This paper describes the structure and the distribution of health care financing in 13 territories that account for 55% of the Asian population. Survey data on household payments are combined with Health Accounts data on aggregate expenditures by source to estimate distributions of total health...

The increase in direct taxes has not been able to offset the decline that resulted from the reduction in customs tariff and decline in excise revenue. The task facing the policymakers now is to explore ways in which the tax ratio can be pushed up without going back on the basic elements of the...

The bulk of the resources must go to the UPA Government’s eight flagship programmes: Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, Total Sanitation Campaign, National Rural Health Mission, Integrated Child Development Services, National Rural Employment...

The challenge to the tax system to expand both the revenue base and progressively bring into the net larger number of taxpayers remains as daunting as ever. The object is not to ignore the generally beneficial impact of deregulation and tax friendly measures in providing a more conducive...

BUDGET SPEECH 2011-2012 by DR. ABDUL HAFEEZ SHAIKH, Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning & Development.

Evidence abounds that individuals have preferences for being fairly treated and treating others fairly. These preferences do not affect economic outcomes in competitive markets with standardized products. They do affect economic outcomes in a wide variety of other settings where information is...

This note seeks to show that the debate on ‘Pro-Poor Growth’ is sterile and largely academic with few policy insights.

This paper examines the trends and differentials in school educational attainment in Kerala, the State that ranks right on top in terms of human development in India. The trend analysis is based on a cohort-level comparison of educational attainment while the differential analysis is done using...