TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kozicka, Marta
A1  - Weber, Regine
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
T1  - Cash vs. in-kind transfers
BT  - the role of self-targeting in reforming the Indian food subsidy program
JF  - Food Security
N2  - Historically, India has relied on subsidizing staple food as a major instrument in improving food security. Recently, however, cash transfers have entered the debate as an alternative, as they are associated with lower market distortions, leakages and fiscal costs. This study contributes to this debate by analyzing India’s Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Our main objective was to explain the under-purchase, or low take-up, from the TPDS, which is typically attributed to ‘leakage’, i.e. the diversion of food grains from eligible consumers. We provide an alternative solution based on self-targeting; while poorer households increase their consumption from the TPDS, wealthier households restrain from consuming subsidized commodities. Using a large household dataset, we estimated that such a voluntary opt-out system, based on income, would save a minimum of 6.5% of grains released through the TPDS. Besides these demand-driven aspects, our analysis indicates that poor regions perform better at lowering the diversion of grains and that large targeting errors exist among female-led households. Finally, we find substantial regional price differences that would benefit the poor and rural population under a uniform cash-transfer system that does not correct for regional price levels.
KW  - Food security
KW  - Policies
KW  - India
KW  - Targeted public distribution system
KW  - Self-targeting
KW  - Cash transfers
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00942-x
SN  - 1876-4517
SN  - 1876-4525
VL  - 11
IS  - 4
SP  - 915
EP  - 927
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kozicka, Marta
A1  - Kalkuhl, Matthias
A1  - Brockhaus, Jan
T1  - Food Grain Policies in India and their Implications for Stocks and Fiscal Costs
BT  - a Dynamic Partial Equilibrium Analysis
JF  - Journal of Agricultural Economics
N2  - We analyse current and possible future reforms of the Indian food policies for the most important staple grains, wheat and rice, within a two-commodity dynamic partial equilibrium model with stochastic shocks. The model is empirically grounded and reproduces past values well. It uses a new reduced-form approach to capture private storage dynamics. We evaluate the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) under several policy measures with the current regime as well as two scenarios with a regime change - implementation of cash transfers and deficiency payments. Implications for market fundamentals and fiscal costs are simulated in the medium term - until 2020/21. The NFSA puts a high pressure on fiscal costs and public stocks. Relying on imports with low support prices results in low fiscal costs and stable, but higher domestic and international prices, and a high risk of zero stocks. A policy strategy to manipulate procurement prices in order to maintain public stocks close to the norms leads to slightly higher fiscal costs with lower, but more volatile prices. The highest domestic price volatility occurs under a strategy which uses export bans in order to maintain sufficient public stocks. A cash-based regime can bring considerable savings and curb fiscal costs, particularly if targeted to the poor, and would leave sufficient stocks due to higher private stocks.
KW  - Fiscal costs
KW  - food grain policies
KW  - grain storage
KW  - India
KW  - NFSA
KW  - reforms
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12176
SN  - 0021-857X
SN  - 1477-9552
VL  - 68
IS  - 1
SP  - 98
EP  - 122
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -