August 27, 2008
by Atanu Dey
1 Comment
Pro-industrial policies promote industry, pro-health policy promote health, pro-education policies promote education. So it is natural that India’s pro-poor policies — and let’s be very clear that every single one of India’s economic policies have been pro-poor — work and … Continue reading
April 15, 2008
by Atanu Dey
18 Comments
A magazine article in the New York Times of April 13th has the rather mistaken and misleading title “Can the Cell Phone End Global Poverty?” (Hat tip: Abhishek Sarda). The article title is misleading because it doesn’t even remotely attempt … Continue reading
February 29, 2008
by Atanu Dey
1 Comment
There appears to be a thriving cottage industry which is primarily engaged in churning out shallow pieces of journalistic garbage. The pieces detail a particular person’s or family’s struggles and then juxtapose it in some dramatic way with perceived overall … Continue reading
December 15, 2005
by atanu
6 Comments
The Oxfam America site asks In a World of Abundance, Why Hunger? (July 8, 2002) Poverty and hunger are the world’s greatest challenges 1.2 billion people–one out of five–live on less than $1 a day. More than 800 million people … Continue reading
August 29, 2005
by Atanu Dey
29 Comments
In a land where reportedly every generalization is trivially true, one generalization holds non-trivially and with overwhelming force. It is this: Indian governments are pro-poor. Every policy that any government ever espouses, fundamentally it always is pro-poor, irrespective of any … Continue reading
August 3, 2005
by Atanu Dey
16 Comments
Economists conventionally list land, labor and capital as the three factors of production. If combined appropriately using the right technology, stuff is produced. This produced stuff is then the total income. Productive efficiency is important of course for a society … Continue reading
November 8, 2004
by atanu
6 Comments
I have never been able to shake off the conviction that there must be a very good economic reason for why there are so many poor people around the world. You may say that I am crazy to connect what … Continue reading
June 27, 2004
by atanu
10 Comments
According to UN estimates, India has the largest number of hungry people. Over 200 million, or about one-fifth of India’s population, is chronically hungry. This is an apparent paradox in a country which is food-surplus on the aggregate. The Wall … Continue reading
May 22, 2004
by atanu
2 Comments
Economic analysis can be broadly categorized as either ‘positive’ or ‘normative.’ Positive analysis refers to the investigation of how things are, whereas normative analysis is concerned with how things should be. The former is supposed to be value-neutral whereas the … Continue reading
January 5, 2004
by atanu
2 Comments
As a graduate student, I decided to spend my first term at UC Berkeley at the University Students’ Cooperative Association (USCA). The USCA is the largest student housing cooperative in North America modeled after the Rochdale Principles. The USCA is … Continue reading
November 21, 2003
by atanu
2 Comments
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are benchmarks of progress in a global attempt at alleviating poverty. The eight goals and their associated targets clearly address a complex set of effects the fundamental cause of which is poverty. For the record, … Continue reading