Freebie ban versus fiscal rules: Go with what works best | Prof. Vidya Mahambare writes for LiveMint

Prof. Vidya Mahambare and her co-author Soumya Dhanaraj wrote an article titled 'Freebie ban versus fiscal rules: Go with what works best' that has been published by LiveMint online and in print.

The article highlights that a farm-loan waiver policy is neither specific to a party ideology nor a reflection of a partisan model, but rather seems to fit into rationally opportunistic political cycle models. This points to a pattern of policy manipulation involving election-year targeting of the largest special interest group in the country - i.e., farming households.