Articles by Ranjan Ray

This is a critical assessment of the Rangarajan Expert Committee on poverty measurement. While much of the media coverage has focused on the poverty lines recommended by the Committee, this article evaluates the methodology adopted and discusses some wider issues that were flagged in the terms of reference set for this Committee. It argues that the Committee missed an opportunity to mark a significant departure from previous approaches (especially in widening the measure of poverty) and provides illustrative empirical evidence in support of this assertion.

Notwithstanding the wide recognition that movements in relative prices and inequality affect welfare comparisons between households, there is a dearth of literature incorporating them in welfare analysis. Changes in relative prices open up a divergence between nominal and real expenditure inequalities that will persist even if all nominal expenditures are deflated by a household invariant price index. In a period of rising inequality, a comparison of summary welfare measures based on mean or median expenditure, even if inflation adjusted, will give us a misleading picture of changes in living standards. This paper provides evidence for India in the post-reform period. The results confirm that in a period of significant relative price changes and rising inequality, the omission of these factors leads to overstatement of the welfare gains. Another observation is that relatively affluent states do not do all that well if we focus on inequality or on their food consumption alone.

The mounting evidence on the inconsistency between the official poverty estimates in India and those based on a direct specification of the calorie requirements raises serious questions on the credibility of the official poverty line as a measure of the true cost of obtaining the minimum calorie requirements today. This study provides evidence, based on estimated nutrient prices and a ?balanced diet?, that shows how far the official poverty lines have fallen out of line with their ?true? measure. The paper provides robust evidence, with special reference to the socially disadvantaged groups, that suggests that the poverty situation in India is much worse than that revealed in official poverty statistics (?adjusted? or not). This paper makes a methodological contribution by proposing an expenditure-based poverty line, using the household specific estimated nutrient prices, that serves as a compromise between the official poverty line and that specified directly in terms of calories. The proposed poverty line has the advantage of incorporating inter household variation in food preferences due to regional, class, caste and other non-demographic factors that the ?official poverty line? does not do. The study confirms the inferior poverty status, on both poverty measures, of the socially disadvantaged groups vis-?-vis the others. This paper, also, contains evidence that points to the usefulness of the public distribution system in the anti-poverty programme for the backward classes.

This study investigates the key determinants of child labour hours and child schooling experience, paying special attention to the interaction between the two. A significant methodogical feature that distinguishes the present study from previous investigations is that this analysis recognises the joint endogeneity of child labour, child schooling and child poverty. The study is conducted on Nepalese and Pakistani data, and the results are compared. A key empirical finding, with significant policy implications, is the sharp trade-off between child labour and child schooling. Another common feature of both countries is the gender bias in favour of boys' schooling, though the bias is much larger in case of Pakistan.

This paper computes poverty rates for scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and female-headed households. It also highlights the necessity of making adjustments for household size and composition while making welfare comparisons. These adjustments indicate a much greater degree of impoverishment among SC and ST communities than is indicated by the more conventional head count ratios based on the official poverty line. Higher poverty among female-headed households becomes apparent only when demographically-adjusted measures are used.