DEMONETIZATION AND THE BLACK ECONOMY

Arun Kumar

In November 2016, the central government announced the demonetisation of all R500 and R1,000 notes, which made up 86 percent of the circulated currency in India, with the expressed intent of curbing the flow of black money. A year later, economist Arun Kumar, an expert on India’s black economy, assesses the effects of this move. His new book argues that demonetisation has had little effect on the overall scale of the black economy, and that it has slowed growth and created more inequality.

Penguin, 240 pages, Rs 499