Jean Drèze

School Participation in Rural India

This paper presents an analysis of the determinant of school participation in rural north India, based on a recent household survey which includes detailed information on school characteristics. School participation especially among girls, responds to a wide range of variables, including parental education and motivation, social background, dependency ratios, work opportunities, village development, teacher posting , teacher regularity and mid-day meals. The remarkable lead achieved by the state of Himachal Pradesh is fully accounted for by these variables. School quality matters, but it is not related in a simply way to specific inputs.

Widowhood and poverty in rural India: Some inferences from household survey data

This paper examines the relationship between widowhood and poverty in rural India, based on National Sample Survey data on consumer expenditure. In terms of standard poverty indices based on household per-capita expenditure, there is no evidence of widows being disproportionately concentrated in poor households, or of female-headed households being poorer than male-headed households. These findings also apply in terms of adult-equivalent consumption, for any reasonable choice of equivalence scales. Poverty indices for different household types, however, are quite sensitive to the level of economies of scale in household consumption. Even relatively small economies of scale imply that the incidence of poverty among single widows, living with unmarried children, and female household heads (all of whom tend to live in relatively small households) is higher than in the population as a whole.

Democratic Practice and Social Inequality in India

This paper examines the role of democratic practice in contemporary India, going beyond the elementary concern with democratic institutions per se. The foundations of democratic practice are identified as facility (functional democratic institutions), involvement (informed public engagement with these institutions), and equity (a fair distribution of power). The achievements and limitations of Indian democracy are assessed in this light, with special attention to the adverse effects of social inequality on democratic practice. It is argued that while the quality of democracy is often compromised by social inequality and inadequate political participation, democratic practice itself is a powerful tool of elimination of these handicaps.

Sharecropping in a North Indian Village

This article presents a case study of sharecropping in a north Indian village. Drawing on a detailed survey of tenancy relations in the village, it examines a number of issues that have received prominent attention in the literature, including the motives for tenancy, the choice of tenancy contract, the rationale for equal shares, the relationship between tenant and landlord, the efficiency of sharecropping, and interlinkage. The wider implications of this case study are also discussed.

Commodity Taxation and Social Welfare: The Generalized Ramsey Rule

Commodity taxes have three distinct roles: (1) revenue collection, (2) interpersonal redistribution, and (3) resource allocation. The paper presents an integrated treatment of these three concerns in a second-best general equilibrium framework, which leads to the “generalized Ramsey rule” for optimum taxation. We show how many standard results on optimum taxation and tax reform have a straightforward counterpart in this general framework. Using this framework, we also try to clarify the notion of “deadweight loss,” as well as the relation between alternative distributional assumptions and the structure of optimum taxes.

Daily wages and piece rates in agrarian economies

The paper presents an analysis of the coexistence of daily-wage and piece-rate contracts in agrarian economies. We show that, when individual effort is taken into account, daily-wage labourers typically form a convex set in the space of working ability. The most able and the least able labourers work on piece rates, as they can thus choose their own level of effort. We also prove that, on a monopsonistic labour market, the use of both contracts in equilibrium results from the profitability of market segmentation. Imperfect substitutability between workers under different contracts and the downwards rigidity of daily wages can also explain the coexistence of the two types of contracts in more general settings, e.g. perfect competition

Economic Development, Public Action and Social Progress

ABSTRACT This address discusses the role of public action as a tool of economic development and social progress. The influential role of public action is illustrated with reference to health and education achievements in India and China. In both fields, China has a considerable lead over India, achieved during the pre-reform period on the basis of extensive state involvement in the widespread and equitable provision of public services. The post-reform period in China has seen some consolidation of earlier gains, based on a rapid expansion of private incomes, but strains have also developed in the provision of public services, particularly in poor rural areas. The Chinese experience also illustrates the fragility of social progress based on authoritarian governance.

Book Reviews : P.K. BARDHAN ed., Conversations Between Economists and Anthropo logists : Methodological Issues in Measuring Economic Change in Rural India, Delhi, OUP, 1989

labourers. Also, the reader is not quite sure of the position Dr. Bandopadhyay would take on the celebrated debate on agricultural labourers in Madras Presidency initiated by Prof. Dharma Kumar. Besides, a crucial missing link is the absence of a discussion on the credit markets. The above, however, does not detract from the richness of empirical details and the solid contribution the author makes towards a better understand-

Hunger and Public Action.

This study was well-received and widely discussed when it appeared in hardback in 1990. It is devoted to analysis of the enduring problem of hunger in the modern world, and of the role that public action can play in countering it. The book is divided into four parts. The first attempts to provide a coherent perspective on the complex nutritional, economic, social and political issues involved in the causation of hunger and deprivation. The second deals with famine prevention, paying special attention to Africa and India. The third focuses on chronic undernourishment and related deprivations. Parts two and three include a number of case studies of successful public action for the prevention of hunger and famines in various parts of the world. The fourth part of the book draws together the main themes and concerns of the earlier chapters, and provides an integrated view of the role of public action in eliminating hunger.