One main advantage of having developed credit institutions is that there are better oppor- tuniti... more One main advantage of having developed credit institutions is that there are better oppor- tunities for dealing with risk. This paper measures access to credit in rural India and the role of credit institutions as insurance mechanisms. I am able to do this by comparing data for 720 rural households that I collected from two Indian states, Kerala and Uttar
This monograph was written to be part of the series of studies commissioned by the Ministry of Ag... more This monograph was written to be part of the series of studies commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture under the rubric of "State of Indian Farmer -A Millennium Study".
This paper examines the eects of income shock on savings decision of a household. In particular, ... more This paper examines the eects of income shock on savings decision of a household. In particular, it analyzes how an idiosyncratic income shock aects the asset portfolio held by a household. It shows that income volitility contributes to poverty of rural households by leading them to reduce stocks of productive assets in order to accumulate liquid assets. Health related income
In this paper we analyze women as political candidates in a representative democracy. Using 50 ye... more In this paper we analyze women as political candidates in a representative democracy. Using 50 years of assembly elections data at the constituency level from the Indian states, we show that women are more likely to contest elections in those constituencies where gender ratio of the electors is less in favor of women. For example, women are more likely to contest elections in backward states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the gender ratio of electors is in favor of men than in socially developed states like Kerala where the gender ratio of electors is more in favor of women. We present a citizen candidates model of representative democracy and show that our empirical results are consistent with the theoretical predictions of this model. Our results challenge existing policy of random reservation of seats for women. JEL Classication: P16, J10, J11
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Papers by Shamika Ravi