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Conference Paper
Strategies for growth : general discussion
Working Paper
A tale of two states: Maharashtra and West Bengal
In this paper the authors study the economic evolution between 1960 and 1995 of two states in India ? Maharashtra and West Bengal. In 1960, West Bengal?s per capita income exceeded that of Maharashtra. By 1995, it had fallen to just 69 percent of Maharashtra?s per capita income. The authors employ a "wedge" methodology based on the first order conditions of a multi-sector neoclassical growth model to ascertain the sources of the divergent economic performances. Their diagnostic analysis reveals that a large part of West Bengal?s development woes can be attributed to: (a) low sectoral ...
Journal Article
Asian nations driving world oil prices
The rapid growth in China and India has led to an increase in demand for oil, which, in turn, has driven up prices. After adjusting for inflation, a barrel of oil today costs about what it did during the 1979 oil shock.
Report
Patterns of rainfall insurance participation in rural India
This paper describes the contract design and institutional features of an innovative rainfall insurance policy offered to smallholder farmers in rural India and presents preliminary evidence on the determinants of insurance participation. Insurance take-up is found to be decreasing in basis risk between insurance payouts and income fluctuations, higher among wealthy households, and lower among households that are credit constrained. These results match predictions of a simple neoclassical model appended with borrowing constraints. Other patterns are less consistent with the benchmark model. ...
Report
Trading activity in the Indian government bond market
We study how the Indian government bond market functions, how it has changed over time, and what factors help explain some of its features. Looking at the primary market, we describe how underwriting obligations are allocated to primary dealers via auction and identify several significant determinants of the underwriting commission cutoff rate, including the launch of the Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching System (NDS-OM) electronic trading platform. Turning to the secondary market, we explore the importance of benchmark bonds, the launch of NDS-OM, the growth in trading activity, and ...
Report
Barriers to household risk management: evidence from India
Financial engineering offers the potential to significantly reduce the consumption fluctuations faced by individuals, households, and firms. Yet much of this potential remains unfulfilled. This paper studies the adoption of an innovative rainfall insurance product designed to compensate low-income Indian farmers in the event of insufficient rainfall during the primary monsoon season. We first document relatively low adoption of this new risk management product: Only 5-10 percent of households purchase the insurance, even though they overwhelmingly cite rainfall variability as their most ...
Working Paper
A Passage to India : Quantifying Internal and External Barriers to Trade
This paper quantifies the size of internal versus external trade barriers and assesses the impact on trade and welfare. I develop a quantitative multi-sector international trade model featuring nonhomothetic preferences in which states trade both domestically and internationally. I discipline the model using rich micro data on price dispersion as well as foreign and domestic trade flows at the Indian state level. I find that (1) state-based price data predict internal trade flows well; (2) internal trade barriers make up 40% of the total trade cost on average, but vary substantially by state ...
Conference Paper
The new global economic geography
Report
A tale of two giants: comparing China and India
Accounting for 40 percent of the world?s population and almost 20 percent of the world?s output, China and India are two of Asia?s?indeed, the world?s?economic giants. In addition to their size, these countries have other traits in common. Both are among the fastest-growing economies in the world, and both are transitioning from heavily state-controlled and regulated economies to more market-based economic systems.