The structural transformation of the Indian economy from agriculture (primary sector) dominated to one led by the services sector (tertiary sector), bypassing the intermediate stage of manufacturing (secondary sector) led growth, offers an alternative to conventional theories of economic...

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2012 the 'International Year of Sustainable Energy for All', officially recognizing the urgent need to put energy at the centre of the global development agenda. In parallel, a strong international policy effort is being made to achieve the goal of...

With the burst of housing bubble in the United States in 2007-2008, the entire global financial system faced unprecedented issues with regards to its stability. Collapse of major financial institutions in United States and Europe elevated the sense of financial meltdown, following which a...

Beginning in the 1980s, India has experienced an acceleration of economic growth by way of a promotion of a more efficient pro business and market oriented model. Following the rapid growth of the 1980s, the 1990s brought continued deregulation through market liberalization policies and...

Public expenditure is a catalyst of economic growth, especially in a federal economy like India. When the magnitude and growth of GDP, Exports and Imports define the strength of a fast growing economy, the role of public expenditure in influencing them emerges as a vital area of research. Given...

Cash transfer programs are widely used in settings where child labour is prevalent. Even if many of these programs are explicitly implemented to improve children's welfare, in theory their impact on child labour is undetermined. This paper systematically reviews the empirical evidence on the...

How does social status affect contributions to local public goods? Based on an original survey experiment and qualitative research in slums in Delhi, we examine how persecuted minorities respond to social accountability aimed at promoting cooperation around community sanitation. While mainstream...

We begin with a historical perspective on the status of women in India and consider ways of improving it. Since the ratio of male to female births in India exceeds 0.5 some groups have successfully persuaded the Indian government to ban the use of sonograms to determine the sex of the fetus,...

We estimate the effect of large dams on malaria incidence in India between 1975 and 1995. We combine instrumental variables approach with a panel model with unobserved common factors allowing us to fully capture the endogeneity of dam location and unobserved time-varying heterogeneity. Dams...

We examine the labour market impacts of the largest livelihoods programs in the world, India's Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). A key aspect of this program is to mobilize rural women into self-help groups (SHGs). We combine administrative data on SHG...