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Praise for this book 

Outstanding scholars are typically of two types. Some choose the area of scholarship and master it in all its completeness. Others follow a wider class of issues and master all that is important about them. However, Prof. Radhakrishna has chosen to pursue an even harder intellectual strategy that is what makes him incomparably distinct. He chooses to get deeper into problems that face society in all their aspects and follows these till a meaningful solution is found. It is clearly a hard but meaningful pursuit, as we have known for decades about his works. It is these works that are brought together in this unique volume.  —Prof. V.N. Pandit, Vice-Chancellor, Satya Sai Institute of Higher Education, Ananthapur, India. These are difficult times to be an econometric modeler devoted to identifying key relationships for policy analysis. In an era where quantitatively-driven analytical insights into the linkages among such policy-relevant variables as food prices, income distribution, and nutrient intake seem to take a back seat to loud populists, who miss academic elites as “out of touch” with the common folk, Prof. Radhakrishna provides in this volume, chapter after chapter, precisely these very insights and also uses them to identify clear and helpful policy initiatives that can significantly improve the welfare of vast strata of the Indian population. This volume renews my confidence that food policy analysis is a powerful tool indeed. —Prof. C. Peter Timmer, Cabot Professor of Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA., USA. As this volume largely illustrates, Professor R. Radhakrishna’s monumental work in economics is as unique as it is astonishing and inspiring in many ways: (1) a central and constant concern: poverty and inequalities in India; (2) the rigorous use and development of various microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis tools; (3) a theoretical thought never dissociated from empirical data, even at a time when these were less accessible than today; (4) a desire to inform and guide public policies, as he succeeded to the extent possible; (5) a disconcerting modesty and humility: it was time for this book to be published to inform and strengthen works on inequality and income redistribution in the 21st century —Dr. Bruno Dorin, Senior Economist at CIRAD (Montpellier, France), CIRED (Paris, France) and CSH (New Delhi, India). Economy-wide and sector-wide modelling have been a key source of evidence-based policy-making in India. Prof. Radhakrishna is one of the pioneers in this area of research with several seminal contributions. The chapters in this volume bring out the methodological and empirical approaches to sector-wide modelling as they are applied to macro-economic policies. The volume should be a must-read for the professionals dealing with economic modelling in the developing economies around the world. —Dr. Suresh Babu, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC., USA. 

Contents: Preface. 1. Econometrics of Inflation, Consumption, and Welfare: Context and Overview. I. Price Effects: 2. Price-Cost Study of Oilseed-based Industries in an Input-output Framework During Different Phases of Cycle. 3. Distributional Aspects of Calorie Consumption: Implications for Food Policy. 4. Calorie Demand Function, Price Indices and Some Distributional Implications. 5. Agricultural Prices, Income Distribution and Demand Patterns in a Low Income Country. 6. Analysis of Sectoral Price Movements in a Developing Economy: Effects of Movement in Agricultural Prices and Production on Industrial Prices, Demand Pattern and Income Distribution.7. Effects of Growth, Relative Price and Preferences on Food and Nutrition.II. Distribution Effects of Inflation: 8. Distributional Effects of the Current Inflation. 9. Inflation and Disparities in the Level of Living. 10. Does Inflation Hurt the Poor More?. 11. Welfare Implications of Current Wage Good Inflation. III. Welfare: 12. Inter-Temporal Comparison of Welfare in India. 13. Welfare Levels and their Contributory Factors: A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh. 14. Measurement of Changes in Economic Welfare in India: 1970-2001. IV. Cluster Formation: 15. A Large Sample Test for Regional Homogeneity. 16. A Regional Approach to the Consumption Patterns of India. 17. A Technique of Cluster Formation in Regional Science. 18. Methods of Aggregation in Regional Planning. V. Macro-econometric Models: 19. Food Demand Projections for India. 20. Macro-econometric Modelling in India.