Inclusive growth dividend – an alternative income transfer | Livemint

At the India Policy Forum earlier this July, Affiliate Karthik Muralidharan proposed an alternative to the unconditional universal income transfers that many governments have turned to in efforts to alleviate poverty: an Inclusive Growth Dividend (IGD). The IGD would transfer 1% of India’s GDP every month to every household in India, an amount that would grow equally for all as the country’s economy grows, and directly reduce poverty while limiting the expensive administrative costs that befall most targeted income programs. Read more about it in this Livemint article:

“Income transfers to the poor have emerged as a popular policy option for governments across the world seeking to alleviate poverty. Proponents argue that income transfers efficiently allow the poor to spend on their welfare but critics point to the sheer cost of implementing such schemes and the challenges of successfully identifying the poor. In a new paper, presented at the India Policy Forum, Maitreesh Ghatak and Karthik Muralidharan propose an alternative solution that addresses both these challenges: an inclusive growth dividend (IGD).”

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