India's official statistics

The availability of good quality official statistics is crucial for empirical economists as well as for evidence-based policy. At IIT Delhi, some of us are engaged in collaborative research work examining the quality of India’s demographic, economic and social statistics. Our current research focuses on methods to evaluate the data quality, understanding the context within which statistics are generated, delays in the release of official statistics, and implications of data quality for policymaking. Some research on how big data and AI can assist India’s official statistics is in pipeline.

Faculty: Prof. Ankush Agrawal

Social Policy and Welfare

Social policy in India including welfare for children and adults, social support provided in kind and in cash, with a special focus on rural areas. A range of issues related to technology in welfare, including exclusion of people, privacy issues, conflict of interest in policymaking. The place of primary data collection in quantitative research from the point of view of methods and understanding. We are also interested in thinking critically about big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Faculty: Prof. Reetika Khera

Health Economics

Healthcare markets, irrespective of a country's progress, are likely to suffer from multiple inefficiencies. Such imperfections may manifest as lack of insurance coverage, high out-of-pocket expenditure, inducement of unnecessary services, and other less desirable outcomes. Some of us are engaged in examining the implication of these inefficiencies on health and socio-economic outcomes. The empirical research methods we use include experimental and quasi-experimental techniques using primary or secondary data sources, including large household surveys. Some of this research is already published. The projects in the pipeline include the effect of copayment-free health insurance on unnecessary surgeries, nudging households to adopt clean cooking fuel, adverse health effects of colonial tax laws, etc.

Faculty: Prof. Sisir Debnath, Prof. Sourabh B Paul

Labour Economics

Creating productive jobs are the key to sustainable growth. However, the creation of productive jobs is hindered by numerous frictions like the inappropriate structural transformation of the economy, demand and supply shocks, and various regulations that result in unintended consequences. Some of us at IIT Delhi is engaged to understand the present macroeconomic scenario and the multiple frictions that hinder its stable growth. The research methods include various econometric and quasi-experimental techniques using primary and secondary data sources. Some of the projects that are in the pipeline include the impact of the recent labour law deregulations on heterogeneous firm performances and employment, the changes in the dynamics of productivity growth during economic downturns.

Faculty: Prof. Sisir Debnath, Prof. Sourabh B Paul

Social mobility and discrimination

This cluster focuses on some of the important development issues in India, ranging from the public good provision, discrimination, caste and gender gaps in education, to social and economic mobility, among others. Our work broadly aims to understand the impact of government policies and institutions on economic outcomes in India. More specifically, recent work has addressed a wide range of issues, including caste discrimination in the provision of public schools and its impact on educational outcomes across social groups, the impact of the Right to Education Act on the quality of public schools and learning outcomes, gender disparities in private educational investment, and quality of public service delivery in rural areas of Nagaland. We use different methodologies, including quantitative (theoretical and empirical) and qualitative (primary surveys, interviews, group discussions) techniques to understand our research problems. The purpose of the cluster is to provide a platform for productive discussions and collaborations among the members both within and outside IITD. Through our research, we aim to contribute to the goal of inclusive growth and development.

Faculty: Prof. Sourabh B Paul

Innovation Economics

Our understanding of the role of Innovation needs a convergence with perspectives from new industries and emerging markets. Some of us at IIT Delhi, are trying to look, understand and analyze the factors that can determine the innovation effort at the firm level in India and discuss its implications for future policy recommendations. To undertake our research goals under this cluster, we use theoretical, experimental and quasi-experimental techniques using primary or secondary data sources. Some of the research projects that are in the pipeline are strategic interactions in the innovation sphere, bargaining driven by innovation, innovation and sectoral pattern, Impact of competition on innovation effort, STEM qualifications and innovation etc.

Faculty: Prof. Sourabh B Paul

Structural change and labour productivity

The average labour productivity growth in India has been phenomenal in the last few decades. While the tertiary sector’s contribution stands out in the India’s productivity growth story, the contribution of the structural change or the sectoral relocation of workers are getting increasing attention among researchers in recent times. At our unit, some of us are interested in better understanding this process of structural change and its contribution to economic growth, both from the theoretical and empirical point of view. This research cluster belongs to the broad field of applied macroeconomics and development economics. 

Faculty: Prof. Debasis Mondal