Publications

Publications

The IGC commissions numerous projects in a wide variety of sectors. The different types of publications are: Working papers, Policy briefs and Rapid responses.

The IGC also has several books available for purchase in our bookshop.

POLICY BRIEF

Prestige Matters: Value of Connections Formed in Elite Colleges

Tertiary education has fuelled the economic growth in India in recent times. This has in turn generated excess demand for highly a educated and skilled workforce. Against this backdrop, it is vital to understand whether public institutions should be expanded or private institutions could provide good quality higher education so that public subsidies could be targeted towards merit-cum-need based scholarships.

Countries: 
India - Central
Research programmes: 
Human capital
Researchers: 
Sheetal Sekhri
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WORKING PAPER

Without a clearly defined mandate, democracy can backfire

If responsibility to manage local aid programmes is not clearly defined and allocated, newly created democratic bodies may clash with traditional leadership and lead to worse outcomes for citizens.

New research by Andrew Beath (World Bank), Fotini Christia (MIT) and Ruben Enikolopov (New Economic School) finds that creating democratically elected institutions in Afghanistan can improve the outcomes of food aid distribution, but only if those institutions are clearly mandated to manage the aid programme.  If responsibility is confused, then an increase in embezzlement may occur.

Research programmes: 
Governance, accountability and political economy, State capabilities
Researchers: 
Andrew Beath, Fotini Christia, Ruben Enikolopov
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POLICY BRIEF

Infrastructure PPPs: Lessons from Latin America for Africa

There are, broadly speaking, three contractual forms that governments can use to provide infrastructure services. These are: (i) public provision; (ii) privatisation; and (iii) public-private partnerships (PPPs). When and where public private partnerships are more appropriate or effective to use than conventional public provision or regulated privatisation depends on the economic characteristics of the infrastructure project.

Countries: 
Mozambique, South Sudan, Uganda
Research programmes: 
State capabilities
Researchers: 
Ronald Fischer
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WORKING PAPER

Foreign direct investment, natural resources and institutions

This paper examines the interaction between foreign direct investment (FDI), natural resources and institutions. The paper answers three questions: (i) Do natural resources crowd out FDI - i.e., is there an FDI-natural resource curse?; (ii) Do institutions mitigate the adverse effect of natural resources on FDI? (iii) Can institutions completely neutralise the FDI-natural resource curse? Elizabeth Asiedu uses the systems GMM estimator proposed by Blundell and Bond (1998) to estimate a linear dynamic panel data model.

Countries: 
Ghana
Research programmes: 
Climate change, environment and natural resources, Macroeconomics
Researchers: 
Elizabeth Asiedu
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POLICY BRIEF

How important are finance constraints to firm growth in the informal manufacturing sector in India?

Family ownership is the ubiquitous form of firm ownership in India in the manufacturing sector. Much of the focus in academic writings and policy discussions is on the large family owned firms such as the Birlas and Tatas. However, there are also another set of family owned manufacturing firms, and these are household enterprises in the informal manufacturing sector.

Countries: 
India - Central
Research programmes: 
Finance, Firm capabilities
Researchers: 
Rajesh Raj S N
Kunal Sen
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POLICY BRIEF

Informal Monitoring Mechanisms in Public Service Delivery: Evidence from the Public Distribution System in India

The incidence of malnourishment among children in India is very high. As one of the government programmes aimed at addressing malnutrition, the Targeted Public Distribution System of India (TPDS) distributes grains and other goods through over 450,000 Fair Price (FP) shops, where households are entitled to purchase rice, wheat, and other goods at below market rates from a locally appointed shopkeeper. The subsidy for grain is primarily targeted toward below-poverty-line (BPL) households, where BPL status is assigned by local elected officials.

Countries: 
India - Central
Research programmes: 
State capabilities
Researchers: 
Sheetal Sekhri
Sriniketh Nagavarapu
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WORKING PAPER

Scoring politicians’ performance fosters debate but no improvement in accountability

New IGC research carried out over five years in Uganda shows that while increased information on politicians’ performance can lead to more debate about political effectiveness, it does not automatically lead to greater political accountability.  This challenges the popular hypothesis that transparency leads more or less directly to improvements in government performance.

Countries: 
Uganda
Research programmes: 
Governance, accountability and political economy
Researchers: 
Macartan Humphreys, Jeremy Weinstein
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