Numbers in India's Periphery
The Political Economy of Government Statistics

An exciting account of how government statistics in developing countries are social artefacts dynamically shaped by political and economic contexts.

Ankush Agrawal (Author), Vikas Kumar (Author)

9781108486729, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 October 2020

416 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.66 kg

This book analyses the quality of statistics such as geographic area, census population and sample survey statistics in a developing country. Using field interviews, archival sources, and secondary data covering the last seven decades, it explores the shifting relations between various kinds of statistics over their lifecycles and charts their cradle-to-grave political career. It uncovers a mutually constitutive relationship between data, development, and democracy and offers an exciting account of how government statistics are social artefacts dynamically shaped by political and economic factors. The book also quantifies the impact of data quality on the statistics of interest to policy makers such as household consumption expenditure and federal transfers. Numbers in India's Periphery makes a major contribution to the growing literature on the political economy of statistics in developing countries through a novel analysis of the shifting determinants of the nature of data in North East India.

Abbreviations
List of tables
List of figures
List of maps
List of timelines
List of images
Acknowledgements
1. State and statistics
2. Nagaland and numbers
3. Cartographic 'mess'
4. Demographic somersault
5. Winning censuses
6. Flawed surveys
7. Data, development and democracy
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Macroeconomics [KCB], Economics [KC], Regional government [JPR], Politics & government [JP]