This post if for all those appearing or planning to appear for the Indian Economic Service exam. I gave the exam in 2012 (my second attempt) and was placed 7th.
There are a total of 6 papers in this examination. Here, I have given readings only for General Economics I, II and III.
The books referred to in this reading list are the following:
Any good book like Chiang
Any good book like SC Gupta
There are a total of 6 papers in this examination. Here, I have given readings only for General Economics I, II and III.
The books referred to in this reading list are the following:
- Pindyck and Rubinfeld - Microeconomics, 3rd edition
- Dornbusch and Fischer - Macroeconomics, 6th edition
- J.R. Gupta - Public Economics in India, Theory and Practice
- Chiang and Wainwright, 4th edition - Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics
- S.C. Gupta - Fundamentals of Statistics (I think there is only 1 edition)
- Debraj Ray - Development Economics (only one edition)
- Most of the readings are from the web. A lot of them are from wikipedia and other non-scholarly sources. They are not substitutes for readings from economics textbooks. These readings should be used to brush up old concepts, if you find looking up old textbooks a bit tedious.
- Scores in the General English and General Studies papers are important too. Ignore these papers at your own risk.
- I have not included any readings for the Indian Economics paper. Two good books for this paper are The Concise Oxford Companion to Economics in India by Basu and Maertens and Indian Economy Since Independence by Uma Kapila. There's a newer edition of the book by Kapila in the market but I have not read it.
A strong word of caution: Whenever you are unsure about something, please go back to your grad/post-grad textbooks. The internet is a very convenient source, but not the most reliable.
As an afterthought, let me also mention the questions that were put to me by the interview panel:
Here are the readings, hope these help!
As an afterthought, let me also mention the questions that were put to me by the interview panel:
- What is REER? On how many currencies is it based?
- Applications of Linear Programming? Leontiev input-output model?
- How would I estimate a demand curve for milk using time series data? What would be its shape and why?
- Limitations of time series data? Difference between technical and fundamental analysis?
- Cost benefit analysis and its applications?
Here are the readings, hope these help!
General
References
The
following will be helpful in finding definitions and short introductions to
concepts:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/econ/byrns_web/Economicae/EconomicaeA.htm
http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Home_Page
http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Home_Page
Paper I
1. Theory
of Consumer Demand
Relevant chapters in Rubinfeld and
Pindyck
2. Theory
of Production
Factors of Production and Production
Functions, Forms of Production Functions: Cobb Douglas, CES and Fixed
Coefficient Type, Translog Production Functions
Measures of productive efficiency of
firms, technical and allocative efficiency
Partial Equilibrium vs General
Equilibrium Approach
Pindyck and Rubinfeld, Chapter 16
http://www.stanford.edu/~jdlevin/Econ%20202/General%20Equilibrium.pdf (Very detailed document, need not study whole)
Equilibrium of the firm and industry
Duality and Cost Function
???
3. Theory
of Value
Pricing under different market
structures, peak load pricing
Pindyck & Rubinfeld, Chapter 11,
Pricing with Market Power
Pindyck & Rubinfeld, Chapter 12,
Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Pricing with incomplete information
and moral hazard problems
Pindyck and Rubinfeld, Chapter 17,
Markets with asymmetric information
Public Sector Pricing
J.R. Gupta, Appendix 1, Pricing of
Public Services and Return on Investment
Cross Subsidy Free Pricing: Average
Cost and Marginal Cost Pricing
Marshallian and Walrasian Stability
Analysis
4. Theory
of Distribution
Neo Classical Distribution Theories;
Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution of Factor Prices, Factor Shares
and Adding Up Problems, Euler’s Theorem
Pricing of factors under imperfect
competition, monopoly and bilateral monopoly
Macro Distribution Theories of
Ricardo, Marx, Kaldor, Kalecki
??? (Kaldor)
5. Welfare
Economics
6. Mathematics
Any good book like Chiang
7. Statistics
Any good book like SC Gupta
Paper II
1. Economic
Thought
Mercantilism
Physiocrats
Classical
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Ricardo.html
Marxism
Neo Classical
Keynes
Monetarism
2. Concept
of National Income and Social Accounting
Measurement of national income,
interrelationships between three measures of national income in the presence of
the government sector and international transactions.
NCERT Class XII Macroeconomics
textbook, Chapter 2 - National Income Accounting
Environmental Considerations, Green
National Income
See readings for Paper III,
Section 2
3. Theory
of Employment, Output, Inflation, Money and Finance
The Classical and Keynesian Theories
Relevant chapters in Dornbusch
Inflationary Gap
Demand Pull and Cost Push Inflation
Phillips Curve and Policy
Implications
Classical Thoery of Money
Quantity Thoery, Friendman’s
Restatement
4. Financial
and Capital Markets
5. Economic
Growth and Development
Neo Classical Approach: Robinson,
Solow, Harrod Domar Kaldor
Theories of Economic Development
http://www.isid.ac.in/~tridip/Teaching/DevEco/LectureNotes/03Nonconvergence-Introduction.pdf (General)
http://www.slideshare.net/DHATTALUCK/developmentalist-theories-of-economic-development#btnNext (Rosenstein-Roden, Nurske, Hirschman)
http://nthur.lib.nthu.edu.tw/bitstream/987654321/63801/1/JA01_1963_p87.pdf (Leibenstein, first 6 pages)
http://www.neweconomia.com/economic%20development/eddependency.html (Amin and Frank, Dependency School)
Debraj Ray, Development Economics,
Chapter 10 (Section on Lewis Model)
Utilitarian and Welfarist approach to
social development and Sen’s Critique, Capability Approach
Human Development Index, Physical
Quality of Life Index and Human Poverty Index
6.
International Economics
Gains from International Trade:
Terms of Trade:
Policy:
International Trade and Economic
Development:
Theories of International Trade:
Ricardo, Haberler, Hekscher-Ohlin and Stopler-Samuelson
Theory of Tariffs:
Regional Trade Agreements:
7. Balance of
Payments
Foreign Trade Multiplier
http://www.mu.ac.in/myweb_test/M.Com.%20Study%20Material/M.Com.%20-%20I%20-%20Eco.%20of%20Global%20Trade%20&%20Finance.pdf (First 8 pages)
Multiple Exchange Rates
8. Global
Institutions
Jagish Bhagwati, In Defense of
Globalization, Chapter on MNCs
Paper III
1. Public
Finance
Theory of taxation, optimal taxes and
tax reforms, incidence of taxations
Theories of Public Expenditure,
objectives and effects of public expenditure, policy and social cost beneit
analysis, criteria of public investment decisions and social rate of discount:
Chapter 4, J.R. Gupta
Shadow prices of investment, labor
and foreign exchange:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/FRI/indonesia/documents/gittinger/Output/chap7.html (first few paragraphs)
Budgetary deficits
Theory of Public Debt Management
J.R. Gupta, Chapter 6
2.
Environmental Economics
Green GDP:
UN Methodology of Integrated
Environmental and Economic Accouting:
Kyoto Protocol
Tradable Permits and Carbon Taxes
Environmental Values: User and
Non-User Value, Option Value, Valuation Methods, Stated and Revealed Preference
Methods
Theories of exhaustible and renewable
resources
Collective Action
4. State,
Market and Planning
Uma Kapila, Indian Economy Since
Independence, Chapter 2
planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/speech/spemsa/dchplan.doc
(Indicative planning)
http://persmin.gov.in/otraining/UNDPProject/undp_modules/Decentralized%20Planning%20(DLM).pdf (First two units only)
