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The primary objective of the present study is to figure out the relative effectiveness of alternate public expenditure with regard to agricultural development particularly in the context of input subsidies vis-a-vis investment. Besides, the authors also endeavour to test the applicability of crowding-out hypothesis in the present context.

Initially, unit root tests are applied for checking stationarity of the underlying data using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin (KPSS) tests. Further, the highly celebrated autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model is applied on annual time series data for the period 1991–2020 to investigate the long-run and short-run impact of the said relationship.

The authors observe that public investment is more productive than input subsidies for overall agricultural development. Besides, the findings document the existence of crowding-in hypothesis, i.e. complementarity between public investment and private investment in case of the agricultural sector in India.

The outcome of the research recommends to reprioritize state expenditure and reformulate agricultural policy regarding the public financing of agriculture. More to invest and less to subsidize seems a better policy intervention to achieve desirable outcomes from the Indian agriculture in the long run.

This study is novel in the sense that the subsidies vs investment debate is revisited in the current scenario of agricultural development so that resource allocation be optimized. To ensure robustness of the study, the authors specifically took four proxies of agricultural development, namely, productivity growth, private investment, food security and farmers’ income.

The purpose of the study is to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for major chemical fertilizers and revisit the fertilizer subsidy policy in Nepal.

We surveyed 619 households from six districts and assessed farmers’ WTP for urea, diammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MOP) during the fertilizer crisis. Our study elicited the WTP for fertilizers when fertilizers were not available on the market. A modified payment card approach was used to elicit farmers’ WTP.

The study found that farmers who buy fertilizer from agrodealers, buy from gray markets, have bank accounts, are willing to take a risk, have strong or medium economic conditions and incur higher travel costs have a higher WTP for fertilizers. Farmers in sampled areas, on average, are willing to pay 31 percent more for urea, 13 percent more for DAP and 19 percent more for MOP than the government recommended fertilizer price.

The design of the payment card and the estimation techniques used to fit the valuation function are likely to influence WTP.

Overall, literature on households’ WTP for fertilizers in developing countries is scarce. Our study contributes to the knowledge of WTP for fertilizers.

Migration appears to be a determinant in health-care utilisation, particularly among the elderly in India. Ageing and migration are essential socio-demographic phenomena in the 21st century for developing and developed countries to establish better public health-care policies. This study aims to focus on the status and determinants of health-care utilisation among elderly migrants who have migrated after attaining the age of 45 and above.

This study used the data from the first wave of the longitudinal ageing study in India (LASI) in 2017–2018. Two outcome variables were used to examine the health-care utilisation, including in-patient and out-patient care. Binary logistic regression was used to explore the predictors of healthcare utilisation in terms of in-patient and out-patient care among the elderly migrant population.

A total of 82.9% of elderly migrants had visited out-patient care when they were sick, whereas 15.3% have used in-patient care. Enabling factors, such as wealth quintile and health insurance, and need factor, such as chronic disease and self-rated health, were more significant factors influencing the health-care utilisation.

This study contributes to our understanding of older migrants’ health-care utilisation. Focussing on this study’s outcome, policymakers and decision makers may consider improving older migrants’ access to health-care by raising their income level, offering local health insurance and health awareness programs.