ECON111 Assignment: Operation Barga and Economic Incentives

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This assignment analyzes the economic and ethical implications of Operation Barga, a land reform initiative in West Bengal, India. It explores the economic incentives provided by the new laws that allowed sharecroppers (Bargadars) to retain a larger portion of their crop and protected them from eviction. The assignment examines the policy through the lenses of consequentialism and deontology, evaluating the ethical justifications and consequences of the reform. It also applies economic concepts such as Pareto improvement and Pareto efficiency to assess the impact on both sharecroppers and landowners. Furthermore, the assignment uses indifference curves and production possibility frontiers to illustrate the optimal choices of a farmer under different scenarios, including independent farming and sharecropping, comparing the efficiency and fairness of each. The analysis highlights the shift in production and income for the farmer under Operation Barga and provides an overall assessment of the policy's effectiveness.
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Running head: ECONOMICS
Economics

Name of the Student:

Name of the University:

Author note:
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1ECONOMICS
Answer 1

Economic incentives refer to the factors that motivate the individuals to behave in a

certain manner over the preferences for their needs, wants and desires (Kurosaki, Parinduri and

Paul 2016). In other words, economic incentives are those, which provide motivation to the

individuals to pursue their preferences. These also include various types of policies, which

motivate people to enhance their productivity and earn increased income. In an economy, the

government often provides different types of economic incentives, such as, tax exemption, loan

support, and subsidy for motivating the individuals to enhance the overall productivity of the

economy (Xu, Ling and Wu 2018). In a similar manner, the government of West Bengal in India

provided incentives to the Bargadars in the form of a new law that enabled them to keep up to

75% of the total crop production. This was not possible in the earlier system and the Bargadars

paid a large amount of crop to the land owners (Ganguly 2015). The new law enabled the

Bargadars to earn more money by selling 75% of their total crop production. Thus, they got the

incentives to produce more crops. At the same time, the new law also prohibited the land owners

from eliminating the Bargadars from the land, if they could pay the landowners the quota of 25%

of the crop production as rent payment. Hence, the new laws provided motivations to the

Bargadars for increasing their production. This led to a 28% increase in the regional productivity

of crops in West Bengal and made the Operation Barga successful.

Answer 2

Consequentialism can be defined as the normative ethical theories that explain the

consequences of the conduct or behaviour of one individual as an ultimate basis for any

judgment regarding the rightness or wrongness of the behaviour or conduct. Thus,

consequentialism represents a theory, which evaluates an action and gives verdict if it is good or

bad, that is, ethically right or wrong, on the basis of the outcomes (Goldman 2015). For example,

an organization might violate the HR policies to provide medical benefits or salary to an

employee who required the money on an urgent basis. This would be a violation of ethics for the

company as per the deontology concept of ethics (Segev 2016). However, this action generates

immense amount of welfare for the employees. Hence, the outcome of the action is positive and
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2ECONOMICS
that satisfies the concept of the consequentialism theory. However, to justify the implementation

of Operation Barga from the perspective of consequentialism, critical evaluation of the ethical

theory needs to be done. Operation Barga was introduced to improve the economic condition of

the Bargadars and reduce their exploitation by their land owners. The Operation Barga policy

restricted the land owners from removing the Bargadars from the land if they could pay 25% of

the crop production as rent payments. Thus, this policy was limiting the land owners from

practising their right on their own lands and this also causes violation of deontology (Portmore

2018). On the contrary, the Operation Barga generated positive outcomes as more crops as well

as increased their income. At the same time, it also prevented their eviction from the lands. Thus,

irrespective of the cost of the policy, it resulted in positive and desirable outcome. Hence, it can

be said that the policy satisfied the ethical theory of consequentialism, and it justified the

introduction of Operation Barga.

Answer 3

Deontological ethical framework refers to the normative ethical concept which says that

the morality of any action should be determined by whether the action is morally or ethically

right or wrong as per some set of rules than its final outcome (Jackson and Smith 2016). In other

words, according to the deontological ethics, the action taken should be morally right as per

some set of rules, while the consequence of the action becomes irrelevant. Hence, an individual

is morally right if the individual follows rules which are ethically right, irrespective of the

outcome (Meyers 2018). Thus, in the context of Operation Barga, the actions that were taken by

the then West Bengal government were not morally right under the deontological ethical

framework. The regulations under Operation Barga restricted the rights of the landowners on

their own lands and stopped them from taking actions to remove the Bargadars from their lands.

They were also not given the power to negotiate their share of crops from the total production.

These laws were not ethically right for the land owners. Although this operation improved the

condition of the Bargadars, that is, the outcome was better, but limiting the rights of the

landowners by using a legal decree is unethical as that violates the land ownership laws (Tarsney
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3ECONOMICS
2018). Thus, as per deontology, Operation Barga was an unethical practice by the west Bengal

government.

Answer 4

Pareto improvement refers to the condition in which reallocation of goods is done in a

way, where at least one person becomes better off without making another person worse off

(Buchholz et al. 2015). In other words, Pareto improvement occurs when the resources are

reallocated in a manner such that one person is better off, while the other is not worse off. In the

context of Operation Barga, it is observed that the policy is making the Bargadars better off as

their share of crop is increasing, followed by their level of income (Lu and Xie 2018). However,

the policy does not have impact on the landowners as they were still getting 25% of the total crop

production only by lending their land for farming, which would have remained unproductive

otherwise. Hence, it can be said that the operation Barga policy creates Pareto improvement

condition for the Bargadars.

Answer 5

Pareto efficiency is defined in the economic theory as the situation in which the scarce

resources are allocated in such an optimal manner that no further resource allocation is possible

to benefit one individual without making another individual worse off (Howarth and Norgaard

2017). Thus, it can be said that under Pareto efficiency, the resource allocation is optimum and

any further change in resource allocation would make at least one person worse off. Operation

Barga can be explained using Pareto efficiency theory. The crop allocation was not beneficial for

the Bargadars initially and that resulted in very low income for the Bargadars. Thus, the

allocation of resources was not optimum as it compromised on the income of the Bargadars and

made them worse off. However, the implementation of the policies of operation Barga led to an

efficient resource allocation. It improved the situation of the Bargadars by increasing their share

of crop in the total produce and thereby increasing their level of income (Bhalotra et al. 2019).

On the other hand, the situation of the landowners did not worsen as they were earning 25% of
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IC2

IC1

3

4

16
24 Free hours
Rice
production

Optimal Choice

total crop produced in exchange for their lands rented to the Bargadars (Liu and Pycia 2015).

Hence, it can be said that Pareto efficiency does not lead to equality or fairness in resource

allocation, but it ensures efficient allocation. It is seen in case of operation Barga, the efficient

resource allocation resulted in 28% increase in the total crop production.

Answer 6

Figure
1: Optimal choice of Mamata
(Source:
Author)
According
to the
information,
Mamata is
an independent
farmer, working on her own land. When she
utilizes the entire
free time of 24 hours, she can produce 4 tonnes
of rice. On the
contrary, when Mamata works for 8 hours, she has 16
hours of free hours
and can produce 3 tonnes of rice. Hence, she has two
choices, either to
work of 24 hours and produce 4 tonnes of rice or to
work for 8 hours

and produce 3 tonnes of rice. Thus, in the above
figure,
Mamata’s utility gets maximized at the indifference curves, IC1 and IC2. However, IC1 is less

efficient than IC2. It is evident that in 16 hours of free time, Mamata can produce only 1 extra

tonne of rice. Hence, 24 hours of working reduces the efficiency of Mamata and makes the

lowest point of the indifference curve IC1 inefficient as compared to that for IC2. Therefore,

Mamata should choose for IC2, where she can work for 8 hours, produce 3 tonnes of rice and

enjoy 16 hours of free time.
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5ECONOMICS
IC4

2.25

IC3

3

IC2

IC1

3

4

16
24 Free hours
Rice
production

Optimal Choice

Answer 7

Figure
2: Mamata's indifference curves as a share cropper
(Source: Author)

Initially Mamata was an independent farmer. The initial production possibility frontier

(PPF) and the initial indifference curves (IC1 and IC2) are shown in red in the above diagram.

However, Mamata chooses to be a share cropper presently and hence, takes land rent from one

land owner for the purpose of farming. Hence, as per the new rules for operation Barga, Mamata

gives 25% of the total crop production to her land owner as the rental payment. Thus, it is seen

that the share of crops and gains from the crops have reduced for Mamata under the operation

Barga rules than what she used to get when she was an independent farmer. The new PPF is

shown by black and it has shifted inwards. This new PPF displays that as a share cropper,
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6ECONOMICS
Mamata can produce 3 tonnes of rice by working 24 hours on the land rented from the

landowner, which she was being able to produce by only 8 hours when she was an independent

farmer. Thus, the gains as a share cropper have reduced for Mamata and thus, the PPF curve has

shifted inwards. At the new PPF, the indifference curves are shown as IC3 and IC4. At IC3,

Mamata needs to work for 24 hours to produce 3 tonnes of rice, while at IC4, she can produce

2.25 tonnes of rice by working 8 hours and enjoying 16 hours of free time. Thus, it can be seen

that at IC4, Mamata’s efficiency is maximum and hence, if she works at IC4, she would be able

to enjoy 16 hours of free time as well as produce 2.25 tonnes of rice by working only 8 hours.

Thus, the optimal choice for Mamata would be to work at IC4.

There are few assumptions made in this case and those are:

ï‚·
Mamata’s efficiency reduces as the working hours increases
ï‚·
Mamata will not be able to work as an independent farmer anymore
ï‚·
There will be no technological improvement in this sector
ï‚·
Mamata has no scope for choosing any other profession
ï‚·
She has knowledge only on rice cultivation and no other crops
Answer 8

Mamata was an independent farmer in question 6 and a share cropper in question 7. From

the above two discussions and diagrams, it has been noticed that when Mamata worked as a

share cropper, her gains have decreased in comparison to that in case of independent farming.

Thus, the point of operation as well as the optimal point on the PPF is all inefficient in case of

share cropping (Fei and Lin 2016). As seen from the diagram, the new PPF for share cropping is

positioned inside the PPF for independent farming, indicating fewer gains from the share

cropping. Thus, it can be inferred that outcome from the independent farming are greater as well

as fairer than that from share cropping. Therefore, by comparing the PPF and the indifference

curves in both the models for independent farming and share cropping, it can be said that the

independent farming model is more efficient and fairer as well in comparison to that for the share

cropping.
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References

Bhalotra, S., Chakravarty, A., Mookherjee, D. and Pino, F.J., 2019. Property rights and gender

bias: Evidence from land reform in West Bengal.
American Economic Journal: Applied
Economics
, 11(2), pp.205-37.
Buchholz, W., Cornes, R., Peters, W. and Rübbelke, D., 2015. Pareto improvement through

unilateral matching of public good contributions: The role of commitment.
Economics
Letters
, 132, pp.9-12.
Fei, R. and Lin, B., 2016. Energy efficiency and production technology heterogeneity in China's

agricultural sector: A meta-frontier approach.
Technological Forecasting and Social
Change
, 109, pp.25-34.
Ganguly, S., 2015. An Eclectic Demystification of Operation Barga.
Available at SSRN 2673311.
Goldman, A.I., 2015. Reliabilism, veritism, and epistemic consequentialism.
Episteme, 12(2),
pp.131-143.

Howarth, R.B. and Norgaard, R.B., 2017. Intergenerational resource rights, efficiency and social

optimality.
Land economics, 66.
Jackson, F. and Smith, M., 2016. The implementation problem for deontology.
Weighing
reasons
, pp.279-291.
Kurosaki, T., Parinduri, R. and Paul, S., 2016. Evaluating Efficiency Gains from Tenancy

Reform Targeting a Heterogeneous Group of Sharecroppers: Evidence from India.

Liu, Q. and Pycia, M., 2016. Ordinal efficiency, fairness, and incentives in large

markets.
Fairness, and Incentives in Large Markets (August 1, 2016).
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Meyers, C., 2018. 8 Deontology.
Communication and Media Ethics, 26, p.139.
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9ECONOMICS
Portmore, D., 2018. Consequentialism and coordination: How traditional consequentialism has

an attitude problem. In
Consequentialism: New Directions, New Problems (pp. 71-89). Oxford
University Press.

Segev, R.E., 2016. Should we prevent deontological wrongdoing?.
Philosophical
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, 173(8), pp.2049-2068.
Tarsney, C., 2018. Moral uncertainty for deontologists.
Ethical Theory and Moral
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, 21(3), pp.505-520.
Xu, L., Ling, M. and Wu, Y., 2018. Economic incentive and social influence to overcome

household waste separation dilemma: A field intervention study.
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