Dhruv JAIN will defend his thesis on Wednesday 1st April 2026 Online at 09:30 am.
Title of the thesis: Essays in Development Economics: Navigating Distortions, Unintended Consequences, and Reform Priorities
Building TSE, 1 esplanade de l'université, Toulouse
Supervisors: Professors Emmanuelle AURIOL, Olivier DE GROOTE and Matteo BOBBA
Memberships are:
- Emmanuelle AURIOL : Professor in Economics, TSE, University of Toulouse Capitole Supervisor
- Olivier DE GROOTE : Professor in Economics, TSE, University of Toulouse Capitole Co-supervisor
- Matteo BOBBA : Professor in Economics, TSE, University of Toulouse Capitole Co-supervisor
- Eva RAIBER : Professor in Economics, Aix-Marseille School of Economics Examinatrice
- Elise HUILLERY : Professor in Economics, Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL Rapporteure
- Grégoire ROTA-GRAZIOSI : Professor in Economics, Université Clermont Auvergne/CERDI-CNRS Rapporteur
Abstract :
This dissertation examines how economic policies can reshape the economy—either by reducing distortions (Chapter 1), producing unintended consequences (Chapter 2), or guiding policymakers through evidence-based prioritization (Chapter 3).
Chapter 1 studies firm-level productivity gains from the staggered adoption of Value-Added Tax (VAT) in India between 2003 and 2008. Using detailed microdata and a multiproduct production function, I recover firm productivity and marginal costs. I find that VAT adoption increased productivity by 10\% and reduced marginal costs by 11\%, with larger gains among financially constrained and downstream firms. These effects are driven by technology adoption, higher investment, reduced vertical integration, product specialization, and potentially increased competition—yielding welfare gains for both firms and consumers.
Chapter 2, joint with Sakshi Gupta, explores how a short-term liquidity shock, India’s 2016 demonetization, affected school dropout rates. Using a difference in discontinuity design and variation in banking access across districts, we find that more severely affected areas saw increased dropouts from private schools but not from public ones, revealing credit constraints in household schooling decisions and highlighting the long-term impacts of temporary liquidity shocks.
Chapter 3, joint with Stéphane Straub and others, presents a meta-analysis of over 1,000 elasticity estimates from 221 studies on infrastructure. Covering transport, energy, and digital sectors, the analysis examines a wide range of outcomes—output, employment, inequality, education, and more. We account for publication bias and heterogeneity in context and methodology, offering updated benchmarks for the “true” underlying elasticities, with special attention to developing countries.
