Economics

The reorganisation of informal household garbage collection work in Delhi is analysed, as migrants from eastern states like West Bengal have begun doing manual waste work, even as their Balmikis deal only with monthly cash payments. Drawing on fieldwork, the effect on the Balmiki jamadars is noted, and the Bengali Muslims, who newly contend with the practices of untouchability in their neighbourhoods of work, are focused on. These newer migrants come to justify the shame they experience by focusing on the equivalence of scrap with money, which has redemptive potential. This reveals a dynamic process through which caste differences are being remade—”casteification”—in relation to economic life.

Investments in industry have slowed down considerably in the recent years, as has agricultural growth. Falling levels of capacity utilisation, building up of food stocks and the state of liquidity in the economy sufficiently prove that the problem today is the lack of demand. Rural distress, rising inequality and falling real wages are driving down demand. The government’s response to the slowdown has been woefully inadequate. The biggest impediment to policymaking is not the lack of ideas, but the blinkered vision of economics. 

Reflecting on their experience of using The Economy to teach undergraduate students in India, two teachers of economics discuss the need for a version of the alternative textbook that addresses the needs of students who seek to understand the Indian economy. The possibilities of such a version of the textbook are discussed.

The Economy presents a new approach to teaching macroeconomics. It starts from real-life institutions of macroeconomic policy management, teaching models that engage directly with these institutions. Money and monetary policy are explained in the context of modern banking systems, while the Phillips curve is derived from the labour market model. By emphasising empirical applicability, and the linkages with microeconomics, it provides students with a more intuitive and realistic understanding than standard approaches.

Adding to the ongoing debate on how best to understand game theory and its relevance to economics, a response toAtanu Sengupta and Abhijit Ghosh’s “Non-cooperativeGame Theory and Pay-off” (EPW, 28 January 2017).