Public sector provision allows redistribution of essential goods and services but may also create adverse impact on private-sector providers. How do private firms respond to the entry of a public rm? Answering this question can help design policies to balance redistribution against private...

We study the equilibrium effects of competitive bundling on market outcomes and social welfare in the context of the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Fixed-dose combinations (FDCs), which bundle two or more drugs in a single pill, account for over 50% of pharmaceutical revenue in India. Using an...

In 1994, due to environmental concerns, Germany banned a chemical called ‘Azodyes’, a primary input for the leather and textiles firms in India (a key exporter). Exploiting this as a quasi-natural experiment, we examine the effects of this crossborder regulatory change on labor compensation,...

This paper studies the unintended welfare consequences of industrial policies designed to encourage domestic production in the context of developing countries. We explore the case of the Indian mobile handset industry, where the Indian government proposed new tariffs on imported ready-to-use...

In this paper, we explore the little studied role of gender-based tastes and preferences in the empirical relationship between income and demand for health care. Based on a large body of evidence which suggests that the gender identity of the recipient of money can significantly influence...

We use U.S. county-level data to estimate convergence rates for 22 individual states. We find significant heterogeneity. E.g., the California estimate is 19.9 percent and the New York estimate is 3.3 percent. Convergence rates are essentially uncorrelated with income levels.

We use US county level data (3,058 observations) from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and the extent of government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. We find that increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively...