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Article
Publication date: 3 February 2022

Amita Majumder, Ranjan Ray and Sattwik Santra

This paper aims to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed procedure to evaluate the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India by applying it to provide evidence on optimal…

178

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed procedure to evaluate the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India by applying it to provide evidence on optimal commodity tax rates.

Design/methodology/approach

In the optimal commodity tax literature, the commonly used Ramsey–Samuelson–Diamond–Mirrlees framework assumes invariance of budget allocation between pre- and posttax regimes and uses only the first-order conditions in the two-stage optimization procedure. This paper proposes an iterative method that overcomes the above limitations in obtaining the optimal tax rates.

Findings

It is found that the optimal commodity taxes are highly sensitive to the procedure used to estimate them. The resulting tax rates turn out to be close to the GST tax slabs. The results also show that on both absolute and relative measures, for all the selected states considered here and for All-India, the optimal tax systems are progressive for two chosen values of the inequality aversion parameter.

Originality/value

There is a very limited literature on the computational methodology to calculate optimal commodity taxes, and consequently, the evidence is quite scarce as well. In combining contributions to the computation of optimal taxes with empirical evidence, this paper fills a significant gap in the literature. The context of India gives it added value since the GST has recently been introduced in India, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first attempts at evaluating the Indian GST through the spectacles of optimal taxes.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

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Article
Publication date: 20 January 2020

Amita Majumder, Ranjan Ray and Sattwik Santra

This study aims to apply a proposed methodology for calculating spatial prices in a heterogeneous country setting such as India with limited price information. Based on the…

143

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to apply a proposed methodology for calculating spatial prices in a heterogeneous country setting such as India with limited price information. Based on the empirical evidence, the study plans to draw the spatial price map of India with different colours denoting states and districts with varying level of spatial prices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study shows that a procedure proposed by Lewbel (1989), based on the idea by Barten (1964) that household composition changes have “quasi-price effects”, can be used to estimate spatial prices in the absence of information on regional prices.

Findings

The evidence on spatial price differences in India, which is the most comprehensive to date because it goes down to district level, shows that the proposed procedure has considerable potential in future applications on other data sets with limited price information. The policy importance of the results is underlined by the sensitivity of the demand elasticities to the inclusion/omission of spatial price variation.

Research limitations/implications

The study uses “pseudo unit values” based on household composition and demographic effects on demand as proxy for the missing price information. While the work of Atella et al. (2004) suggests that such proxies are accurate representations of true prices, nevertheless, they are proxies and the results should be treated with caution.

Practical implications

The evidence on spatial prices in India that point to a high degree of price heterogeneity between regions implies that welfare applications such as income distributional and poverty studies must take account of the price heterogeneity within the country. The implications extend beyond India to cross-country exercises such as the purchasing power parity calculations undertaken by the International Comparison Project.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies that provide evidence on spatial price heterogeneity within a country without requiring regional price information. Methodologically, the paper builds on the suggestion of Lewbel (RES, 1989) in showing how the demographic effects on household expenditure pattern can be used to estimate spatial prices. The value of the contribution lies in the use that the estimated spatial prices can be put to in calculating inequality and poverty rates and in standard of living comparisons between regions in the country.

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Article
Publication date: 9 April 2018

Amita Majumder, Ranjan Ray and Sattwik Santra

The purpose of this study is to examine the sensitivity of regional and world poverty rates to the purchasing power parities (PPP) used in the calculations. The PPPs are required…

246

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the sensitivity of regional and world poverty rates to the purchasing power parities (PPP) used in the calculations. The PPPs are required to convert the “international poverty line” typically denominated in US dollar to its local currency equivalent in the various countries. While recent studies on world poverty differ with respect to the specification of the international poverty line (IPL), they universally use the PPP available from the international comparison program (ICP). This study provides a departure and calculates PPPs using the Gini–Elteto–Koves–Szulc (GEKS) price index and country product dummy (CPD) model as alternatives to the ICP PPPs. The GEKS and CPD PPPs are compared with the ICP PPPs. The paper then compares the global and regional poverty rates based on the three sets of PPPs and presents evidence of significant revision to the poverty rates if we depart from the use of the ICP PPPs. The study tests for the presence of serial correlation between price movements in different countries and investigates its impact on the PPPs. The methodological contribution of this paper is to establish the close nexus between price indices and poverty rates via the PPPs used in obtaining the local currency unit (LCU) denominated IPL.

Design/methodology/approach

The PPP calculations in this paper relate to the ICP round, 2011. Along with the ICP PPPs from published reports (with India as the numeraire country), we report the following indices, namely, the GEKS, weighted CPD and its two spatially correlated generalisations. The ICP PPPs are used as benchmark. The ICP group in the World Bank made the price and expenditure information for 2011 available. Corresponding poverty rates are calculated at the country, regional and global levels.

Findings

The empirical evidence points to the fact that while at the country level the alternative calculations have high impact on the implied poverty rates, at the regional and global level the rates are reasonably quite robust.

Research limitations/implications

Three points are worth noting, namely, as opposed to the PPP for “Individual consumption expenditure by households” (ICEH), which is the PPP used for international poverty monitoring by the World Bank and others, we have used the ICP PPPs for “Actual individual consumption” (AIC); although ICP uses the GEKS procedure above the BH level, we independently calculated these PPPs using the price information provided, and the base country has been moved from the USA to India.

Practical implications

One can come up with independently estimated PPPs that do not require the elaborate and expensive procedure set up by the ICP and can arrive at robust poverty rates at the regional and global level.

Social implications

The change in base has been made as India shares many of the features of a developing country including high poverty rates, but at the same time provides a market and an economy size that places it in the top tier of nations. In addition, poverty comparisons amongst developing countries can be made using these PPPs directly, without reference to the USA. The poverty calculations are based on the PovcalNet program.

Originality/value

There is no clear answer to the question “how robust are the global poverty numbers to departures from the ICP PPPs?” in the literature nor is there any evidence on the robustness of the ICP PPPs themselves to changes in the ICP methodology. Given that the ICP uses the Gini–Elteto–Koves–Szulc (GEKS) multilateral price index in aggregation of ICP PPP basic heading data, in an attempt to partially answer this question this study examines the sensitivity of measures of relative prices (and poverty) to using CPD (and various spatial versions) and GEKS methods, using price data provided by the World Bank. It also verifies how these PPPs track the published 2011 ICP PPPs, which are used as benchmark.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

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Article
Publication date: 11 April 2016

Amita Majumder, Ranjan Ray and Kompal Sinha

The purpose of this paper is to extend the methodology proposed in Majumder et al. (2012) for the estimation of the item-specific purchasing power parities (PPPs) within…

630

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the methodology proposed in Majumder et al. (2012) for the estimation of the item-specific purchasing power parities (PPPs) within countries, to the cross-country context. It estimates item-specific intra-country PPPs (i.e. spatial prices) and inter-country PPPs in a unified framework using unit records of household food expenditures from three Asian countries: India, Indonesia and Vietnam, covering contemporaneous time periods. The study addresses a key limitation of the International Comparison Program (ICP) exercise, namely, that it treats all countries, large and small, as homogeneous entities. Moreover, it directly calculates bilateral PPPs between countries based on their expenditure patterns and prices alone and directly estimates the price-level indices (PLI) and their standard errors, allowing formal tests of the hypothesis of PLI being unity. The usefulness of the estimated PPPs is illustrated by applying them to comparisons of real food expenditures between the three countries, and benchmarking the comparisons with those using the ICP PPPs.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is based on the fact that a spatial price index can be viewed as a true cost of living index (TCLI). Using a general cost function underlying the Rank 3 quadratic logarithmic systems, the TCLI is calculated for a reference utility level.

Findings

The study provides formal statistical tests of the hypothesis of item invariance of the PPPs. The usefulness of the proposed methodology is illustrated by applying the estimated PPPs in comparisons of food expenditures between subgroups in the three countries. The sensitivity of the expenditure comparisons to the use of item-wise PPPs underlines the need to provide price information on highly disaggregated PPPs to a much greater extent than the ICP has done to date.

Research limitations/implications

The choice of these three Asian countries was dictated by the fact that, though comparability of items between them remains an issue as with all cross-country comparisons. Also, in the absence of price data, this study followed the practice in Majumder et al. (2012, 2015a, 2015b) in using as proxies the raw unit values of the food items, but adjusted for quality and demographic factors using the procedure introduced by Cox and Wohlgenant (1986) and extended by Hoang (2009).

Practical implications

It addresses some limitations of the ICP, namely, ICP treats all countries as single entities with the purchasing power of the country’s currency assumed to be the same in all regions within the country, ICP uses the US dollar as the numeraire (this ignores the fact that the PPPs required in bilateral welfare comparisons between developing countries with vastly different consumption habits from the “international norm” are quite different from the ICP PPPs) and ICP uses distribution invariant prices to calculate PPPs, which overlooks the fact that the poor pay different prices from the “representative” individual.

Social implications

This study highlights the importance of estimating and using item-specific PPPs in cross-country comparisons by formally testing and rejecting the assumption of item invariant PPPs and by providing empirical evidence that they do make a difference to the welfare comparisons between countries. This study provides PPPs based on food items only, which may be more relevant for poverty comparisons.

Originality/value

It introduces, for the first time, the concept of item-specific PPPs between countries as estimable parameters and operationalizes this concept by using them in cross-country welfare comparisons.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

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Article
Publication date: 8 November 2013

Amita Majumder, Ranjan Ray and Kompal Sinha

The contribution of this study is both methodological and empirical. It provides a method of estimating preference consistent true cost of living indices and demonstrates the use…

277

Abstract

Purpose

The contribution of this study is both methodological and empirical. It provides a method of estimating preference consistent true cost of living indices and demonstrates the use of unit values (food items), adjusted for quality and demographic effects, as prices. Using NSS data, changes in living standards (measured by per capita real expenditure) in India are examined between 1999/2000 and 2009/2010. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

From the adjusted unit values, “exact” price indices are computed using QAIDS-based preference consistent methods that allow between-item substitution effects and variation across states.

Findings

A comparison of the nominal and price deflated real expenditures under alternative temporal price scenario during 1999/2000-2009/2010 shows that the states largely preserve their ranks over the periods, in spite of differential temporal price movement. However, comparison of the nominal and price-deflated real expenditure growth reveals that the rankings are sensitive to the price deflator used.

Practical implications

The results question the wisdom of the treatment of large countries with heterogeneous preferences, e.g. India, as single entities in PPP calculations as in the ICP project. Hence, the results have methodological and empirical implications that extend beyond India.

Originality/value

The study provides evidence on the issue of spatial difference in the temporal movement in prices, where no such evidence exists, and contains the first evidence on living standards in India in the post global financial crisis era. Also, this is the first attempt to base calculation of temporal movement in prices, as measured by the “exact” price indices, on the adjusted unit values of food items.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

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Article
Publication date: 8 April 2014

Ishita Chatterjee and Ranjan Ray

There have been very few attempts in the economics literature to empirically study the link between criminal and corrupt behaviour due to lack of data sets on simultaneous…

1059

Abstract

Purpose

There have been very few attempts in the economics literature to empirically study the link between criminal and corrupt behaviour due to lack of data sets on simultaneous information on both types of illegitimate activities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study uses a large cross-country data set containing individual responses to questions on crime and corruption along with information on the respondents' characteristics. These micro-level data are supplemented by country-level macro and institutional indicators. A methodological contribution of this study is the estimation of an ordered probit model based on outcomes defined as combinations of crime and bribe victimisation.

Findings

The authors find that: a crime victim is more likely to face bribe demands, males are more likely victims of corruption while females are of serious crime, older individuals and those living in the smaller towns are less exposed to crime and corruption, increasing levels of income and education increase the likelihood of crime and bribe victimisation to be reported and a stronger legal system and a happier society reduce both crime and corruption. However, the authors find no evidence of a strong and uniformly negative impact of either crime or corruption on a country's growth rate.

Originality/value

This paper is, to the authors' knowledge, the first in the literature to explore the nexus between crime and corruption, their magnitudes, determinants and their effects on growth rates.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

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Article
Publication date: 6 July 2012

Shivashish Bose

Practical conservation of heritage buildings in Kolkata started in the 1990s and the first restoration project was the Town Hall, a public building built by the British in 1813…

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Abstract

Purpose

Practical conservation of heritage buildings in Kolkata started in the 1990s and the first restoration project was the Town Hall, a public building built by the British in 1813, in the central business district by a public‐private partnership. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the restoration process and adaptive reuse of the Town Hall as a case study.

Design/methodology/approach

A team of conservationists, architects and structural engineers worked during 1996‐1998. The methodology included surveying and documenting the existing structure; examining old materials and methods of construction, earlier repairs and the suitability of matching new materials; analysing the structure, defects and their causes; prescribing remedial measures; preparing items of work, estimating and tendering for appointment of contractors; allocating funds for restoration; supervision and monitoring of the works.

Findings

It was necessary to undertake structural strengthening and physical restoration through corrective measures, and reinstallation of all service systems, which resulted in the opening up of this edifice again for various kinds of public use, that included a museum.

Social implications

This was a pilot project for the state administration and the people of Kolkata. After this project, the conservation of historic buildings became an agenda of government and civil society. The lessons learned here were applied to the restoration of other similar buildings in Kolkata.

Originality/value

Conservation‐researchers, academics and practitioners will gain from this paper an in‐depth understanding of the restoration process in Kolkata.

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Article
Publication date: 16 November 2018

Mayengbam Premi Devi, Manas Ranjan Sahoo, Aparna Kuna, Madhumita Dasgupta, Sowmya Mandarapu, Prahlad Deb and Narendra Prakash

This study aims to examine the effects of various physical and chemical pre-treatments on antioxidant properties of tree bean (Parkia roxburghii G. Don) in combination with…

163

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of various physical and chemical pre-treatments on antioxidant properties of tree bean (Parkia roxburghii G. Don) in combination with storage conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

The whole pods and seeds of tree bean were treated with gamma rays (γ-rays), sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), chlorine dioxide (ClO2) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and stored at room temperature (RT, 25°C) for 30 days. The physical and chemical pre-treated seeds and pods were compared with the same stored at RT and refrigerated storage at 4°C and −20°C. During storage, physical (moisture content) and antioxidants like total phenolics, ascorbate content, reduced glutathione, total flavonoids, along with free radical scavenging activities (FRSA) were measured.

Findings

Chemical pre-treatments with NaOCl, ClO2 and H2O2 significantly accelerated (p = 0.05) the total phenolics (1.9 mg/g FW in seeds and 2.4 mg/g FW in pods), flavonoids content (0.3 mg/g FW each in seeds and pods) and ABTS activities (73.3 per cent in seeds and 92.3 per cent in pods) at 30 days of storage. A significant decrease (p = 0.05) in ascorbate content (6.1 mg/g FW in seeds and 3.5 mg/g FW in pods), reduced glutathione (5.1 mg/g FW in seeds and 3.7 mg/g FW in pods), FRAP (0.3 mg equi Fe/g FW in seeds and 0.4 mg equi Fe/g FW in pods) and reducing power (1.8 mg/g FW in seeds and 3.7 mg/g FW in pods) was observed under all the treatments at 30 days of storage. However, DPPH increased under γ-irradiation and decreased under chemical pre-treatments, storage at RT and refrigerated storage. The overall result showed that pre-treatment of H2O2 at 10-20 mM maintains antioxidants and radical scavenging activities in tree bean during storage.

Originality/value

The application of H2O2 at 10-20 mM prior to storage of tree bean maintains the physical, antioxidant properties and FRSA in tree bean seeds and pods as compared to natural ambient conditions. Hence, this technique will help in improving the keeping quality of this legume and avoid spoilage after harvest for an extended period.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 49 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

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Article
Publication date: 30 July 2024

Pooja Malik, Parul Malik, Jamini Ranjan Meher and Shatrughan Yadav

This paper analyzes the impact of the perceived ability motivation opportunity (AMO) framework on talent retention via employee engagement, which act as a mediator. Moreover, the…

734

Abstract

Purpose

This paper analyzes the impact of the perceived ability motivation opportunity (AMO) framework on talent retention via employee engagement, which act as a mediator. Moreover, the study also explores the moderating role of transformational leadership between employee engagement and talent retention.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey responses were gathered from 360 frontline employees of five-star hotels in the Indian hospitality industry. Structural equation modeling using SMART PLS-4 was used to test the measurement model, construct reliability and validity, and hypotheses were tested using partial-least square structural equation modeling.

Findings

The study results demonstrate that AMO-enhancing HR practices positively affect talent retention. Concerning the indirect effects, results indicate that employee engagement partially mediates the relationship between the perceived AMO framework and talent retention. The moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between employee engagement and talent retention showed a significant interaction effect.

Practical implications

The study results suggest that hospitality organizations must focus on effectively designing and implementing HRM bundles catering to their employees’ abilities, motivation and desired opportunities. Also, industrial practitioners must focus on nurturing the transformational leadership style to ensure higher employee engagement and talent retention.

Originality/value

The paper offers significant implications for the hospitality industry struggling to retain talented professionals. Also, the study provides a comprehensive framework that suggests a positive influence of the AMO framework on talent retention among hospitality employees in the context of developing countries, in which there is minimal empirical research.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

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Book part
Publication date: 18 July 2022

Samridhi Tanwar and Surbhi Bhardwaj

Introduction: Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a deciding factor in the insurance industry’s growth in any nation. Besides, similar socioeconomic conditions, some countries tend…

Abstract

Introduction: Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a deciding factor in the insurance industry’s growth in any nation. Besides, similar socioeconomic conditions, some countries tend to attract more FDI inflows. This chapter focuses on exploring the FDI in the insurance industry in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS).

Purpose: The chapter aims to explore the current situation of FDI in the insurance industry in BRICS member nations and uncover the factors that have led to higher foreign investments in some countries.

Methodology: Using descriptive and comparative approaches, this chapter explains the FDI scenario in the insurance sector of BRICS nations.

Findings: Based on a comparative analysis, the authors observed that deregulation, increased foreign engagement, and adoption of innovative technology and distribution methods are some avenues that could be worked upon to improve FDIs in the Indian insurance sector.

Details

Big Data Analytics in the Insurance Market
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-638-4

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