Steven Brownstone on Agricultural Subsidies, Mechanization, and Historical Land and Labor Institutions in India

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I spoke with Steven Brownstone, a PhD candidate in economics at the University of California, San Diego. His research focus is on the fields of development economics, agricultural economics, and political economy. We discussed his job market paper, Labor Market Effects of Agricultural Mechanization: Experimental Evidence from India. We talked about the reason there isn't a natural mechanization in rice plantation in Telangana, the role of the state in the uptake of mechanization, the labor market in a developing country that is undergoing a structural transformation and much more.

Recorded September 11th, 2024.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:04) - Grand Tamasha

(00:02:36) - The Wage and Labor Effects of Mechanized Drum Seeders in Telangana

(00:07:43) - Wages Failing to Rise: NREGA and a Profitability Ceiling

(00:09:41) - Women’s Changing Role in the Farming Labor Market

(00:11:07) - The Puzzle of Mechanization: Is Government Intervention Necessary?

(00:15:41) - Mechanization or Migrant Labor

(00:19:27) - The Role of Government in Mechanization Adoption

(00:23:46) - Should Telangana farmers grow rice?

(00:26:08) - Market Distortions and Maximizing Food Production

(00:29:31) - Larger Economic Questions About Agricultural Subsidies

(00:34:18) - Future of Mechanization and Agricultural Policy in Telangana

(00:36:45) - The Long Shadow of Feudalism: Concentration of Land and Labor Market Power in India

(00:39:00) - How the Feudal Structure Shaped Current Farm Ownership and Women’s Labor

(00:41:54) - New Research in Relation to Existing Stories of State Capacity

(00:46:05) - Outro