This paper studies how discriminatory fake news arises and spatially diffuses. We focus on India at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: on March 30, a Muslim convention (the Tablighi Jamaat) in New Delhi became publicly recognized as a COVID hotspot, and the next day, fake news on Muslims...

The study analyses the role of RTAs in determining the export efficiency of India using a stochastic frontier version of the gravity model. We estimate the impact of select RTAs (bilateral, SAFTA, APTA, ASEAN, and MERCOSUR trade bloc) and the partner nation’s regulatory quality on India’s...

This article examines the intertwining relationship between informality and education-occupation mismatch (EOM) and the consequent impact on the workers' wages. In particular, we discuss two issues - first, the relative importance of informality and education-occupation mismatch in determining...

This paper evaluates the impact of a policy that was implemented to reduce the energy intensity of firms in some manufacturing sectors in India, on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of firms and on its components, scale efficiency and technical change. Using plant-level panel data on...

The latest generation of global climate models robustly projects that the summer monsoon rainfall in India will significantly increase in the 21st century due to global warming and that rainfall anomalies will occur more often. This raises the question of the impact of these changes on the...

This empirical investigation primarily aims to measure empowering leadership's impact on innovative work behavior. The study also analyzed the mediating role of psychological empowerment between empowering leadership and innovative work behavior. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique...

Air pollution has become an increasing health threat for the local population in many cities around the world. Using high resolution remote sensing data on nightlights and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for the years 1998-2013, I study the contemporary nexus between city shape and air pollution...

In recent years, global production of plastics has surged and is expected to increase further over the following years, with over a quarter being attributed to plastic packaging. Plastic packaging poses environmental risks due to the fossil fuels consumed in its production and the impact on...

This Policy Brief examines the geopoliticisation of development cooperation within the Indo-Pacific region. First, we discuss the emergence of Indo-Pacific strategies and how these intersect with geopolitics and development cooperation amongst traditional develop-ment actors such as the United...

While it is well-acknowledged that the gendered division of labor within marriage adversely affects women's allocation of time to market work, there is less evidence on how extant social norms can influence women's work choices pre-marriage. We conduct an experiment on an online marriage market...

Dowry payments are common in many marriage markets. This paper uses data on over 74,000 marriages in rural India over the last century to explain why the institution of dowry emerges and how it evolves over time. We find that the proportion of Indian marriages including dowry payments doubled...

We examine the labour market impacts of the largest livelihoods programs in the world, India's Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). A key aspect of this program is to mobilize rural women into self-help groups (SHGs). We combine administrative data on SHG...

According to official statements, the main purpose of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue ("Quad") is to intensify cooperation between the four partner countries - Australia, India, Japan and the United States - in tackling urgent challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. These include climate...

Cross-border acquisitions (CBA) are a form of foreign direct investments and have been dramatically increasing over the last three decades. India has been one of the top CBA destinations among emerging economies, making it interesting to explore the determinants. Even though the CBA research is...

The present study primarily examines the impact of financial distress (FD) on the dividend policy of 33 banks working in the Indian economy from 2010 to 2019. In addition, we further explore the association between financial distress and dividend policy under the influence of shareholder...

This study investigates gender disparities in inflation expectations in India using data from the Reserve Bank of India's Households' Inflation Expectations Survey (March 2011 to September 2022). To determine these differences, the authors analyze the expectations of future prices for various...

This study examines the barriers to female entrepreneurship in India's microenterprise sector through society and bureaucracy. The study uses grammatical genders in languages to capture the societal attitudes towards female entrepreneurship. Using a probit model, it was found that states where...

Maternal and child health is severely impacted by adverse birth outcomes leading to a public health concern. A whole host of socioeconomic factors are instrumental in determining birth outcomes. Importantly, there is an intricate relationship between women's autonomy, the perpetration of...

The paper examines the short-term implications of urbanization on women empowerment in India. In theory, urbanization can affect women either positively or negatively. Women in urban areas, compared to their rural counterparts, are thought to enjoy greater social, economic, and political...

Non-unitary household models suggest that enhancing women's bargaining power can influence child health, a crucial determinant of human capital and economic standing throughout adulthood. We examine the effects of a policy shift, the Hindu Succession Act Amendment (HSAA), which granted...

I document negative externalities of air pollution in the Indian agricultural sector. Using variation in pollution induced by changes in wind across years, I show that higher levels of pollution lead to decreased agricultural productivity, with large changes in productivity being common. The...

This paper analyses employment growth across occupations and sectors in India for the period that goes from 2011-12 to 2019-20. Using data from the National Sample Survey Organisation and the Periodic Labour Force Survey, this study finds evidence of mid-upgrading (relatively higher employment...

Air pollution has become an increasing health threat for the local population in many cities around the world. Using high resolution remote sensing data on nightlights and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for the years 1998-2013, I study the contemporary nexus between city shape and air pollution...

Women entrepreneurship is considered by many researchers as an imminent phenomenon of the 21st century, especially for developing countries. Due to its contribution to the economy and society, recent studies have focused on investigating its motivational factors, as well as achievements....

The productivity growth has an important linkage with economic growth and standard of living. It not only increases output but also improves the efficiency level of firms/industries through better utilization of factors of production, and therefore public policies aim at improving productivity....

This paper examines the long-term link between British colonialism and women empowerment in India. We compare women's contemporary economic outcomes across areas that were under direct British colonial rule with areas that were under indirect colonial rule. Controlling for selective annexation...

The SDG Summit will take place on 18-19 September 2023 in New York. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called it the 'centrepiece' of the UN's work this year. Numerous reports for this year's mid-term review of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs will lament the 'lack of political will' to...

Utilizing natural resources wisely, reducing pollution, and taking other environmental factors into account are now critical to the prospects for long-term economic growth and, by extension, sustainable development. We investigate the impact of total natural resource rents (NRR) on India's GDP...

We examine economic mobility in India while accounting for misclassification to better understand the welfare e§ects of the rise in inequality. To proceed, we extend recently developed methods on the partial identification of transition matrices. Allowing for modest misclassification, we find...

This policy brief discusses the new geopolitical and geo-economic context and its significance for the Global South and the development policies of Western actors. The systemic confrontation between China and the USA, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also the seizure of power through a...

The Indian gas sector is expected to be one of the world's fastest-growing markets over the next two decades. Yet there is a wide divergence of views around India's future gas demand and the potential for gas to reach this share. The affordability of gas remains central to this ambition. The...

I document externalities in the agricultural sector of India due to air pollution. Using variation in pollution induced by changes in wind, I show that higher levels of particulate matter lead to decreased agricultural productivity, with changes in productivity of 10 percent being common....

This policy brief discusses the new geopolitical and geo-economic context and its significance for the Global South and the development policies of Western actors. The systemic confrontation between China and the USA, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also the seizure of power through a...

We investigate how air pollution impacts outdoor activity avoidance, leveraging changes in local wind direction in an instrumental variable setup for causal identification. Our findings reveal a substantial reduction in time spent outdoors during polluted days, mainly driven by decreased...

We decompose the relationship between food aid and conflict into the channels through which food aid can affect conflict. We address questions of methodological choice and estimation techniques for empirical studies. Our review of the empirical evidence on the effect of food aid on conflict...

We study the interaction between transit improvements and land use policies in the context of Bengaluru, one of India's largest cities. The city inaugurated a metro system in 2011. Yet it has low building heights even near metro stations, reflecting low floor-area ratio limits. We construct a...