Is the PDS Already a Cash Transfer? Rethinking India’s Food Subsidy Policies
利用全国家庭调查数据，研究发现印度公共分配系统的补贴实际上被家庭视为现金，并未增加谷物消费或总食品支出，进而探讨如何实现提高食品消费等目标。
Critics argue that India’s mismanaged Public Distribution System (PDS), which sells subsidised cereals to poor families, should be replaced by cash transfers. Others fear cash may be misused. Using National Sample Survey data, this article demonstrates that families treat additional PDS subsidies wholly as a source of cash – exactly like a cash transfer. More worryingly, cereal consumption has not increased, despite higher real subsidies. Moreover, neither the PDS nor cash transfers are likely to raise total food expenditure in poor families. Finally, therefore, the paper explores how higher food consumption and other objectives of PDS subsidies may be achieved.