The Nonfarm Economy

Manojit Bhattacharjee is an Assistant Professor at the Mahatma Gandhi Government Arts College, Mahe. With a PhD from the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, he has previously taught at St. Joseph's College (Autonomous), Bangalore, and Jain University. His research focuses on the household credit market, insurance, and the farm and nonfarm sectors. He has authored numerous publications in journals and edited books, including the Journal of Asian Economics, Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, Economic and Political Weekly, and others.Saumya Chakrabarti is a Professor of Economics and the Head of the Department of Economics and Politics at Visva-Bharati (University), Santiniketan. He has taught at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata; University of Calcutta; and Presidency University, Kolkata. Professor Chakrabarti has been a Visiting Fellow at Brown University, USA, and an Honorary Director at the Agro-Economic Research Centre (Government of India), Santiniketan. He has published in journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Review of Radical Political Economics, Economic and Labour Relations Review, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Indian Journal of Labour Economics, and has written books published by Prentice Hall and Oxford University Press. He has travelled across several countries of the Global South and North and regularly contributes to popular journals and vernacular dailies.Meenakshi Rajeev is a Professor of Economics at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu, and HAG Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Policy, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. She graduated from IIT Kanpur in Statistics and holds a PhD in Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata. With over 100 publications in reputed journals and books, and as working papers, she has taught at the University of California (San Diego), Kassel University, and Central Michigan University. Her research focuses on game theoretic applications, banking and credit markets, farm and nonfarm sectors, and industrial economics. Professor Rajeev has served on several government committees and conducted research projects for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Governments of India and Karnataka. Recently, she has been a member of the task force that helped formulate Karnataka's research and development (R&D) policy.

This extraordinary book illuminates in a coherent manner, imaginatively combining data with formal modelling, that dark corner of development economics called the 'nonfarm' informal economy. Although India is the primary focus, many developing countries and regions across the globe find their place in the comparative analysis. It is an extremely valuable addition to the development literature and should be on the essential reading list of students, researchers and practitioners concerned with development studies and problems.

• 1: Introduction 2: Capitalist Growth and the Proliferation of Dualism: A Theoretical Framework 3: The Changing Nature of the Global Rural Economy 4: Rural Economies of the Developing World: Micro Perspectives 5: The Rural Nonfarm Sector in India: Imprints of Deepening Dualism 6: The State of the Agricultural Sector and Its Implications for the Rural Nonfarm Economy 7: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on the Rural Economy 8: Conclusions and Policy Suggestions