Topics in Applied Economics: Tools, Issues and Institutions

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Prof. Sankar is one of the most versatile applied economists in India. He can delve into Bayesian methods of estimating production functions and tackling errors in the variables. He can painstakingly build an input-output transactions product monopolies and can carry out an expected utility analysis to understand agricultural decision-making under uncertainty. He can design economic instruments for pollution abatement and carry out a techno-economic analysis of the Indian Space programme. His research in all these areas has been a most fruitful blend of methodological and applied work, a great achievement that has been widely recognized and appreciated both by academicians and by policy makers. This volume is a collection of contributions made by some of is long-term associates, meant as a token of appreciation for his invaluable contributions. The papers here, many of them by internationally recognized academicians, either suggest refinements and expansions to the existing tool kit for economic analysis, or suggest improved methods to conceptualise issues or analyse the economic implications of delivery mechanisms and the institutions in which they are imbedded. Most economic data contain measurement errors and how can we tackle them? How can a physician choose the optimal dose of insulin since the costs of a dosage that is too low are very different from the costs of a dosage that is too high? Do we have an understanding of the factors that are responsible for the differential growth performances of different economies? In analyzing the agricultural growth would we not be better off in viewing it as a biochemical process than as a primary factors centred process? Can the muddled reform process in the Indian power sector be reformed? How do we measure the environmental price paid for a rapid increase in agricultural production? Is there an economic rationale to value community labour spent on common property resources? How do we translate a relative view of absolute poverty into working tools to enable measurement and policy intervention? These are a sampling of the kind of issues dealt with. This volume would be a valuable reference for students, academicians and policy makers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR G. Mythili

G. Mythili is Associate Professor at the Madras School of Economics, Chennai. Currently she is visiting Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research at Mumbai. Having obtained Ph.D. in Econometrics discipline, she visited University of California at Berkeley during 1990-91 as a Ford Foundation Post Doctoral Fellow. She was associated with many research projects including Farm Management Studies, Farm Production Risk, Globalisation of Indian Agriculture and Environmental Problems related to Energy Sector. She has co-authored a book on Farm Production Decision under Uncertainty. Recently she visited University of Peradeniya at Sri Lanka for nine months as a Visiting Fellow in environmental Economics. She was a member of Course Curriculum Committee of World Bank/MOEF Capacity Building in Environmental Economics. She has to her credit many journal articles and research reports.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR R. Hema

R. Hema is Associate Professor at the Madras School of Economics. Her Doctoral dissertation was on optimal pricing in the electricity sector. Subsequently she has been working on various topics relating to the electricity sector financial performance, regulatory mechanisms, institutional restructuring. She visited the University of Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow. Was associated with a programme on International Comparison of Electricity Regulation at the Energy Institute there. She has been on the faculty of Tata Energy Research Institute, New Delhi, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Channai and adjunct faculty at DePaul University, Chicago. She has been associated with many studies on the power sector that were sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, Power Finance Corporation, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, Planning Commission etc. and also with a study on social Exclusion, sponsored by the International Labour Organisation. She has made contributions to the vision 2020 Document for the Union Territory of Pondicherry and the Tamil Nadu State Development Report.