India: Macroeconomics and political economy, 1964-1991

Presents an analytic macroeconomic history of India from 1964 to 1991, assessing the policies pursued in terms of the goals of stabilization and growth, and drawing lessons from India's experience. Introduces the Indian economy and provides some recent history. Describes the nature of markets, the rather dominant role of the public sector and the government in India, and implications for the responses of the Indian economy to the instruments of economic policy. Provides a sketch of political and macroeconomic developments from 1964 to 1991. Examines, in detail, three crises in 1965-67, 1973-75, and 1979-81, all of which arose from exogenous shocks associated with droughts and oil price increases, and a fourth crisis beginning in 1991 as the result of a failure of macroeconomic policy. Evaluates short-term economic management over the entire period. Assesses trends in policy and their long-run effects, considering fiscal policy; monetary policy; trade and payments policy; the deficits and surpluses of public and private sectors; and trends in investment and the efficiency of investment. Discusses the macroeconomic consequences of India's control regime and addresses India's crucial fiscal problem. Joshi is a Fellow of Merton College and Little is an Emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College, both in the University of Oxford. Bibliography; index