The course scrutinises India as a welfare state, using the lens of applied microeconomics.
We will consider social policy in some key areas: food security, basic education, employment guarantee. In addition, we will analyse policy in three types of rural markets: reforms in the market for land, microfinance initiatives, and publicly funded insurance policies. Finally, we will consider the nature of social exclusion in India, with a special focus on caste.
Through its interactive discussion-based format, as well as by giving you the opportunity of engaging in a substantive empirical research project, this course hopes to give you a deep dive into understanding how economic principles interplay with social forces to shape the Indian development experience.
Pre-requisites: ECO 2101 (Microeconomic Theory I); ECO 2400 (Econometrics)
hemanshu.kumar@ashoka.edu.in