Raghbendra Jha

Raghbendra Jha (1953 – 20 November 2023) was an Indian economist and an academic who was a professor emeritus in the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University. Jha's research focused on public economics, macroeconomics, development economics, and the economy of India. Facets of India’s Economy and Her Society, Environmental Sustainability: A Consumption Approach, and Macroeconomics for Development: Prognosis and Prospects and several others.

Jha was a fellow of the World Innovation Foundation and the Research School of Asia and the Pacific at Australian National University. He was the editor for the International Journal of Economics and Business. He also served as the book series editor for Lecture Notes in Economics and Policy published by World Scientific, member of the panel of series editors for Institutions and Development in South Asia, and in 2023 served as a guest editor of Journal of Risk and financial management for the special issue on bank lending and monetary policy.

Education Jha obtained his B.A. (honours) in economics from St. Stephen's College at Delhi University in 1973, and his M.A. in economics from the Delhi School of Economics at the same university in 1975. He then enrolled at Columbia University in New York, where he completed his M.Phil. in Economics and earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1978 under the supervision of Edmund S. Phelps.

Jha was program director, inaugural director for economic growth and development, at the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis in 2004, and head of the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics from February 2014 to March 2017. His research has particularly focused on areas such as public policy in developing countries, poverty alleviation, agricultural growth, inequality, optimal taxation, the economic and social history of India, market price behavior, food security, and fiscal federalism in India. In 1999, he explored the tax efficiency of fifteen major Indian states from 1980–81 to 1992–93, revealing a moral hazard problem with central grants. Wealthier states do not necessarily show higher tax efficiency, and he suggested increasing the weight on tax effort in central grant formulas to enhance tax efficiency. His research findings indicated no convergence in tax efficiency rankings over time, recommending adjustments in central grant formulas to incentivize states. He also examined optimal pricing for public sector commodities, considering distributional preferences and flexible production, revealing increasing returns to scale in production, challenging assumptions in studies on the Indian economy. Furthermore, his research emphasized the increased social cost of providing public goods due to the deadweight cost of taxation.

Agricultural growth In his research on agricultural growth, Jha examined the grain market and proposed a method to analyze the Bid-Ask Spread of wholesalers, shedding light on production and consumption patterns. His findings contributed to understanding Bid-Ask Spread components in agricultural markets. Furthermore, he explored the efficiency of wheat farming in India using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), revealing higher efficiency in large farms and highlighting policy implications for land reforms. He emphasized testing market integration in agricultural markets, finding incomplete integration due to government interference and providing policy insights for market inefficiencies and food security. He also proposed and tested a model of asymmetric price transmission.

Macroeconomics Some of Jha's research is also focused on macroeconomics and the effects of fiscal policy in developed and developing countries. In two editions of his book, Macroeconomics for Developing Countries, he examined the argument regarding adopting Western policies or developing unique frameworks tailored to the needs of developing nations. He provided a study of the standard macroeconomic theory necessary to understand this argument. In his book Macroeconomics for Development: Prognosis and Prospects he assessed the impact of the COVID pandemic crisis on prospects for development of less developed countries and examined the challenges of designing macroeconomic policies under extreme conditions such as zero interest rates. His research also explored various aspects, including the roles of fiscal authorities, the impact of trade shocks, and the costs and risks associated with asset development and infrastructure. It provided empirical evidence on deficit sustainability, examined the endogeneity of money supply in relation to fiscal policy and capital flows, and highlighted challenges in implementing stabilization policies. Moreover, his research on India revealed a decrease in corruption with economic growth, emphasizing the positive impact of the Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005. Additionally, he analyzed the political economy of India's economic growth, emphasizing challenges in increasing employment elasticity and stressing the need for forward-looking economic reforms, policy measures, and attitudinal changes in government bureaucracy to expedite economic growth.

Poverty alleviation Jha's studies have examined the causes, patterns, and impacts of poverty, aiming to propose strategies for poverty alleviation. His analysis has shed light on the evolution, structure, and determinants of rural poverty in India, offering policy recommendations for improving anti-poverty strategies. He has also investigated the relationship between landholdings and participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP), revealing potential issues of program capture and highlighting the complementarity between NREGP and the Public Distribution System (PDS). His work underscored the need for supplementary measures to enhance real income transfer through food subsidies.

Jha's research uncovered high program capture in rural India's workfare programs, particularly among the general population and Scheduled Castes. He highlighted potential collusion between the elite and program implementers, favoring income-based targeting over social group-based targeting.