The impact of price policy on demand for alcohol in rural India

Whether raising the price of addictive goods can reduce its burden is widely debated in many countries, largely due to lack of appropriate data and robust methods. Three key concerns frequently raised in the literature are: unobserved heterogeneity; omitted variables; identification problem. Addressing these concerns, using robust instrument and employing unique individual-level panel data from Indian Punjab, this paper investigates two related propositions (i) will increase in alcohol price reduce its burden (ii) since greater incomes raise the costs of inebriation, will higher incomes affect consumption of alcohol negatively. Distinct from previous studies, the key variable of interest is the budget share of alcohol that allows studying the burden of alcohol consumption on drinker's and also on other family members. Results presented show that an increase in alcohol price is likely to be regressive, especially on the bottom quartile, with a rise in the budget share of alcohol given budget constraint. This outcome is robust to different econometric specifications. Preliminary explorations suggest that higher per capita income increases the odds of quitting drinking. Results reported have wider implications for the effective design of addiction related health policies

Competition, Kinship or Reciprocity? Village Experiments in Alternative Modes of Exchange

In this paper, detailed data on transactions in a village commodity market are used to explain the puzzle of sluggish agricultural supply response. We show that existence of reciprocity among sellers exhibits multiple equilibria and creates trade diversion. Large volumes of the commodity are sold to a trader who does not offer the best price, but on whom sellers depend through transactions in other markets. An implication of this trader-idiosyncratic effect on supply is that policies that affect prices may result in different supply responses.Reciprocity, Kinship, Neighborhood effects, Trader idiosyncrasy, Equilibrium, Consumer/Household Economics,

Robustness of geography as an instrument to assess impact of climate change on agriculture

The empirical literature on climate change and agriculture does not adequately address the issue of potential endogeneity between climatic variables and agriculture which makes their estimates unreliable. This study is designed to investigate the relationships between climate change and agriculture and test the potential reverse causality and endogeneity of climatic variables to agriculture. This study introduces a geographical instrument, longitude and latitude, for temperature to assess the impact of climate change on agriculture by estimating regression using IV-2SLS method over annual panel data for 60 countries for the period 1999-2011. The Identification and F-statistic tests are used to choose and exclude the instrument. The inclusion of some control variables is supposed to reduce the omitted variable bias. The study finds a negative relationship between temperature and agriculture. Surprisingly the magnitude of the coefficient on temperature is mild, at least 20%, as compared to previous studies may be due to the use of the instrumental variable which is also supported by an alternative robust measure when estimated across different regions. The study provides strong implications for the policy makers to confront climate change that is an impending danger to agriculture. In designing effective policies and strategies policy makers should focus not only on crop production but also on other agricultural activities such as livestock production and fisheries, in addition to national and international socio-economic and geopolitical dynamics. This paper contributes to the growing literature in at least four aspects. First, empirical settings introduce an innovative geographical instrument, Second, it includes a wider set of control variables in the analysis. Third, improves over previous researches by using agriculture value addition and finally, the effects of temperature and precipitation on a single aggregate measure, agriculture value addition are separately investigated

SCREENING AND ANTIBIOGRAM PATTERN OF BACTERIAL OPHTHALMIC INFECTIONS

Objective: Microbial infections are causing life threatening diseases of which ocular infection is of primary importance, as it can even led to blindness. In order to understand the etiological agents causing bacterial ocular infection, this present study was aimed in screening and understanding the anti biogram pattern of bacterial ophthalmic infections.Methods: Pus and corneal scrapings were collected from 50 ocular infected patients and were screened for bacterial pathogens for a three months period.Results: Out of them 88% (44/50) were culture positive. The ocular pathogenic isolates include Staphylococcus spp (70.45%), Streptococcus spp (22.72%), Bacillus spp, Enterobacter spp and Serratia spp (2.27%). Sex and age wise perspective of ocular infections indicated that females and adults between 21-40 years were highly infected. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates revealed that the modern antibiotics namely Moxifloxacin, Ofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Ceftazidime, Cefepime, Vancomycin, Rifampicin exhibited high sensitivity than the conventional antibiotics like methicillin, bacitracin, and oxytetracycline. Isolates exhibited multidrug resistance viz., Staphylococcus aureus (52.63%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (75%), Streptococcus spp (80%), Enterobacter spp (100%). Isolation of drug resistant plasmid DNA showed that multidrug resistant isolates harbor high molecular weight plasmid. Conclusion: All the isolates exhibited the antibiotic resistance to conventional antibiotics, and were sensitive to the current antibiotics.Â

Harnessing digital technology to improve agricultural productivity?

Can improving access to mobile extension improve agricultural productivity? Recent evidence suggests both significant and insignificant ways in which SMS-based agricultural information could affect farming outcomes. It is unclear if variations in the programs’ design or the methodological challenges in evaluating the programs cause wide-ranging impacts. Extension hotline services provide rapid, unambiguous information by agricultural experts over the phone, tailored to time- and crop-specific shocks. Using methods from experimental economics, we randomly distributed the hotline number to generate exogenous variation in the access to farming information. We conducted our study among 300 farmers in the South Indian state of Karnataka. Our results show that eliminating informational inefficiencies increases farmers’ average yields for a high-stakes pigeon pea crop that faced adverse aggregate shock. The impact on the yield is through the adoption of cost-effective and improved farming practices. However, we do not observe any effect on the crops that were not affected by the shock. Our findings reveal that advisory recommendations customized to time- and crop-specific shocks are associated with a greater impact on agricultural productivity

GM crops and gender issues

Correspondence in the December issue by Jonathan Gressel not only states that gender issues in rural settings have not been adequately addressed with respect to weed control biotech but also asserts that such technology can increase the quality of life of rural women in developing countries. Improved weed control is a labor-saving technology that can result in less employment in a labor surplus rural economy. Often in rural areas, wage income is the main source of income and an important determinant of the quality of life, particularly where employment opportunities are generally limited. Apart from soil preparation, planting and weeding, harvesting is also 'femanual' work that can generate more employment if yields are higher. Biotech can enhance the quality of life of women but only if the technology is associated with overall generation of rural employment

The impact of Bt cotton on poor households in rural India

The impact of genetically modified (GM) crops on the poor in developing countries is still the subject of controversy. While previous studies have examined direct productivity effects of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton and other GM crops, little is known about wider socioeconomic outcomes. We use a microeconomic modelling approach and comprehensive survey data from India to analyse welfare and distribution effects in a typical village economy. Bt cotton adoption increases returns to labour, especially for hired female workers. Likewise, aggregate household incomes rise, including for poor and vulnerable farmers. Hence, Bt cotton contributes to poverty reduction and rural development

Using geospatial technology to strengthen data systems in developing countries: the case of agricultural statistics in India

Despite significant progress in the development of quantitative geography techniques and methods and a general recognition of the need to improve the quality of geographic data, few studies have exploited the potential of geospatial tools to augment the quality of available data methods in developing countries. This paper uses data from an extensive deployment of geospatial technology in India to compare crop areas estimated using geospatial technology to crop areas estimated by conventional methods and assess the differences between the methods. The results presented here show that crop area estimates based on geospatial technology generally exceed the estimates obtained using conventional methods. This suggests that conventional methods are unable to respond quickly to changes in cropping patterns and therefore do not accurately record the area under high-value cash crops. This finding has wider implications for commercializing agriculture and the delivery of farm credit and insurance services in developing countries. Significant data errors found in the conventional methods could affect critical policy interventions such as planning for food security. Some research and policy implications are discussed