I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Kalyani. My research interests are development economics, environmental regulations and applied microeconometrics.
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management , 2019
We envisage the waste management strategy of the local bodies as one of sharing different respons... more We envisage the waste management strategy of the local bodies as one of sharing different responsibilities with households along different stages of the process viz., collection, processing and disposal. This difference arises in terms of the variants of Pay-as-You-Throw scheme, recycling arrangements for non-biodegradable waste and treatment options for organic waste. In this article, we account for this policy heterogeneity by locating the waste management practices adopted by different municipal authorities in an integrated strategic framework. We use information on waste management services from country case studies to identify the variations in the sharing arrangements between households and the municipalities in urban areas of low, middle and high-income countries. Our results suggest that an efficient market in waste management might be associated with the degree of apportionment of cost of waste processing by involving households in the primary disposal and private entities in final disposal in the presence of economic instruments.
There is now a general consensus in the literature that the post reform period in India is charac... more There is now a general consensus in the literature that the post reform period in India is characterized by higher GDP growth rate compared to the Hindu rate of growth in the pre-1991 period (Panagariya 2011; Dutta et al. 2012; Datt and Ravallion 2010; Kotwal et al. 2011). There are also compelling evidences that high GDP growth rate of the order of 6–8 % on an average has resulted in decline of poverty (Bhalla 2011; Datt and Ravallion 2010) both in the rural and urban areas.
ABSTRACT This paper identifies the factors that influence perception of program benefit of the re... more ABSTRACT This paper identifies the factors that influence perception of program benefit of the recipients when a hypothetical public program is implemented in reality. We compare pre- and post-program Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for improved waste management in Bally Municipality, India, and find that post-program predicted WTP falls by more than 50 % even when if there are substantial improvements in urban environment. We show that this can be explained by the relative strength of leisure cost of effort to participate in the waste management program vis-à-vis the benefit derived from cleaner environment. Our study shows that mismatch between expected and offered service attributes might be a source of disutility and could also dampen households’ perceived value of the program benefits. In such cases, the reduction in WTP might act as an indication of the local bodies regarding the scale of outreach and expansion of the program needed to finance the operation and maintenance expenses by supplementing the property tax bases through user fees.
Bandyopadhyay S., Dutta M. (eds) Opportunities and Challenges in Development., 2019
Contemporary assessment of water availability in India predicts that by 2020 close to 600 million... more Contemporary assessment of water availability in India predicts that by 2020 close to 600 million Indians would be under water distress. The threat is more potent for the rural households as more than 80% of them are yet to have tap water within their premise. Public authorities have scaled up the rural water supply schemes and have set the target of universalizing indoor tap water in rural areas by 2024. In this background, using a panel of rural household water use data from 2005 and 2012 rounds of India Human Development Survey (IHDS), this paper attempts to empirically investigate whether the extent of social network influences the households’ access to the public water supply via tap water connection. Our paper shows that even in water-scarce areas the planners might fail to tap the potential demand for tap water if community ties are weak and households are not well integrated into social network. We find that if access to public water schemes is contingent on the intensity of social ties, it might exclude asset poor and socially disadvantaged groups from its ambit. Our result, thus, suggests that strengthening networks including poor households and scaling up of information and communication activities might be effective strategies to ensure increased access to piped water.
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management , 2019
We envisage the waste management strategy of the local bodies as one of sharing different respons... more We envisage the waste management strategy of the local bodies as one of sharing different responsibilities with households along different stages of the process viz., collection, processing and disposal. This difference arises in terms of the variants of Pay-as-You-Throw scheme, recycling arrangements for non-biodegradable waste and treatment options for organic waste. In this article, we account for this policy heterogeneity by locating the waste management practices adopted by different municipal authorities in an integrated strategic framework. We use information on waste management services from country case studies to identify the variations in the sharing arrangements between households and the municipalities in urban areas of low, middle and high-income countries. Our results suggest that an efficient market in waste management might be associated with the degree of apportionment of cost of waste processing by involving households in the primary disposal and private entities in final disposal in the presence of economic instruments.
There is now a general consensus in the literature that the post reform period in India is charac... more There is now a general consensus in the literature that the post reform period in India is characterized by higher GDP growth rate compared to the Hindu rate of growth in the pre-1991 period (Panagariya 2011; Dutta et al. 2012; Datt and Ravallion 2010; Kotwal et al. 2011). There are also compelling evidences that high GDP growth rate of the order of 6–8 % on an average has resulted in decline of poverty (Bhalla 2011; Datt and Ravallion 2010) both in the rural and urban areas.
ABSTRACT This paper identifies the factors that influence perception of program benefit of the re... more ABSTRACT This paper identifies the factors that influence perception of program benefit of the recipients when a hypothetical public program is implemented in reality. We compare pre- and post-program Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for improved waste management in Bally Municipality, India, and find that post-program predicted WTP falls by more than 50 % even when if there are substantial improvements in urban environment. We show that this can be explained by the relative strength of leisure cost of effort to participate in the waste management program vis-à-vis the benefit derived from cleaner environment. Our study shows that mismatch between expected and offered service attributes might be a source of disutility and could also dampen households’ perceived value of the program benefits. In such cases, the reduction in WTP might act as an indication of the local bodies regarding the scale of outreach and expansion of the program needed to finance the operation and maintenance expenses by supplementing the property tax bases through user fees.
Bandyopadhyay S., Dutta M. (eds) Opportunities and Challenges in Development., 2019
Contemporary assessment of water availability in India predicts that by 2020 close to 600 million... more Contemporary assessment of water availability in India predicts that by 2020 close to 600 million Indians would be under water distress. The threat is more potent for the rural households as more than 80% of them are yet to have tap water within their premise. Public authorities have scaled up the rural water supply schemes and have set the target of universalizing indoor tap water in rural areas by 2024. In this background, using a panel of rural household water use data from 2005 and 2012 rounds of India Human Development Survey (IHDS), this paper attempts to empirically investigate whether the extent of social network influences the households’ access to the public water supply via tap water connection. Our paper shows that even in water-scarce areas the planners might fail to tap the potential demand for tap water if community ties are weak and households are not well integrated into social network. We find that if access to public water schemes is contingent on the intensity of social ties, it might exclude asset poor and socially disadvantaged groups from its ambit. Our result, thus, suggests that strengthening networks including poor households and scaling up of information and communication activities might be effective strategies to ensure increased access to piped water.
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