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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4362091
AutoresOrazio Attanasio (0000-0003-3693-4393, University College London), Britta Augsburg (0000-0002-8864-7751, University College London)
Ano2018
Volume66
Fascículo2
Páginas307-330
Data de publicação2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEconomic Development and Cultural Change (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0013-0079 • E-ISSN: 1539-2988
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/695138
OpenAlexW2772139017
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas2

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

Agricultural economics · Agronomy · Animal science · Asset (computer security) · Biology · Business · Capitalism · Cash · Economics · Fodder · Geography · Livestock · Milk production · Political science · Production (economics) · Rate of return · Agricultural Economics and Practices · Agricultural risk and resilience · Finance · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology