India, Nov. 8 -- How does the politics around water access impact the development of communities?

Abhijit Banerjee (AB): With water we have this kind of rhetorical move that complicates the issues around its access, which is that it is supposed to be free. But in fact, the poorer you are, the more expensive it is in time, quality and every dimension.

Because we pretend partly that it is free, then of course we have to ration it, and when you ration it, you ration it to the poor. And we have very complicated mechanisms for doing that. And then the fact that we ration it means other mechanisms like the common pool get drained. This is especially the case with drinking water.

PB: How do you link ecological degradation with development?

A...