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Holy Cows or Cash Cows? The Economic Return to Livestock in Rural India

Attanasio, O; Augsburg, B; (2018) Holy Cows or Cash Cows? The Economic Return to Livestock in Rural India. Economic Development and Cultural Change , 66 (2) pp. 307-330. 10.1086/695138. Green open access

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Abstract

This paper revisits recent claims that poor households owning cattle in developing countries settings do not behave according to the tenets of capitalism. We point out that the discussion was based on evidence from one single year only, while cows and buffalos are assets whose return varies through time. In drought years, when fodder is scarce and more expensive, milk production is lower and profits are low. In nondrought years, when fodder is abundant and cheaper, milk production is higher and profits can be considerably higher. Therefore, the return on cows and buffalos, like that of many stocks traded on Wall Street, is positive in some years and negative in others. The fact that in a given year the observed return on a risky asset is negative could certainly not be used as a contradiction of one of the basic tenets of capitalism. We report evidence from 3 years of data on the return on cows and buffalos in the district of Anantapur and show that in one of the 3 years returns are very high, while in drought years they are predominantly negative.

Type: Article
Title: Holy Cows or Cash Cows? The Economic Return to Livestock in Rural India
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1086/695138
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1086/695138
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Social Sciences, Area Studies, Economics, Planning & Development, Business & Economics, Public Administration
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Economics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10062159
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