Drawing lessons for economic policy from election outcomes in India is an extraordinarily difficult task. For every outcome, which seems to conform to our conventional notions of the link between economic performance and political success, there is an equally prominent one that turns those notions on their heads.
Nevertheless, economists would be abdicating their responsibility if they gave up in their efforts to look for policy signals in election results. Ultimately, policy design is as influenced by political saleability as by theoretical consistency.
