The geopolitical situation globally and in the immediate neighborhood, as well as the domestic fault lines that have been magnified by the recent Indian national elections, provide a context to the paper. As the 16th Finance Commission begins its deliberations, this paper underlines the crucial...

This paper proposes “lack of political will†as the most important reason why a ruling political party is unable to commit itself to economically efficient choices or policies. The notion of political will is explicated using concepts from the transactioncosts perspective. The paper...

The introduction of economic reforms often hurts entrenched vested interests, which had prospered under state-led evelopment. For the ruling political party that introduces reforms, alienating such interests results in loss of political support and jeopardises re-election prospects. One approach...

This paper is concerned with devising an approach to intergovernmental transfers, from State Governments to Urban Local Bodies. Our approach will comprise of five cardinal principles abbreviated as PEACE: (a) Political Feasibility (b) Equity (c) Adequacy (d) Computational Transparency and (e)...

There have been two major auctions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) of cricket. Since 2008, three IPL tournaments have also taken place. We first estimate hedonic price equations for the auction of 2011. We find that runs scored in the shorter formats of the game, wickets taken in Test...

There has been a perception that since the introduction of what have derisively been called “neo-liberal†reforms, the social sectors i.e. those dealing with education and health, have suffered. Is this really so? Computations are based on Plan outlay of the Centre, states and union...

Infrastructure in general and urban infrastructure in particular has proved to be a pons asinorum of economic development. Whilst infrastructure is an umbrella term, provision of many of its components is the duty of the urban local bodies (ULBs). Given the financial crunch faced by the ULBs,...

This paper is concerned with respect to asses the revenue and expenditure patterns in the various Urban Local Bodies(ULBs) in Maharashtra. The context for this is the finance commissions at the state and central levels as well as the 74th constitutional amendment. Without the requisite...