Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India

There is an increasing demand to add pulses to the basket of subsidized goods in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of India—the world’s largest food-based social safety-net program. Would subsidizing pulses through PDS lead to a significant increase in its consumption? We study the case of subsid...

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Main Authors: Chakrabarti, Suman, Kishore, Avinash, Roy, Devesh
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147528
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author Chakrabarti, Suman
Kishore, Avinash
Roy, Devesh
author_browse Chakrabarti, Suman
Kishore, Avinash
Roy, Devesh
author_facet Chakrabarti, Suman
Kishore, Avinash
Roy, Devesh
author_sort Chakrabarti, Suman
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description There is an increasing demand to add pulses to the basket of subsidized goods in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of India—the world’s largest food-based social safety-net program. Would subsidizing pulses through PDS lead to a significant increase in its consumption? We study the case of subsidy on pulses in select Indian states and its impact on consumption and ultimately nutrition (in terms of protein intake) by exploiting an exogenous variation in prices to answer this question. Between 2004/2005 and 2009/2010, four Indian states introduced subsidized pulses through the country’s PDS, while other states did not. We exploit exogenous price variations to examine whether the price subsidy on pulses achieves its goal of increasing pulse consumption, and by extension protein intake, among India’s poor. Using several rounds of consumption expenditure survey data and difference-in-difference estimation, we find that the change in consumption of pulses due to the PDS subsidy, though statistically significant, is of a small order, and not large enough to meet the goal of enhancing the nutrition of beneficiaries.
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spelling CGSpace1475282025-11-06T05:59:04Z Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India Chakrabarti, Suman Kishore, Avinash Roy, Devesh public distribution systems social protection nutrition subsidies pulses public services social safety nets There is an increasing demand to add pulses to the basket of subsidized goods in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of India—the world’s largest food-based social safety-net program. Would subsidizing pulses through PDS lead to a significant increase in its consumption? We study the case of subsidy on pulses in select Indian states and its impact on consumption and ultimately nutrition (in terms of protein intake) by exploiting an exogenous variation in prices to answer this question. Between 2004/2005 and 2009/2010, four Indian states introduced subsidized pulses through the country’s PDS, while other states did not. We exploit exogenous price variations to examine whether the price subsidy on pulses achieves its goal of increasing pulse consumption, and by extension protein intake, among India’s poor. Using several rounds of consumption expenditure survey data and difference-in-difference estimation, we find that the change in consumption of pulses due to the PDS subsidy, though statistically significant, is of a small order, and not large enough to meet the goal of enhancing the nutrition of beneficiaries. 2016-04-20 2024-06-21T09:22:59Z 2024-06-21T09:22:59Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147528 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153639 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150311 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151162 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150998 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2015.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aay022 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Chakrabarti, Suman; Kishore, Avinash and Roy, Devesh. 2016. Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1523. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147528
spellingShingle public distribution systems
social protection
nutrition
subsidies
pulses
public services
social safety nets
Chakrabarti, Suman
Kishore, Avinash
Roy, Devesh
Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India
title Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India
title_full Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India
title_fullStr Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India
title_short Effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption: Public distribution of pulses in India
title_sort effectiveness of food subsidies in raising healthy food consumption public distribution of pulses in india
topic public distribution systems
social protection
nutrition
subsidies
pulses
public services
social safety nets
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147528
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