Job Market Paper
Job Market Paper
Unlocking Potential: The Impact of Savings Groups on Household Welfare Outcomes
Key Skills : STATA, Panel data analysis, advanced regression techniques
Abstract: Access to financial services plays an important role in economic development, particularly for the under-served populations. In low-income settings they are often shown to improve food security and ability to make lump-sum payments to purchase durable assets, even in situations where there are no improvements in income. In rural areas, means to formal savings are limited and access to savings is often achieved by participating in savings groups which provide the same benefits. I study this channel in the context of Uganda using National Panel Survey data from 2010-2020; which was a period of rapid expansion of savings groups from a presence of 51% in 2010 increasing all the way up to 86% by 2020- using a TWFE model that exploits the variation in the timing of arrival of a savings groups in a community. I find that savings groups significantly increase household’s average value of assets by roughly 16%, however they do not have a significant impact on monthly household earnings. I also observe that savings groups improves the variety of foods consumed by households. I also validate that bulk quantities do trade at a discount to small quantities which means that households with savings would be less sensitive to price volatility if they make bulk purchases from savings. However, I do not find a significant evidence of increase in bulk purchases of storable foodstuffs due to exposure to savings groups.
Key Skills : R, Difference-in-differences analysis , advanced regression techniques
Abstract: The Preservation of Subsoil Water Acts, implemented by Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, shifted the planting of rice crop closer to the arrival of monsoon rains, to reduce the extraction of groundwater resulting from early planting. In this paper, we empirically investigate the impact of these laws on input choices, production, crop yield and profitability for farmers. In principle, delayed planting should allow farmers to better target inputs to growing conditions, leading to increased profitability. We model difference-in-differences and triple-difference specifications by exploiting variation in the localities where these laws were implemented, the timing of these laws and the monsoon season, and identify these effects. Preliminary findings indicate that, as expected, irrigation input is negatively correlated and revenue per hectare is positively correlated to the policy implementation. The effect of the monsoon season in presence of the policy is also positive on revenue per hectare, but contrary to expectation, it does not seem to affect the irrigation input.
The rise of singlehood and delayed marriages in modern India
Key Skills : R, data analysis, survival analysis tools, statistical modeling
Abstract: Late marriage (above age 25) seemed to be a common feature of modern western societies at the end of the 20th century. In recent years the proportion of unmarried females especially in the age group of 25-34 is on the rise in India, despite the stigma associated with delayed marriage and singlehood. This paper analyzes the trends in singlehood and factors influencing age at first marriage in India. I attempt to explore the impact of select predictors on the marital outcomes for females in the age groups 15-49 years. Higher levels of education among women, rising urbanization and modernization are observed to be key factors influencing women to push forward their marriage, although no drastic rise in singlehood is observed.
The paper analyses the migration and remittance receipt trends for the urban India based on unit level data of the NSSO 64th Round (2007-08). The paper also compares the marginal spending behavior of the urban households receiving internal and international remittances with the non-remittance receiving households. The analysis demonstrates the important role played by the internal migration and remittance receipts, along with its international counterpart in improving living standards, poverty alleviation and thereby overall development of urban households. The marginal spending behaviour of remittance-receiving households confirms with the Engel’s law and the shift in budget share from food towards education, healthcare and consumer durables for such households proves the significant role played by remittances in human capital formation and asset accumulation.