From The Logic of Life – “your option to escape means you cannot be relied upon”. Harford makes this point while he is talking about “acting white”. That black kids who work hard at acads are discouraged by family and peers because they are now getting an option to exit the misery. It’s the old…
Tim Harford
I first came across Tim Harford when Tyler Cowen linked to his blog some six-seven months back. He used to blog fairly prolifically back then, and I used to enjoy reading it. In the matter of a couple of months, he had upstaged Tyler to become my favourite econ-blogger (that position currently belongs to Arnold…
Now it’s the turn of the economists
To fear the engineers that is. It seems like TCA Srinivasa Raghavan had an extremely tight deadline with respect to his analysis of the Raghuram Rajan Report. So, instead of taking on the report, he decides to go after the chief author instead. And he doesn’t even do a good job of this. He goes…
On dumping tomatoes, burning wheat and leaving stands unsold
About a month back, I’d written that farmers in Karnataka, when faced with a glut in the tomato crop, elect to throw sack loads of tomatoes on the highways, rather than selling them. During the great depression in America, sack loads of wheat were burnt in order to prevent wheat prices from falling. During the…
Coffee pricing at Chalukya
The pricing of coffee at the Samrat restaurant (part of Hotel Chalukya on Race Course Road) is interesting. This is a popular old restaurant, and being in an area full of government offices, is perennially crowded (despite its large size). It is a sit-down kind of restaurant, though you might have to share a table…
Water privatization in Kundapur
A couple of years back, in a blog post (part of which also went into a project report), I’d talked about water privatization. I had said that it is a good thing even if it pushes up costs, because it now offers people the option to get piped water supply. The analysis went something like:…
Sugarcane Markets
Ah, no. Don’t get psyched by the title. This is not about agriculture, and will not be cross-posted on the Indian Economy Blog. This is more to do with the festival today. Sankranthi. The basic activity during the festival is that you visit some N houses and give them a stick of sugarcane each (along…
Coffee segmentation and take away and food courts
I really like the way the coffee market in India is segmented. You have a clear distinction of cafe and coffee shop. If you just want a quick tasty caffeine kick, you just go to one of the cafes (Darshini types) and for some 6-7 rupees you’ll get excellent steaming and strong filter coffee. However,…
Teaching Economics: Part Two
Madman Aadisht has extended my earlier post to talk about why Economics toppers from DU don’t necessarily need to clear in their concepts. He talks about the admission process and the internal examination process and the course content to arrive at this particular conclusion. So what could be done to fix it? There is no…
Teaching Economics: Part One
Ok I thought this conversation merits a post. Given my writer’s block, I’ll just copy paste it here. And i’m adding some links to the conversation now. The counterparty to this conversation is of course sw_aadisht . You can find his blog here .
The Sugarcane Mess
The situation with the sugar industry has gotten more bizarre, with the Allahabad HC stepping in and mandating that the mills buy sugarcane at Rs. 110 per kilo and start processing. While on first thought, it seems quite funny that the high court is getting into matters it shouldn’t get into, such as fixing of…
Wheat Procurement And Derivatives Markets
So the government has done it again. After managing to procure only about 11 million tons out of the targeted 15 million tons from our farmers, the government has gone ahead and imported about half a million tons from the international market at a much higher price. A process which, in its entirety, ends up…
The Barista Way
The Barista outlet outside Barton centre on M G Road seems to have come up with an excellent way in order to improve their “table turnovers”. They simply play loud and jarring music in order to make the stay as unpleasant as possible for the customers. And new ones keep pouring in so they are…
Vidyarthi Bhavan seems to have got it right
Recently, I had written that the old restaurants in Bangalore need to cash in on their loyalty factor and make use of the inelastic demand in order to remain profitable. Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazaar seems to have gotten it right, at least partially. Of course, they remain closed for lunch and dinner, and on…
Saving the old “hotels”
Recently, an article on the CNN-IBN site about old eateries in Bangalore shutting shop made its way into my inbox a number of times. Read it the first time, and put a “well left” on all subsequent occasions. And recently, in response to some other totally unrelated post, someone wanted me to comment on it.…
Protect The Chain, But At What Cost?
Recently the West? Bengal State Marketing Board chairman Naren Chatterjee had to say this about Metro?s entry into the state, ?have heard that they will sell directly to the trade then what will happen to the people in the chain, they will become jobless. We will not allow any one who disturbs the chain.? Similar…
Upset
I am writing this a few hours after two of the most shocking upsets in World Cup history. Both India and Pakistan have lost. India still have some faint hopes, with two games in hand. If they win both these games, and really heavily, there is still a faint chance that they may qualify. Pakistan,…
The Grameen Bank and Indian Microfinance
It is refreshing that this year?s Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Dr. Mohammed Younus and the Grameen Bank. With the last few Nobel Peace Prizes having gone largely to diplomats, giving the prize to an institution in an underdeveloped country which has taken development to the masses is a welcome change.
interest rates derivatives revisited…
so my favorite topic of interest rate swaps has made front page news today (in the Business Standard). apparently the food corporation of india (FCI) entered into a swap with Barclays in which FCI received fixed and paid an interest rate linked to the yield on Indian GSecs. now it so happens that reverse repo…
Telecom pricing
Yesterday I sent an SMS to Pradeep, who lives in a village called West Lafayette in Amreeka. A couple of minutes later, I get an angry mail from him ?loser, why did you have to send that SMS? I just got charged 10 cents for receiving that! You should?ve mailed?.
the airport conundrum
Those of you who would’ve flown recently would’ve noticed