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Thursday, January 29, 2009

First measurement about crime and police















  1. It's crucial to raise awareness about the police and the judiciary.

    People in India have become numb to malfunctioning government and academics have tended to ignore this area for lack of data. For both this is good news.

    Excellent post.

  2. So what else is a public good. I am not sure if my reasoning against 'non-rival' nature of public goods is correct here but
    1. Law and Order(security): Higher security for politicians and areas occupied by bureaucratic elite means that there is correspondingly less security in less privileged parts of the cities.
    2. Municipal Water Supply: One sector of a town competing against another sector for better water supply. A resident watering his lawns does affect the quality of supply for his neighbors.
    3. Health: Prevention of Communicable diseases through vaccination should be a public good. Eradication of diseases like polio benefits everyone.
    4. Air Quality Control: While clean air benefits everyone. Its not in the interest of commuters riding shared auto-rickshaws that ply in most cities of India to shut down these heavily polluting vehicles until another public good 'public transport' is fixed.

  3. Think of good countries where the justice system works correctly. Law and order is not as locational as you suggest. The police and courts have to work comprehensively well for enforcement is not just about a neighbourhood. Once law and order is sound comprehensively, it is non-rival and non-excludable. Putting more policemen in some enclaves does not give safety, as we know so well in India.

    Water - I agree that water consumption is rival and hence is not really a public good.

    Health - I agree that work on epidemiology and population-wide programs is a public good. But running PHCs or hospitals is not.

    Air quality - it is a public good because it is non-rival and non-excludable. The story being told is not about who pays etc. E.g. the cost of producing law and order falls disproportionately on rich people because they pay almost all taxes. So the burden sharing of how to pay for public goods is a different story. The point is that when you see a public good, there is a case for government to be in it (in some fashion). When you see things which are private goods, government should not be producing them.

  4. While law and order is clearly non-rival, dosen't the fact that different people enjoy its benefits differently count for even a little bit in determining public policy? For instance, someone with a greater value of physical goods in his house would stand to gain much more from it than, say, someone who is very poor and stands to lose little in the event of a robbery and who is in any case less prone to being robbed.

    If even one of the stated aims of public policy is to maximize the common good, it is definitely arguable that in a country like India, bad quality education provided by the government is preferable to excellent quality law and order, were both achievable with the same outlay.

    I am not stating that this is indeed the case -- in fact, it almost surely is not. What I'm objecting to is the argument that since X is public good and Y is clearly a private good, the government should automatically give higher priority to X and make every effort to get out of Y.

  5. Ajay, you mention "...there are a zillion surveys in India on issues like poverty or health". Can you point me to where I could lay my hands on them, provided they are in the public domain?

  6. Harikrishna, You are curious about interesting and important questions. May I suggest a book or two in public economics?

    It sounds counter-intuitive, but it's true. The case for government production is clear for public goods and not for private goods. And then, separately, comes the question of what is the best way to finance public goods. This leads to the subject of tax policy. Optimal tax policy is not based on individual preferences - e.g. you might like clean air more than me, but that doesn't mean you should be charged a higher income tax.

  7. Gaurav, most of those surveys are of bad quality and the data is not to be trusted. The gold standard is `National Family and Health Survey' (NFHS). The dataset is available for free but (sadly) you have to jump some hoops.


  9. Dear Sarvade,

    Your pdf file is fascinating but I have a thousand questions. Can you please send me email and then we can talk?

  10. Thanks Ajay. There's such a dearth of good statistical information in India (at least information that's easily accessible to a layman) that your phrase grabbed by interest immediately. Got to mention that I like your commentary and am a regular visitor to your site. I am an engineer by training but over the years I have developed an interest in economics and I have started following a couple of economics/finance blogs along with boning up on some classic economics texts.

  11. Ajay you hit the bull's eye. Interestingly, two important explaination i can put forward for under provsioning of polocing and judiciary in India.
    One- the expenditure on these services is regarded as non-developmental and non- planned.In case of hike in expenditure by the governemnt on police and judiciary, the press will report that unproductive expenditure is increased by the governemnt.
    but second explaination takes care of the why the classification is as it is- thta is self serving politicians are haapy offering public a welfare schemes that basically fills their own pockets, and without efficient police and judicary they can always get away with their accounatbility. Is it a wonder that despite so much hue and cry in Ruchika case, no the government has not shown any sign to reform the police?
    well, almost all governemnt institutions are run like fiefdom by the few, no measure of reform can do the trick. want to know why? because head of institutions in collission with the politicians, simply ignore the rules, twist the rules, break the rules, and whistle blowers are put to hardships, as court of law is known to be of no use. QED. nkb

  12. This is what happens when you focus intently on one issue. There needs to be balance of both health and crime (public safety) issues..or one will suffer immensely.

  13. I fully agree with you that democracy is possible with good courts and police rather than only elections. Police and judiciary work under the political pressure and only please politicians. Very nice blog.


