Dr. Amlan Das Gupta will be presenting a seminar on 4th April 2017 at 3.30 P.M. in SEANZA Hall.

Title: Impact of Cash Transfers Compared to Subsidy in Food: Evidence from the Indian Public Distribution System.

Abstract : This paper examines the contribution of the Public Distribution System (PDS) of food grains in India in context of the theoretical prediction that a price subsidy based transfer (like the PDS) and a simple cash transfer produces identical changes in consumption choices for agents who are inframarginal. The paper finds that a unit increase in PDS subsidy leads to a much larger purchase of food-grains than a unit increase in consumption expenditure. Households that receive bigger subsidies also spend less on food and consume cheaper calories which is contrary to the effect of higher consumption expenditure. The paper also explores the differential impact of subsidy and consumption expenditure on other food and non-food purchases to trace the cause of the difference observed in food-grain purchase.