Friday, August 30, 2013

17 September 2013: New Companies Act

M. S. Sahoo
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India and
and Pratik Datta
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

Programme:
3.00 pm to 4.15 pm"What is in the new Companies Act - A review” by Mr. Pratik Datta
4.15 pm to 5.00 pm"New Companies Act and its implications" by Mr. M. S. Sahoo

Date: September 17, 2013
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, Ground Floor (R&T Building)
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

Location:

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Monday, August 26, 2013

27 August 2013: Statistical Externalities and the Labour Market in the Digital Age

Ananya Sen
University of Toulouse

Abstract:
We examine whether a reduction in the cost of applying for jobs that leads to an increase in the number of candidates applying for jobs at a firm, may make the firm worse off. We build a model where there is worker heterogeneity and firms can choose to screen workers at a cost. In equilibrium, a reduction in application costs can lower firm payoffs by raising the number of applications from workers who, on average, are of lower quality than those who apply when application costs are high. An additional candidate can impose a negative externality on the firm by adversely affecting the statistical quality of its candidate pool. We discuss applications to the phenomenon of attention congestion through advances in digital technology.

Date: August 27, 2013
Time: 04:00 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room 2
Indian Statistical Institute Delhi Centre,
7, S. J. S. Sansanwal Marg,
New Delhi-110016 (INDIA)

Location:

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Friday, August 16, 2013

19 August 2013: Buying Votes Vs. Supplying Public Services: Political Incentives to Under-invest in Pro-poor Policies

Stuti Khemani
World Bank

Abstract:
This paper uses unique survey data to provide, for the first time in the literature, direct evidence that vote buying in poor economies is associated with lower provision of public services that disproportionately benefit the poor. Various features of the data and the institutional context allow the interpretation of this correlation as the equilibrium policy consequence of clientelist politics, ruling out alternate explanations (such as, for example, poverty driving both vote buying and health outcomes). The data come from the Philippines, a country context that allows for measuring vote buying during elections and services delivered by the administrative unit controlled by winners of those elections. The data reveal a significant, robust negative correlation between vote buying and the delivery of primary health services. In places where households report more vote buying, government records show that municipalities invest less in basic health services for mothers and children; and, quite strikingly, as a summary measure of weak service delivery performance, a higher percentage of children are severely under-weight. Such evidence on political incentives has implications for the design of transparency and accountability policies that are currently in vogue in international development programs.

Date: August 19, 2013
Time: 11:30 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall - 2
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

22 August 2013: Direct Benefit Transfers in India: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Varad Pande
Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and
Rajesh Bansal
Unique Identity Authority of India, Governemnt of India

Abstract:
The Indian Government has launched an ambitious project to provide direct payments of benefits and services to residents, based on the biometric authentication system Aadhaar, which has already enrolled more than 40 crore Indian residents. The programme has the potential to transform delivery of public services in India, improving targeting and generating fiscal savings. The Talk will focus on the strategic thinking and design of the project, its current status, and an assessment of the implementation challenges.

Date: August 22, 2013
Time: 12:30 P.M.

Venue:
Second Floor Conference Room
The World Bank,
70 Lodi Estate,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please confirm your attendance by email to Savita Dhingra (sdhingra1@worldbank.org) by Wednesday, August 21st.

Monday, August 12, 2013

16 August 2013: Real Effective Exchange Rate and Manufacturing Sector Performance: Evidence from Indian firms

Anubha
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Abstract:
We explore the impact of Real Exchange Rate changes on the performance of Indian manufacturing firms over the period 2000-2012. Our empirical analysis shows that real exchange rate movements have a significant impact on Indian firms' performance through the cost as well as the revenue channel. The impact depends upon the share of imports & exports along with the degree of market power as reflected in the time varying firm level mark up. However, presence of overvaluation negates the beneficial effects of exchange rate appreciation operating through the lower input cost channel. The same cannot be said about the 'price competitiveness' effect working through the export channel.

Date: August 16, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room 2
Indian Statistical Institute Delhi Centre,
7, S. J. S. Sansanwal Marg,
New Delhi-110016 (INDIA)

Location:

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Monday, August 5, 2013

7 August 2013: What is public about public health? Evidence from three Indian sanitation studies

Jeffrey S. Hammer
NCAER and Princeton University

Abstract:
Why is good quality health care so hard to deliver? That environmental conditions are major determinants of health is fairly well established worldwide. This seminar will present the results of three research projects that make the case for treating sanitation as an extremely high priority for Indian policymakers if they wish to attain their stated goal of better health for the Indian rural and urban public. The research to be presented will include:

1) an interstate comparison of sanitation and curative care;
2) a randomized control trial of the Total Sanitation Campaign in rural Maharashtra; and
3) preliminary results of a study of urban infrastructure and health in Delhi’s slums

Date: August 7, 2013
Time: 03:30 P.M.

Venue:
NCAER Conference Room 1
National Council of Applied Economic Research
Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi-110002(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please join us for high tea after the seminar and to view a special exhibit, The Promise of NCAER, in the NCAER Lobby. For queries, please contact Ms Sudesh Bala at sbala@ncaer.org or on 011-2345-2669

6 August 2013: Politics and Local Economic Growth: Evidence from India

Sam Asher and Paul Novosad
Harvard University

Abstract:
Does politics have an impact on local economic outcomes? Using a regression discontinuity design built around close elections in India from 1990-2005, we examine the local economic effects of one form of political favoritism: the benefit of having a local politician who is aligned with the party in control of the state government. We show that private sector employment in politically aligned constituencies grows by 1.7 percentage points more per year than in non-aligned constituencies. We find no effect on government employment or supply of public infrastructure. Stock prices show 12-15% positive cumulative abnormal returns when an aligned candidate wins the constituency where a firm is headquartered, suggesting that political alignment is a net benefit to both local labor and capital. Finally, we use international survey data to classify industries by their dependence on (i) government bureaucracy, (ii) direct transfers in the form of procurement, and (iii) external finance. We find the effect of political alignment is largest in industries that depend most on government officials, with no significant effect of dependence on credit or procurement. The results suggest that state politicians can control the enforcement of regulation, with important economic consequences.

Date: August 6, 2013
Time: 12:30 P.M.

Venue:
Second Floor Conference Room
The World Bank,
70 Lodi Estate,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please confirm your attendance by email to Aarti Nanda (ananda@worldbank.org) by Monday, August 5th.

Friday, August 2, 2013

2 August 2013: Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India

Nishith Prakash
University of Connecticut

Abstract:
We study the impact of an innovative program in the Indian state of Bihar that aimed to reduce the gender gap in secondary school enrollment by providing girls who continued to secondary school with a bicycle that would improve access to school. Using data from a large representative household survey, we employ a triple difference approach (using boys and the neighboring state of Jharkhand as comparison groups) and find that being in a cohort that was exposed to the Cycle program increased girls' age-appropriate enrollment in secondary school by 40% (a five percentage point gain on a base enrollment rate of thirteen percent) and also reduced the gender gap in age-appropriate secondary school enrollment by 40%. Parametric and nonparametric decompositions of the triple-difference estimate as a function of distance to the nearest secondary school show that the increases in girls’ secondary school enrollment were significantly greater in villages where the nearest secondary school was further away, suggesting that a key mechanism for program impact was the reduction in the 'distance cost' of school attendance induced by the bicycle. We find that the Cycle program was more cost effective at increasing girls' enrolment than comparable conditional cash transfer programs in South Asia, suggesting that the coordinated provision of bicycles to girls may have generated externalities beyond the cash value of the program, such as improved safety from girls cycling to school in groups and changing social norms regarding female secondary school participation.

Date: August 2, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room 2
Indian Statistical Institute Delhi Centre,
7, S. J. S. Sansanwal Marg,
New Delhi-110016 (INDIA)

Location:

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