This paper evaluates the impact of a policy that was implemented to reduce the energy intensity of firms in some manufacturing sectors in India, on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of firms and on its components, scale efficiency and technical change. Using plant-level panel data on...

The Companies Act went into effect in India on April 1, 2014 making it the first law in the world to mandate that companies spend 2% of their profits on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. We use panel data for 39,736 firms with a difference-in-difference model to estimate the...

India adopted a Cap and Trade in energy intensity via a scheme called Perform-Achieve-Trade (PAT) with the objective to improve energy efficiency of the high energy intensive industries through target setting and tradable energy saving certificates. The scheme was announced in 2007 and the first...

India's contribution to global CO2 emissions makes it a priority case for policy makers worldwide. The Indian government is considering the adoption of energy labels for new passenger cars to tackle CO2 emissions. This paper's first aim is to asses New Delhi's car buyers' preferences for cars...

Over the past three decades, the world has witnessed economic growth accompanied by widening of income inequalities. In the face of rising income inequalities, it becomes imperative to ask what happens to the quality of various products provided in the market when economies experience economic...

Recent studies have analyzed the adoption of Bt cotton in the light of government seed price interventions. According to one view, reduction in seed prices enabled the farmers to buy seeds at lower prices and this resulted in the sudden surge in area under Bt cotton. The other view holds that...

The Indian government is considering the adoption of fuel efficiency labels for cars. By means of a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE), this paper assesses New Delhi's car buyers' preferences for such a label. Random parameters specifications yield a willingness to pay (WTP) of 4.93 thousand US...

This paper examines the validity of the Porter hypothesis in the presence of environmentally conscious consumers and asymmetry of information between the regulator and the polluting agent. There are two implications of the Porter hypothesis. One, a policy based on "best available technology"...