco spending group of households vis-`a-vis the no-spending category. A system of quadratic conditional Engel curves was estimated for a set of ten broad groups of commodities. Separability between tobacco and most other goods was rejected. The results suggest that tobacco consuming households had lower consumption of certain commodities such as milk, clean fuels and entertainment which has direct bearing on mostly children and female members in the household suggesting possible gender effects and biases in intra-household resource allocation. Tobacco spending also found to have negative effects on household nutrition intake.

The choice of organizational form in strategic contexts

Abstract: This paper analyses the choice of organizational forms in strategic contexts. A simple duopoly model is considered where a capitalistic firm interacts with a firm in which decisions are reached via bargaining between workers and owner-managers. It is shown that various factors like the bargaining power of workers, their attitudes towards risk, the sequence of moves etc. can influence the choice of organizational form.

Inflation in India: An Analysis Using Post-Liberalisation Data

Abstract: Using the post liberalization data on monetary aggregates and nominal effective exchange rates this paper tries to see if there still exists causality between these variables. With an unrestricted Vector Auto Regression framework we check for the granger causality existing among these variables. An attempt is also made to see which one of the three monetary aggregate, among reserve money, narrow money and broad money, explain the inflation in a better way. The granger causality tests and the analysis of unrestricted VAR models suggests strong linkage between both growth in all the three monetary aggregates and changes in nominal exchange rate on inflation in India. Even though no clear evidence is found as to which of the monetary aggregates best explains inflation, from the VAR model there is sufficient reason to believe that the broad money measure (M3) is better. It has also been observed that the explanatory power of these variables in explaining inflation is not high any more.

Linkages between poverty, food security and undernutrition: evidence from China and India

Abstract: Purpose – China and India are two of the fastest growing economies in the world, and poverty reduction has been substantial in both countries through the past few decades. Yet they have very different profiles in terms of food security and undernutrition – while at the micro-level China has performed well in terms of undernutrition, India has not. The purpose of this paper is to examine linkages between poverty, food security, and undernutrition in both countries. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors discuss the linkages between poverty, food security, and undernutrition at the micro level, describe the literature, and make inferences for targeting the remaining poor, food insecure, or undernourished in both countries. Findings – In China, there is a need for better tools for targeting the poor or malnourished. In India, more effective state-level policies should be better understood by the central government and disseminated to less successful states. Originality/value – In this paper...