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Sujata Visaria
Sujata Visaria is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She earned her Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, and worked at Boston University for four years before coming to HKUST. Her research studies how financial institutions affect micro-level outcomes in developing countries. She has published in journals such as the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Review and Econometrica. She is an affiliate of the Bureau for the Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) and the Small and Medium Enterprise Initiative of Innovations for Poverty Action.
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Middleman margins and market structure in West Bengal potato supply chains
Potato farmers in West Bengal sell to local middlemen because they lack direct access to wholesale markets. Middleman margins are large and there is negligible pass-through from wholesale to farm-gate prices. Farmers are uninformed about downstream wholesale and retail prices. This column finds that providing farmers with wholesale price information has negligible average effects on farm-gate sales and revenues, but increases pass-through from wholesale to farm-gate prices.
Financial inclusion for agricultural growth: An alternative approach
Traditional, group-based microcredit has had limited success at enabling farmers to expand the cultivation of risky but profitable cash crops. Evidence suggests that this is mainly because of its mechanisms for borrower selection and enforcement of repayment. This column proposes a new approach that leverages local intermediaries and aligns their incentives with farmer profits, to generate better outcomes for agricultural production and incomes.
Should students be rewarded for attending school regularly?
A growing literature examines whether incentives can increase effort and improve school performance of underprivileged students. This article discusses an experiment conducted in non-formal schools in the slums of Ahmedabad, Gujarat to assess the effect of a short-term reward scheme for attending a target number of school days. It finds increased attendance but reduced performance and intrinsic motivation amongst those who need the greatest boost in effort and performance.
Potato Traders in West Bengal: A Survey of Contractual Relations and Market Structure
This study consists of a pilot survey of a random subset of phorias (middlemen) and larger traders who operate in 72 villages of West Medinipur and Hugli districts in West Bengal and their corresponding potato markets.
Middleman Margins, Credit and Information Constraints: Potato Markets in West Bengal, India
This project investigates how potato farmers in West Bengal sell their crop to local traders, the determinants of farm-gate prices and margins earned by traders. Specifically, it examines the role of asymmetric information regarding prices in neighbouring wholesale markets where local traders resell these potatoes.