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The theoretical connection between decentralization and the representation-cum-efficiency advantage in combating poverty has been questioned by empirical evidence. How decentralization shall be integrated with the intervention from higher-level governments in anti-poverty efforts remains unclear. Drawing on the comparison of India (West Bengal), Mexico, and China, this analysis examines the institutional designs of the poverty alleviation programs across the cases, including the selection of recipients, allocation of fiscal resources, and monitoring, and the political dynamics that generate the designs. Despite differences in the level of poverty and political backgrounds preceding the programs, the key contributors to their success in reducing poverty lie in some common factors, including the strong commitment of the ruling authority to poverty reduction, decentralization in beneficiary identification, and centralized arrangements that reduce elite capture and the power of local brokers. These findings advance our understanding of the endogenous political nature of anti-poverty efforts and the importance of integrating devolution with centralized arrangements in the war against poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the relationship between dowries – wealth transfers from the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage – and individual-level poverty in rural India. Based on the estimates of a collective household model, we show that the share of household consumption expenditure allocated to a woman is strongly associated with the dowry she paid at the time of her marriage. We compute poverty rates separately for women and men and find that women's poverty relative to men decreases with dowry. Moreover, women who paid dowries are less likely to be poor relative to women who did not, even when their households' consumption expenditures are the same. Our counterfactual policy analysis indicates that abolishing or reducing dowries (through anti-dowry laws or taxes, for example) may have the unintended effect of aggravating intra-household inequality and increasing women's risk of living in poverty after marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Inequities in a population in spending on food and non-food items can contribute to disparities in health status. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was launched in rural India in 2006, aimed at providing at least 100 days of manual work to a member in needy households. Methods We used nationally representative data from the consumer expenditure surveys of 2004-05 and 2009-10 and the employment survey of 2009-10 conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation to assess the effect of MGNREGS in reducing inequities in consumption of food and non-food items between poor and non-poor households in the states of India. Variations among the states in implementation of MGNREGS were examined using the employment and unemployment survey data, and compared with official programme data up to 2012-13. Inequity in spending on food and non-food items was assessed using the ratio of monthly per capita consumer expenditure (MPCE) between the most vulnerable (labourer) and least vulnerable categories of households. Results The survey data suggested 1.42 billion person-days of MGNRGES employment in the 2009-10 financial year, whereas the official programme data reported 2.84 billion person-days. According to the official data, the person-days of MGNRGES employment decreased by 43.3% from 2009-10 to 2012-13 for the 9 large less developed states of India. Survey data revealed that the average number of MGNREGS work days in a year per household varied from 42 days in Rajasthan to less than 10 days in 14 of the 20 major states in India in 2009-10. Rajasthan with the highest implementation of MGNRGES among the 9 less developed states of India had the highest relative decline of 10.4% in the food spending inequity from 2004-05 to 2009-10 between the most vulnerable and less vulnerable households. The changes in inequity for non-food spending did not have any particular pattern across the less developed states. In the most vulnerable category, the households in Rajasthan that got 100 or more days of work in a year under MGNREGS had a 25.9% increase in MPCE. Conclusion MGNREGS seems to have contributed to the reduction in food consumption inequity in rural Rajasthan in 2009-10, and has the potential of making a similar contribution with higher level of implementation of this programme in other states. Non-food consumption inequities benefited less from MGNRGES until 2009-10. The reported decrease in the MGNRGES employment person-days in the less developed states of India from 2009-10 to 2012-13 is of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether spending on tobacco crowds out expenditure on basic needs and whether it has implications on nutrition intake and household resource allocation in India. The paper uses a household sample survey from India for the year 1999–2000. A system of quadratic conditional Engel curves was estimated for a set of 10 broad groups of commodities. The results suggest that tobacco consuming households had lower consumption of certain commodities such as milk, education, clean fuels and entertainment which may have more direct bearing on women and children in the household than on men suggesting possible ‘gender effects’ and biases in the allocation of goods and services within the household. Tobacco spending was also found to have negative effects on per capita nutrition intake. The nature of crowding out was found to be similar in low- and high-income households. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]