Could a universal supplemental income transfer, pegged at 1% of GDP, transform India’s anti-poverty strategy?
Read "An inclusive growth dividend: Reframing the role of income transfers in India’s anti-poverty strategy" by Maitreesh Ghatak and Karthik Muralidharan here.
Many development economists have advocated unconditional cash transfers as a crucial tool for reducing poverty, especially during the present COVID-19 pandemic. In this VoxDev talk, Karthik Muralidharan discusses the effects of a small unconditional cash transfer for India’s development goals. He argues that an inclusive growth dividend, pegged at 1% of GDP and paid to all citizens, would have major positive impacts on key development indicators. And crucially, such a transfer is fiscally affordable for India, as opposed to Universal Basic Income, which requires spending of 4-10% of GDP.