Artha Vijnana: Journal of The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics

Arijita Dutta ¹, Satarupa Bandyopadhyay ², Arpita Ghose ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, 56 A BT Road, Kolkata 700050, West Bengal, IN
2 Bethune College, Kolkata 700006, West Bengal, IN
3 Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

This paper attempts to locate the distributional inequality of health care and efficiency of utilization of those resources in West Bengal. Output oriented Data Envelopment Analysis under VRS and Group Frontier approach has been used. Data have been collected through a primary survey funded by Government of West Bengal. Results show that there is a significant inequality in distribution of resources across region, violating the basic iota of 'vertical equity'. The overall mean efficiency of all hospitals is 0.728, suggesting that they could produce at least 37 per cent more of output with the same input volume. The scarce resources are sub-optimally used. The group frontier analysis shows that bigger hospitals situated in backward regions perform badly compared with others. The policy must attempt to reduce the inequitable distribution of resources and control the under-utilization of resources available with the hospitals.

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Arpita Ghose ¹, Debjani Bhattacharyya ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Economics, Jadavpur University 700062, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Economics, Dinabandhu Mahavidyalaya, Bangaon, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The existing literature on West Bengal's agricultural growth based on traditional growth analysis is limited in explaining the nature of any series. The object of the present study is to test any structural break in the growth path of area, production and yield of different crops, using the endogenous structural break approach over the period 1980-1981 to 2002-2003. All the series, except pulses yield, have different stationary process implying that only changes associated with pulse yield are sustained in nature and no certain conclusion can be made for other cases. The inter-crop disparities with respect to the break point are conspicuous.

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