Decentralised development Bardhan, Pranab
Indian economic review,
12/2019, Volume:
54, Issue:
Suppl 1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this paper we start with an evaluation of the various advantages and disadvantages of decentralisation (in the sense of devolution of power to local agencies and communities), and also of the ...conditions that predispose towards success or failure in beneficial decentralised development. In particular we have focussed on the argument that in governance structures control rights should be assigned to people who have the requisite information and incentives, and at the same time will bear responsibility for the (political and economic) consequences of their decisions. We try to provide a balanced assessment of the efficiency and equity effects of such assignments of control rights and how they operate differently under different initial conditions.
This paper will first distinguish between the non-economist’s approach to corruption largely on the basis of public morals and norms and the economist’s approach in terms of incentives and ...organization. I then discuss why otherwise similar countries may end up with different equilibrium levels of corruption, why such equilibria tend to persist, and why corruption in some countries seems to be more damaging to the economy than in others. I then try to derive some policy lessons.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
A commonly alleged pitfall of decentralization is that poverty, socio-economic inequality and lack of political competition allow local elites to capture local governments. This hypothesis is ...empirically examined using a longitudinal sample of 89 West Bengal villages concerning targeting of credit, agricultural input kits, employment programs and fiscal grants spanning the period 1978–98. Higher poverty, land inequality and low caste composition of the poor was associated with negligible adverse effects on targeting of private goods to the poor
within villages, but with lower employment generation out of allotted funds, and significantly lower allocation of resources to the village as a whole. Political competition or literacy levels among the poor were not systematically related to targeting.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
This paper assesses degradation of forests managed by local communities (Van Panchayats (VPs)), relative to state protected and open access forests in the Indian state of Uttaranchal. It is based on ...ground-level ecological measures of forest quality (including canopy cover, biomass, lopping, and regeneration) in forest areas adjoining a random sample of villages, and controls for unobserved village heterogeneity, possible endogeneity of management regimes and cross-forest spillovers. Controlling for these factors, VP forests are found to be 20–30% less lopped, and similar on other dimensions. The lopping differences are greater the longer the forest has been under a VP.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
There is a substantial theoretical literature now on the factors determining the incidence of corruption, suggesting some policies to fight it, but we do not have a great deal of empirical evidence ...on the effectiveness of these policies. This paper is a brief overview, drawing upon some of the salient features of the literature and with several examples from the Indian case where corruption has become a major issue of public debate, to make remarks that may be more generally relevant for policies in developing countries.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Provides a quantitative analysis of the physical, institutional, and socioeconomic determinants of cooperation in irrigation communities. The data are based on the results of a large survey conducted ...in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Describes the variables, the data, and the expected effects that the independent variables may have on cooperation. Reports the actual results of the statistical analysis . (Original abstract - amended)
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BFBNIB, INZLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
We examine the role of delivery of subsidized seeds and fertilizers in the form of agricultural minikits by local governments in three successive farm panels in West Bengal spanning 1982-1995. These ...programs significantly raised farm value added per acre y accounting for almost two-thirds of the observed growth. The estimates are robust to possible endogeneity of program placement, controls for farm and year effects, other programs of agricultural development, local weather, and price shocks. The effects of the kits delivery program overshadowed the effects of other rural development programs, including the tenancy registration program Operation Barga.
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper studies how land reform and population growth affect land inequality and landlessness, focusing particularly on indirect effects owing to their influence on household divisions and land ...market transactions. Theoretical predictions of a model of household division and land transactions are successfully tested using household panel data from West Bengal spanning 1967–2004. The tenancy reform lowered inequality through its effects on household divisions and land market transactions, but its effect was quantitatively dominated by inequality-raising effects of population growth. The land distribution program lowered landlessness but this was partly offset by targeting failures and induced increases in immigration.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
In this paper, we provide an analytical account of the mechanisms through which globalization, in the sense of increased foreign trade and long-term capital flows, affects the lives of the rural poor ...in developing countries (in their capacity as workers, consumers, recipients of public services, or users of common property resources). Globalization can not only cause many hardships for the rural poor, but it can also open up some opportunities which some countries can utilize and others do not, largely depending on their domestic political and economic institutions, and the net outcome is often quite complex and almost always context dependent, belying the glib pronouncements for or against globalization made in the opposing camps.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
This is an overview paper focusing on the organizational aspects of the Chinese governance system and their relation to development. Compared to other developing countries like India, it has special ...positive features of career incentives promoting growth at the local level, the ability to take long-term decisions relatively quickly, and a unique blend of political centralization and decentralization of economic power and responsibility, that is conducive to central guidance and local business development. On the other hand, with a lack of sufficient downward (as opposed to upward) accountability and absence of institutionalized systems of scrutiny and challenge from below, mistakes or abuse of power are more difficult to check and correct quickly, political loyalty may often get a premium over performance at the upper levels, and there are insufficient checks on collusion between business and officials. The over-all organizational system is prone to over-reaction in times of crisis and thus only weakly resilient compared to systems where information flows from below are less controlled or choked.
•An overview of the Chinese Governance system from the perspective of comparative development.•Strength in terms of career incentives, long-term decision making and decentralization.•Weakness in terms of accountability, ability to correct mistakes and abuse of power, and systemic resilience.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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