We examine the causal effect of political competition on public health provision. We find evidence of a quantity-quality trade-off: political competition leads to an increase in quantity (or access to health) that is more ‘visible’ and proximate to the voters at the cost of quality (or capacity of health centres) that is harder to ascertain due to information asymmetries between patients and providers.

Roads boost manufacturing productivity by lowering transport costs. We find that a marginal increase in road density raises TFP of Indian firms by 8%, on average.

Rainfall shocks lower income by 7%, shrink consumption and assets, and raise debt-burden of Indian households. I then examine whether the roll-out of a nationwide public workfare program (NREGS) moderated weather-induced adverse income shocks and find favourable results.

We examine the impact of macroeconomic conditions on firm-level efficiency and output in Indian manufacturing. Using firm-level data during 1999-2007, we estimate stochastic frontier production functions for six different industries. We find that: first, although the frontier output shifts outwards, the efficiency levels remain largely stagnant. Secondly, we find no positive impact of infrastructural improvements on firm efficiency. The results are robust to using a synthetic index of macroeconomic variables. Specifically, we find that while infrastructural improvements relating to power generation capacity, electrification of railways, bank expansion or road construction are associated with a rise in a firm’s production potential or its frontier output, it is associated with a decline in actual firm-level efficiency. The underlying reason for this puzzle might be a shifting out of the production frontiers over time at a pace faster than the rate of increase in output, which is consistent with uneven utilisation of improvements in infrastructure amongst firms.