The Economics Department (Planning Unit) at ISI Delhi cordially invites you to the First PPRU Lectures on Policy and Development.

Venue: Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi at the Auditorium.
Date: 17th July, 2008.

9.45 AM: Opening Remarks

10.00 AM: Speaker: Dilip Mookherjee
Topic: Distributive Impact of Reforms in Credit Enforcement: Evidence from Indian Debt Recovery Tribunals.

11.15 AM: Tea break

11.30 AM: Speaker: Kaushik Basu
Topic: Identity and Altruism: The Moral Basis of Prosperity and Oppression

1.00 PM: Lunch

The Distributive Impact of Reforms in Credit Enforcement: Evidence from Indian Debt Recovery Tribunals
Ulf von Lilienfeld-Toal, Dilip Mookherjee and Sujata Visaria
Abstract: It is generally presumed that strengthening the enforcement of lender rights expands the set of incentive compatible loan contracts, resulting in increased access to credit for all types of borrowers. This is based on an implicit assumption of infinitely elastic supply of loans. With inelastic supply, strengthening enforcement can result in greater exclusion of poor borrowers from credit markets and a reallocation of credit from poor to wealthy borrowers. Using a dataset of capital project loans given by a large Indian bank to terms of varying asset sizes, we find evidence of such adverse distributional impacts of a reform to strengthen lender rights implemented across Indian states in the 1990s.

Identity and Altruism: The Moral Basis of Prosperity and Oppression
Kaushik Basu
Abstract: The paper argues that human beings are endowed with an innate altruism and a propensity for pro-social behavior. Yet, in a kind of converse to the First Fundamental Theorem of Welfare Economics, we often behave anarchically and selfishly, despite the contrary innate qualities. The paper tries to understand when and why human beings behave collaboratively. While collaborative behavior is usually good, it can however also be a source of power for one group to oppress another. The paper also examines the mechanics of such oppression.

Dilip Mookherjee is Professor of Economics and Director, Institute of Economic Development, Boston University. He has also taught at the Economics Department (Planning Unit), Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, from 1989-1996, and is now visiting ISI Delhi, as Distinguished PPRU visitor.

He has made path breaking contributions to fields as diverse as contract theory, organization theory and of course development economics, in particular various aspects of inequality. He has published prolifically in top journals, including Econometrica, American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Rand Journal of Economics. Currently, he is a co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics.

Professor Mukherjee has published/edited several books on the economics of development.

He has also received the Mahalanobis Memorial Award, and was a Guggenheim Fellow during 2001-02.

Kaushik Basu is C. Marks Professor of International Studies, Professor of Economics, and Director, Center for Analytic Economics, Cornell University. He has taught at the Delhi School of Economics from 1978 to 1994, and was Visiting Scientist, Indian Statistical Institute, 2007. He is now visiting ISI Delhi, as Distinguished PPRU visitor.

Professor Basu has made path breaking contributions in many different fields like social choice, game theory and development economics, in particular child labour. He has published extensively in top journals like Econometrica, American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Economic Journal, Social Choice and Welfare, Journal of Development Economics. Currently, he is the editor of Social Choice and Welfare.

He has published/edited several books on the economics of development. He has written many newspaper articles on various issues and currently writes a fortnightly column for the Sunday edition of Hindustan Times, titled Visible Hand.

Professor Basu was conferred the Padma Bhusan in 2008, has been a Fellow of the Econometric Society and has received Mahalanobis Memorial Award.