Rinku Murgai - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Rinku Murgai

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 31 Rural development and rural policy

Handbook of Agricultural Economics, 2002

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Rural development policy addresses the welfare of rural households and communities. With a majori... more Rural development policy addresses the welfare of rural households and communities. With a majority of the world's poor located in rural areas, the resilience of rural poverty in industrialized countries, and a significant share of environmental degradation the byproduct of rural poverty, the design of effective rural policies remains an important theme. There is a long history of economic thought

Research paper thumbnail of Teacher Compensation: Can Decentralization to Local Bodies Take India from the Perfect Storm Through Troubled Waters to Clear Sailing?

Research paper thumbnail of CLIMATE CHANGE, AGRICULTURE, AND DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Research paper thumbnail of The impact of farmer-field-schools on knowledge and productivity : a study of potato farmers in the Peruvian Andes

Research paper thumbnail of ACCESSING SEED THROUGH SHARECROPPING: A RISK-SHARING STRATEGY FOR ANDEAN FARMERS

In the Northern Andes, one of the riskiest agriculture climates in the world, farmers use sharecr... more In the Northern Andes, one of the riskiest agriculture climates in the world, farmers use sharecropping to obtain seed, their most costly input. With survey data from Peru, this paper calculates that the cost of seed, when it is provided though sharecropping, is two times higher than the market price. We test the hypothesis that risk-averse farmers are willing to

Research paper thumbnail of Expenditure Implications of India's State-level Fiscal Crisis

India's states have significant developmental expenditure responsibilities. While the "f... more India's states have significant developmental expenditure responsibilities. While the "fiscal crisis" which engulfed India's states in the late nineties led to higher deficits and debt levels, it was also associated with a rapid increase in expenditure levels, and it might be thought that this would have increased the development effectiveness of the state governments. However, a closer look at the

Research paper thumbnail of Rural Development and Rural Policy 1

Research paper thumbnail of Reforming the Bihar Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:Administrative Processes

Right to Work?:Assessing India's Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring Poverty in Karnataka: The Regional Dimension

Economic and political weekly

Regionally disaggregated estimates of poverty within India's states are typically not compute... more Regionally disaggregated estimates of poverty within India's states are typically not computed because of inadequate sample sizes available for geographic or administrative units below the state level. This paper attempts to ameliorate the sample size problem by pooling the 1999-00 NSS 55th round central and state sample data. We use the pooled data to examine regional variation in poverty within Karnataka. The poverty estimates reveal significant geographic imbalances, with much higher levels and concentration of poverty in the northern districts. Regional patterns are found to be reasonably consistent with independent correlates of poverty, including agricultural wages, employment shares, and district domestic products. However, one important inconsistency is that the rural-urban differentials in poverty rates are not credible and warrant further attention.

Research paper thumbnail of The World Bank Research Observer, vol. 16, no. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 199--218

This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agr... more This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs by measuring trends in total factor productivity for production systems in both states since the advent of the Green Revolution. These measurements over time and across systems have resulted in three major findings. First, there were wide spatial and temporal variations between the two Punjabs. Although output growth and crop yields were much higher in the Indian Punjab, productivity growth was higher by only a small margin. Moreover, the lowest growth in productivity took place during the initial Green Revolution period (as opposed to the later intensification and post--Green Revolution periods) and in the wheat-rice system in both states. The time lag between adoption of Green Revolution technologies and realization of productivity gains is related to learninginduced efficiency gains, better utilization of capital investments over time, and p...

Research paper thumbnail of Poverty Trends in Bangladesh during the 1990s

Journal of Developing Societies, 2005

Abstract Analysis of data from various Bangladesh Household Expenditure Surveys suggests consider... more Abstract Analysis of data from various Bangladesh Household Expenditure Surveys suggests considerable progress at poverty reduction during the 1990s. About 50 percent of the country's population lived below the poverty line in 2000 compared to 59 percent in ...

Research paper thumbnail of Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh

Journal of Developing Societies, 2005

Page 1. Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh1 Rinku Murgai and Salman Zaidi* A... more Page 1. Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh1 Rinku Murgai and Salman Zaidi* ABSTRACT Bangladesh boasts a wide array of targeted food assistance programs that strive to achieve a number of important developmental objectives. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Economic and Welfare Impacts of Climate Change on Developing Countries

The impact of global climate change on developing countries is analyzed using CGE-multimarket mod... more The impact of global climate change on developing countries is analyzed using CGE-multimarket models for three archetype economies representing the poor cereal importing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The objective is to compare the effects of climate change on the macroeconomic performance, sectoral resource allocation, and household welfare across continents. Simulations help identify those underlying structural features of

Research paper thumbnail of Small but effective: India's targeted unconditional cash transfers

India's approach to social security stresses the provision of subsidized food and public work... more India's approach to social security stresses the provision of subsidized food and public works. Targeted, unconditional cash transfers are little used, and have been little evaluated. An evaluation of cash transfers for the elderly and widows based on national household survey data and surveys on social pension utilization in two of India's states, Karnataka and Rajasthan, reveal that these social

Research paper thumbnail of Subsidies And Salaries: Issues In The Restructuring Of Government Expenditure In India

How can increased spending on priority social and infrastructure sectors be financed in India? Wh... more How can increased spending on priority social and infrastructure sectors be financed in India? While increased tax revenue is part of the answer, as is increased private sector financing of infrastructure, expenditure restructuring will also be important. But how much can be saved by expenditure restructuring? We examine salaries, including pensions, and subsidies in turn. We argue that there are

Research paper thumbnail of Fiscal Sustainability of Agricultural Extension: The Case of the Farmer Field School Approach

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Does India's Employment Guarantee Scheme Guarantee Employment?

Policy Research Working Papers, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of “Investing in Farmers—The Impacts of Farmer Field Schools in Relation to Integrated Pest Management”—A Comment

Research paper thumbnail of Productivity Growth and Sustainability in Post-Green Revolution Agriculture: The Case of the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs

The World Bank Research Observer, 2001

... Rinku Murgai, Mubarik Ali, and Derek Byerlee ... evident from the cost function analysis, Ind... more ... Rinku Murgai, Mubarik Ali, and Derek Byerlee ... evident from the cost function analysis, India would be expected to have more rapid input use and produc-tivity growth than Pakistan, where the share of public resources allocated to agri-culture was lower (Choudhry and Faruqee ...

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 31 Rural development and rural policy

Handbook of Agricultural Economics, 2002

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Rural development policy addresses the welfare of rural households and communities. With a majori... more Rural development policy addresses the welfare of rural households and communities. With a majority of the world's poor located in rural areas, the resilience of rural poverty in industrialized countries, and a significant share of environmental degradation the byproduct of rural poverty, the design of effective rural policies remains an important theme. There is a long history of economic thought

Research paper thumbnail of Teacher Compensation: Can Decentralization to Local Bodies Take India from the Perfect Storm Through Troubled Waters to Clear Sailing?

Research paper thumbnail of CLIMATE CHANGE, AGRICULTURE, AND DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Research paper thumbnail of The impact of farmer-field-schools on knowledge and productivity : a study of potato farmers in the Peruvian Andes

Research paper thumbnail of ACCESSING SEED THROUGH SHARECROPPING: A RISK-SHARING STRATEGY FOR ANDEAN FARMERS

In the Northern Andes, one of the riskiest agriculture climates in the world, farmers use sharecr... more In the Northern Andes, one of the riskiest agriculture climates in the world, farmers use sharecropping to obtain seed, their most costly input. With survey data from Peru, this paper calculates that the cost of seed, when it is provided though sharecropping, is two times higher than the market price. We test the hypothesis that risk-averse farmers are willing to

Research paper thumbnail of Expenditure Implications of India's State-level Fiscal Crisis

India's states have significant developmental expenditure responsibilities. While the "f... more India's states have significant developmental expenditure responsibilities. While the "fiscal crisis" which engulfed India's states in the late nineties led to higher deficits and debt levels, it was also associated with a rapid increase in expenditure levels, and it might be thought that this would have increased the development effectiveness of the state governments. However, a closer look at the

Research paper thumbnail of Rural Development and Rural Policy 1

Research paper thumbnail of Reforming the Bihar Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:Administrative Processes

Right to Work?:Assessing India's Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring Poverty in Karnataka: The Regional Dimension

Economic and political weekly

Regionally disaggregated estimates of poverty within India's states are typically not compute... more Regionally disaggregated estimates of poverty within India's states are typically not computed because of inadequate sample sizes available for geographic or administrative units below the state level. This paper attempts to ameliorate the sample size problem by pooling the 1999-00 NSS 55th round central and state sample data. We use the pooled data to examine regional variation in poverty within Karnataka. The poverty estimates reveal significant geographic imbalances, with much higher levels and concentration of poverty in the northern districts. Regional patterns are found to be reasonably consistent with independent correlates of poverty, including agricultural wages, employment shares, and district domestic products. However, one important inconsistency is that the rural-urban differentials in poverty rates are not credible and warrant further attention.

Research paper thumbnail of The World Bank Research Observer, vol. 16, no. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 199--218

This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agr... more This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs by measuring trends in total factor productivity for production systems in both states since the advent of the Green Revolution. These measurements over time and across systems have resulted in three major findings. First, there were wide spatial and temporal variations between the two Punjabs. Although output growth and crop yields were much higher in the Indian Punjab, productivity growth was higher by only a small margin. Moreover, the lowest growth in productivity took place during the initial Green Revolution period (as opposed to the later intensification and post--Green Revolution periods) and in the wheat-rice system in both states. The time lag between adoption of Green Revolution technologies and realization of productivity gains is related to learninginduced efficiency gains, better utilization of capital investments over time, and p...

Research paper thumbnail of Poverty Trends in Bangladesh during the 1990s

Journal of Developing Societies, 2005

Abstract Analysis of data from various Bangladesh Household Expenditure Surveys suggests consider... more Abstract Analysis of data from various Bangladesh Household Expenditure Surveys suggests considerable progress at poverty reduction during the 1990s. About 50 percent of the country's population lived below the poverty line in 2000 compared to 59 percent in ...

Research paper thumbnail of Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh

Journal of Developing Societies, 2005

Page 1. Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh1 Rinku Murgai and Salman Zaidi* A... more Page 1. Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh1 Rinku Murgai and Salman Zaidi* ABSTRACT Bangladesh boasts a wide array of targeted food assistance programs that strive to achieve a number of important developmental objectives. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Economic and Welfare Impacts of Climate Change on Developing Countries

The impact of global climate change on developing countries is analyzed using CGE-multimarket mod... more The impact of global climate change on developing countries is analyzed using CGE-multimarket models for three archetype economies representing the poor cereal importing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The objective is to compare the effects of climate change on the macroeconomic performance, sectoral resource allocation, and household welfare across continents. Simulations help identify those underlying structural features of

Research paper thumbnail of Small but effective: India's targeted unconditional cash transfers

India's approach to social security stresses the provision of subsidized food and public work... more India's approach to social security stresses the provision of subsidized food and public works. Targeted, unconditional cash transfers are little used, and have been little evaluated. An evaluation of cash transfers for the elderly and widows based on national household survey data and surveys on social pension utilization in two of India's states, Karnataka and Rajasthan, reveal that these social

Research paper thumbnail of Subsidies And Salaries: Issues In The Restructuring Of Government Expenditure In India

How can increased spending on priority social and infrastructure sectors be financed in India? Wh... more How can increased spending on priority social and infrastructure sectors be financed in India? While increased tax revenue is part of the answer, as is increased private sector financing of infrastructure, expenditure restructuring will also be important. But how much can be saved by expenditure restructuring? We examine salaries, including pensions, and subsidies in turn. We argue that there are

Research paper thumbnail of Fiscal Sustainability of Agricultural Extension: The Case of the Farmer Field School Approach

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Does India's Employment Guarantee Scheme Guarantee Employment?

Policy Research Working Papers, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of “Investing in Farmers—The Impacts of Farmer Field Schools in Relation to Integrated Pest Management”—A Comment

Research paper thumbnail of Productivity Growth and Sustainability in Post-Green Revolution Agriculture: The Case of the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs

The World Bank Research Observer, 2001

... Rinku Murgai, Mubarik Ali, and Derek Byerlee ... evident from the cost function analysis, Ind... more ... Rinku Murgai, Mubarik Ali, and Derek Byerlee ... evident from the cost function analysis, India would be expected to have more rapid input use and produc-tivity growth than Pakistan, where the share of public resources allocated to agri-culture was lower (Choudhry and Faruqee ...