Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, September 2024

We investigate investor sentiment regarding mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a public policy. Using the event study methodology, we analysed the cumulative abnormal returns (AR) of companies impacted by Section 135 of the Indian Companies Act 2013. Our findings suggest that setting a CSR expenditure...

American Economic Review, September 2024

Poor entrepreneurs must frequently choose between business investment and children's education. To examine this trade-off, we exploit experimental variation in short-run microenterprise growth among a sample of Indian households and track schooling and business out-comes over eleven years. Treated households, who experience higher initial microenterprise growth, are on average one-third more likely to send children to college...

Journal of Population Economics, September 2024

In this paper, we examine how religious mandates of the holy month of Ramadan affect the gendered distribution of time use within Muslim households in India. Using rich data on time use from a nationally representative time use survey and employing a difference-in-differences methodology, we test if Ramadan accentuates gender differences in time use...

Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, September 2024

The high rice prices of 2023 have highlighted the need for increasing rice productivity. But improving productivity, especially in low-performing rice-producing regions, should also improve incomes for the numerous smallholder cultivators. This article examines what we can learn from the experience of high-performing rice-growing regions, which have both high rice yields and incomes...

World Development, September 2024

Forcible displacement of children disrupts their social capital, and education is of primary importance regarding their integration into the host communities. Millions of individuals found themselves on the “wrong side” of the border when British India was Partitioned purely along religious lines in 1947, leading to mass-scale violence and migration...