The World Economy © Blackwell Publishing Ltd Volume 35, Issue 6 ,June 2012

Very low interest rates in major currencies have raised concerns over international credit flows to robustly growing economies in Asia. This paper examines three components of international credit and highlights several of the policy challenges that arise in constraining such credit. Our empirical findings suggest that international credit enables domestic credit booms in emerging markets. Furthermore, we demonstrate that higher levels of international credit on the eve of a crisis are associated with larger subsequent contractions in overall credit and real output. In Asia today, international credit generally is small in relation to overall credit – as was not the case before the Asian crisis. So even though dollar credit is growing very rapidly in some Asian economies, its contribution to overall credit growth has been modest outside the more dollarised economies of Asia.

URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/work377.pdf

Courtesy:BIS

Category: Asia, Credit growth, Emerging Economies

Loan loss provisioning practices of Asian banks

Posted | on May 17, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Frank Packer and Haibin Zhu

BIS Working Paper No.375, April 2012

In the wake of the Asian financial crisis, many regimes in Asia adopted stricter provisioning requirements, as well as discretionary measures, with the objective of increasing provisioning in good times in response to rising levels of risk. Based on a final sample of 240 banks in 12 Asian economies, the evidence is that countercyclical loan loss provisioning has dominated throughout emerging Asia, most strikingly so in the case of India. Thus, loan loss provisioning did not simply become more conservative at all points in time subsequent to the Asian financial crisis, but actively leaned in a fashion that ameliorated swings in earnings and the macroeconomy.

URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/work375.pdf

Courtesy:BIS

Category: Asia, Banking, Financial crisis, Macroprudential Policy

Inflation Dynamics in the Presence of Informal Labour Markets

Posted | on May 17, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Paul Castillo and Carlos Montoro

BIS Working Paper No.372, February 2012

In this paper we analyse the effects of informal labour markets on the dynamics of inflation and on the transmission of aggregate demand and supply shocks. In doing so, we incorporate the informal sector in a modified New Keynesian model with labour market frictions as in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model. Our main results show that the informal economy generates a “buffer” effect that diminishes the pressure of demand shocks on inflation. This finding is consistent with the empirical literature on the effects of informal labour markets in business cycle fluctuations. This result implies that, in economies with large informal labour markets, changes in interest rates are more effective in stimulating real output and there is less impact on inflation. Furthermore, the model produces cyclical flows from informal to formal employment, consistent with the data.

URL: In this paper we analyse the effects of informal labour markets on the dynamics of inflation and on the transmission of aggregate demand and supply shocks. In doing so, we incorporate the informal sector in a modified New Keynesian model with labour market frictions as in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model. Our main results show that the informal economy generates a “buffer” effect that diminishes the pressure of demand shocks on inflation. This finding is consistent with the empirical literature on the effects of informal labour markets in business cycle fluctuations. This result implies that, in economies with large informal labour markets, changes in interest rates are more effective in stimulating real output and there is less impact on inflation. Furthermore, the model produces cyclical flows from informal to formal employment, consistent with the data.

URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/work372.pdf

Courtesy: BIS

Category: Informal economy, Labour Market, Monetary Policy

The Impact of Indian Job Guarantee Scheme on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

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Mehtabul Azam

IZA Discussion Paper No. 6548

Public works programs, aimed at building a strong social safety net through redistribution of wealth and generation of meaningful employment, are becoming increasingly popular in developing countries. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), enacted in August 2005, is one such program in India. This paper assesses causal impacts (Intent-to-Treat) of NREGA on public works participation, labor force participation, and real wages ofcasual workers by exploiting its phased implementation across Indian districts. Using nationally representative data from Indian National Sample Surveys (NSS) and Difference-in- Difference framework, we find that there is a strong gender dimension to the impacts of NREGA: it has a positive impact on the labor force participation and this impact is mainly driven by a much sharper impact on female labor force participation. Similarly, NREGA has a significant positive impact on the wages of female casual workers-real wages of female casual workers increased 8% more in NREGA districts compared with the increase experienced in non-NREGA districts. However, the impact of NREGA on wages of casual male workers has only been marginal (about 1%). Using data from pre-NREGA period, we also perform falsification exercise to demonstrate that the main conclusions are not confounded by pre-existing differential trends between NREGA and non-NREGA districts.Keywords: difference-in-difference, intent-to-treat, NREGA, rural India

URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6548.pdf

Courtesy: IZA

Category: NREGA, Rural India

The Scandinavian Journal of Economics Volume 114, Issue 2 , June 2012

Posted | on May 17, 2012 | by Usha | Comments Off

Original Articles

Risk Aversion and Trade-Union Membership (pages 275–295)
Laszlo Goerke and Markus Pannenberg

Risky Sex in a Risky World: Sexual Behavior in an HIV/AIDS Environment (pages 296–322)
Andréa Mannberg

Inadequate Bivariate Measures of Health Inequality: The Impact of Income Distribution (pages 323–333)
Kjell Arne Brekke and Snorre Kverndokk

Pollution, Private Investment in Healthcare, and Environmental Policy (pages 334–357)
Xavier Pautrel

Externality-Correcting Taxes and Regulation (pages 358–383)
Vidar Christiansen and Stephen Smith

Optimal Provision of Public Goods: A Synthesis (pages 384–408)
Claus Thustrup Kreiner and Nicolaj Verdelin

Globalization, Tax Distortions, and Public-Sector Retrenchment (pages 409–439)
Torben M. Andersen and Allan Sørensen

Fiscal Policy in Real Time (pages 440–465)
Jacopo Cimadomo

Monetary Union and Pegging in the Presence of Labor Unions (pages 466–479)
Attila Korpos

Screening and Signaling in Communication (pages 480–499)
Ascensión Andina-Díaz

Discrimination in Scientific Review: A Natural Field Experiment on Blind versus Non-Blind Reviews (pages 500–519)
Fredrik Carlsson, Åsa Löfgren and Thomas Sterner

Dynamic Multi-Activity Contests (pages 520–538)
Maria Arbatskaya and Hugo M. Mialon

Riding High: Success in Sports and the Rise of Doping Cultures (pages 539–574)
Holger Strulik

Intensive Coaching of New Immigrants: An Evaluation Based on Random Program Assignment (pages 575–600)
Pernilla Andersson Joona and Lena Nekby

Entrepreneurship, Financiership, and Selection (pages 601–628)
Tuomas Takalo and Otto Toivanen

Life-Cycle Patterns of Interest-Rate Mark-Ups in Small-Firm Finance (pages 629–657)
Moshe Kim, Eirik Gaard Kristiansen and Bent Vale

Rule-of-Thumb Consumers, Productivity, and Hours (pages 658–679)
Francesco Furlanetto and Martin Seneca

URL:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sjoe.2012.114.issue-2/issuetoc

Category: Globalization, Health care, JOURNAL, Taxation

JOURNAL OF POST KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS,Vol.34(2),Winter 2012

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Contents

Did the 2008 rebate fail? a response to Taylor and Feldstein

By Kenneth A. Lewis and Laurence S. Seidman

German neomercantilism and the European sovereign debt crisis

By Bill Lucarelli

The primacy of hedge funds in the subprime crisis

By Photis Lysandrou

“On the Cobb-Douglas and all that …”: the Solow-Simon correspondence over the aggregate neoclassical production function

By Scott Carter

On Herbert Simon’s criticisms of the Cobb-Douglas and the CES production functions

By Jesus Felipe and John McCombie

Inflation targeting in a Post Keynesian economy

By André Luís Mota dos Santos

Exchange rate volatility and domestic consumption: a multicountry analysis

By Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee and Dan Xi

Keynes’s animal spirits vindicated: an analysis of recent empirical and neural data on money illusion

By Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde and Marianne Guille

Application of the balance-of-payments-constrained growth model to Portugal, 1965-2008

By Elias Soukiazis and Micaela Antunes

URL: http://www.metapress.com/content/q90v894p2301/?p=d4ed03639fb14ce89e26615082d1a0d7&pi=0

Category: Exchange rate flexibility, Inflation, JOURNAL

JOURNAL OF KERALA STUDIES,Vol.36,2009

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Contents

Lesser rajas and petty chieftains of Koathunadu

By Dr.E.B.SureshKumar

The Russian prince and the raja of Travancore

By Dr.Richard Walding, Helen Stone and Dr.Achuthsankar.S.Nair

Kannaki,the wife goddness

By Mini Thakapanan

Moplahs and Mappilais of Kerala

By A Yeshuratnam

Kurichya rebellion – A pioneer revolt of the tribals in Kerala

By Vinitha N.Vijayan

Evolution of varmakalai and its techniques in south Travancore-A historical perspective

By Y.Immanuel Rajakumar

Interrogating irrepresentability, othering and social exclusion: Revisiting the Travancore experience

By Dr.M.Mydeen Khan

Role of dalits in channar agitation and its impact on Ayyankali

By Renjini.P

Counter evangelical movement in modern Travancore: Crisis in identity

By Dr.Muhammmed Maheen

Privileged among the unprivileged- the unprivileged -the ezahavas of Travancore: A historical paradox

By Nandakumar.B.V

An era of progress: Reforms in Travancore during the dewanship of Sir.A.Sashia Sastri

By Gomathy.L.S

Introduction of Bi-Cameral legislature in Travancore and formation of Sri.Chitra state council

By R.S.Resmi

Legislative reforms in Cochin under Sir.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty(1935 -1941)

By T.Divya

Trade Union Movement in Quilon

By Maj.Dr.S.Sethulekshmi

Maintenance of divorced Muslim women – An analytical approch

By Dr.V.Sathish

Trends and dimenssions of Tribal development in Kerala

By Dr.A.K.Prasad

Vakkom Maulavi and the growth of mass media in Kerala

Exclusionary Growth: Some reflections on the Palmyrah

workers of Trivandrum district

By T.Kavitha Tresa

Intervention of private providers in higher education: A Kerala experience

By Dr.S.Tajudeen

Category: JOURNAL, Kerala

The RAND Journal of Economics,Volume 43, Issue 1,Spring 2012

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Contents

Competition for attention in the Information (overload) Age (pages 1–25)

By Simon P. Anderson and André de Palma

Vertical control of a distribution network—an empirical analysis of magazines (pages 26–50)

By Stijn Ferrari and Frank Verboven

Accidental death and the rule of joint and several liability (pages 51–77)

By Daniel Carvell, Janet Currie and W. Bentley MacLeod

The role of demand information and monitoring in tacit collusion (pages 78–109)

By Christian Rojas

A Markov-perfect equilibrium model of the impacts of price controls on the performance of the pharmaceutical industry (pages 110–138)

By Darren Filson

Demand shocks, capacity coordination, and industry performance: lessons from an economic laboratory (pages 139–166)

By Kyle Hampton and Katerina Sherstyuk

The effect of learning by hiring on productivity (pages 167–185)

By Pierpaolo Parrotta and Dario Pozzoli

New-vehicle characteristics and the cost of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard (pages 186–213)

By Thomas Klier and Joshua Linn

URL:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rand.2012.43.issue-1/issuetoc

Category: Information, JOURNAL, pharmaceuticals

The Indian Economic and Social History Review,Vol.XLIX,No..1/jan – mar 2012

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Visualising a region: Phaniswarnath Renu and the archive of the ‘regional–rural’ in the 1950s

By Sadan Jha

Oral tradition, nationalism and Assamese social history: Remembering a peasant uprising

By Arupjyoti Saikia

Rice trade in the ‘rice bowl of Bengal’: Burdwan 1880–1947

By Achintya Kumar Dutta

Struggling against Dundee: Bengal jute industry during the nineteenth century

By Indrajit Ray

URL : http://ier.sagepub.com/content/current

Category: JOURNAL, Social history

Science and Society,Vol.75,No.4,Oct.2011

Posted | on May 17, 2012 | by Ajan | Comments Off

Articles

“We are Illegal Here”: The Communist Party, Self-Determination and the Alabama Share Croppers Union

By Timothy V Johnson

Under German Eyes: Germán Avé-Lallemant and the Origins of Marxism in Argentina

By Lucas Poy, Daniel Gaido

War on Waste: Law, Original Accumulation and the Violence of Capital

By Mark Neocleous

Primitive Accumulation and Enclosure of the Commons: Genetically Engineered Seeds and Canadian Jurisprudence

By Wilhelm Peekhaus

Communications

Guglielmo Carchedi on Marx, Calculus, Time, and Dialectics

By Russell Dale

The Political Economy of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Cooperative Movement: A Critique

By Thomas Purcell

URL:http://guilfordjournals.com/toc/siso/75/4

Category: Capitalism, JOURNAL, Political economy

JOURNAL OF POST KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS,Volume 34, Number 1 / Fall 2011

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Contents

In the land of the blind the one-eyed are king: how financial economics contributed to the collapse of 2008-2009

By Edward E. Williams

Cyclical patterns of employment, utilization, and profitability

By Ben Zipperer and Peter Skott

China’s economic growth, 1978-2007: structural-institutional changes and efficiency attributes

By Dic Lo and Guicai Li

On the U.S.-Chinese trade dispute

By Imad Moosa

Capital stock and unemployment in Canada

By Ana Rosa Martínez-Cañete and Alfonso Palacio-Vera

Was it really a Minsky moment?

By Timur Behlul

Chamberlin and Robinson: their realism revisited and revised

By John F. M. McDermott

URL:http://www.metapress.com/content/r86326026258/?p=a215b0b3babf4e369bdb1199dea28fa4&pi=2

Category: Economic Growth, JOURNAL, Monetary economics

Kurukshetra:A journal on rural development,Vol.60(7),May 2012

Posted | on May 17, 2012 | by Ajan | Comments Off

Rural Tourism path to economic & regional development in India

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

Farm based rural tourism in Kerala

By Dr.Gracious James

Rural Tourism – A Global View

By T.Prakash and Dr.M.Perumal

Enlarging the potential of rural tourism in India

By Barna Maulick

Tourism: An engine to economic growth in the rural economy of Himchal Pradesh

By Dr.Jai Singh Parmer

Agri Tourism: An innovative income generation avenue

By N.B Umbale and H.V. Barate

ICT: A Catalytic intervention for empowering rural India

By Anupam Hazra

Rural solid waste management: Issues and action

By Pravash Chandra Moharana

RGGVY: Turning the wheel of rural India

By Mayank Agrawal and Gargi Malik

Hydroponics: A boon for increased agricultural production in Climate Change era

By Dasharath Prasad and Asha Ram

Hi-Tech technology for cultivation of some vegetables in soil – less cultute

By Dr.R.S.Sengar,Dr.Shalani Gupth, Kalpana Senger and Dr.M.Pandey

Category: ICT, JOURNAL, Tourism, Waste management

India 2050: Can We Celebrate the Centenary of the Republic as a Developed Country?

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by Ramgopal Agarwala

RIS DP No.178, March 2012

Almost exactly a hundred years ago, King George V visited India and he was received with great pomp and ceremony. Even our great poet Rabindra Nath Tagore composed and sang a song to welcome the Emperor. At that time, the Empire seemed to be forever and it might have seemed delusional to think of the end of Empire in not only India but also the world over. However, forces of political freedom were operating in that direction and there were noble and patriotic souls in India prepared to work for and fight for the end of colonialism. And it did happen. With India leading the path, colonialism was ended by the close of the century and the twentieth century can well be regarded as century of political liberation. In political terms, different nations achieved parity that was unthinkable a hundred years ago.

URL; http://www.ris.org.in/images/RIS_images/pdf/dp178_pap.pdf

Courtesy:RIS

Category: Development, Growth, India

National Bureau of Economic Research THE LATEST WORKING PAPERS for the Week of May 14, 2012

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Sivakumar | Comments Off

The following NBER Working Papers were released in electronic format this week. Abbreviations in parentheses refer to NBER Research Programs. (visit http://www.nber.org/programs.html for Program information.)

1. The Impact of the 2009 Federal Tobacco Excise Tax Increase on Youth Tobacco Use by Jidong Huang, Frank J. Chaloupka, IV #18026 (HE) http://papers.nber.org/papers /W18026?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

2. Macro-Prudential Policy in a Fisherian model of Financial Innovation by Javier Bianchi, Emine Boz, Enrique G. Mendoza #18036 (IFM) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18036?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

3. Bubble Thy Neighbor: Portfolio Effects and Externalities from Capital Controls by Kristin Forbes, Marcel Fratzscher, Thomas Kostka, Roland Straub #18052 (CF IFM) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18052?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

4. Evidence on the Impact of R&D and ICT Investment on Innovation and Productivity in Italian Firms by Bronwyn H. Hall, Francesca Lotti, Jacques Mairesse #18053 (PR)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18053?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

5. The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States by David H. Autor, David Dorn, Gordon H. Hanson #18054 (IFM LS) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18054?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

6. Estimating the Economic Impacts of Living Wage Mandates Using Ex Ante Simulations, Longitudinal Estimates, and New Public and Administrative Data: Evidence for New York City by David Neumark, Matthew Thompson, Francesco Brindisi, Leslie Koyle, Clayton Reck #18055 (LS)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18055?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

7. Estimating Person-Centered Treatment (PeT) Effects Using Instrumental Variablesby Anirban Basu #18056 (HC HE TWP) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18056?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

8. Country Size, Currency Unions, and International Asset Returns by Tarek Alexander Hassan #18057 (AP IFM ITI) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18057?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

9. Nonlinear Adventures at the Zero Lower Bound by Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Grey Gordon, Pablo A. Guerron-Quintana, Juan Rubio-Ramirez #18058 (EFG) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18058?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

10. House Price Moments in Boom-Bust Cycles by Todd M. Sinai #18059 (EFG ME PE) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18059?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

11. Does Employer-Provided Health Insurance Constrain Labor Supply Adjustments toHealth Shocks? New Evidence on Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer by Cathy J. Bradley, David Neumark, Scott Barkowski #18060 (HE LS)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18060?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

12. Comparative Advantage and the Welfare Impact of European Integration by Andrei A. Levchenko, Jing Zhang #18061 (IFM ITI) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18061?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

13. Protectionism Isn’t Counter?€?Cyclic (anymore) by Andrew K. Rose #18062 (EFG IFM ITI) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18062?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

14. Pseudo-Predictability in Conditional Asset Pricing Tests: Explaining Anomaly Performance with Politics, the Weather, Global Warming, Sunspots, and the Stars by Robert Novy-Marx #18063 (AP CF) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18063?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

15. Identifying Confirmatory Bias in the Field: Evidence from a Poll of Experts by Rodney J. Andrews, Trevon D. Logan, Michael J. Sinkey #18064 (DAE)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18064?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

16. Revising Commitments: Field Evidence on the Adjustment of Prior Choices by Xavier Gine, Jessica Goldberg, Dan Silverman, Dean Yang #18065 (LS PE) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18065?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

17. The Money Value of a Man by Mark Huggett, Greg Kaplan #18066 (AP EFG LS) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18066?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

18. Foreign Born Scientists: Mobility Patterns for Sixteen Countries by Chiara Franzoni, Giuseppe Scellato, Paula Stephan #18067 (ED LS PR) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18067?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

19. Quantile Treatment Effects of College Quality on Earnings: Evidence from Administrative Data in Texas by Rodney J. Andrews, Jing Li, Michael F. Lovenheim #18068 (ED LS)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18068?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

20. Price Discrimination in the Housing Market by Patrick Bayer, Marcus D. Casey, Fernando Ferreira, Robert McMillan #18069 (PE) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18069?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

21. Weathering the Storm: Hurricanes and Birth Outcomes by Janet Currie, Maya Rossin-Slater #18070 (CH HC HE) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18070?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

22. The Smart Grid, Entry, and Imperfect Competition in Electricity Markets by Hunt Allcott #18071 (EEE) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18071?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

23. Monetary Policy, Liquidity, and Growth by Philippe Aghion, Emmanuel Farhi, Enisse Kharroubi #18072 (EFG ME) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18072?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

24. Counterfeit or Substandard? The Role of Regulation and Distribution Channel in Drug Safety by Roger Bate, Ginger Zhe Jin, Aparna Mathur #18073 (IO)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18073?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

25. Financial Constraints, Endogenous Markups, and Self-fulfilling Equilibria by Jess Benhabib, Pengfei Wang #18074 (EFG)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18074?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

26. The Effect of Housing Wealth on College Choice: Evidence from the Housing Boomby Michael F. Lovenheim, C. Lockwood Reynolds #18075 (ED) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18075?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

27. Sequential or Simultaneous Elections? A Welfare Analysis by Patrick Hummel, Brian Knight #18076 (PE POL)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18076?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

28. Has the U.S. Finance Industry Become Less Efficient? On the Theory and Measurement of Financial Intermediation by Thomas Philippon #18077 (AP CF EFG PR) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18077?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

29. A Markov-Switching Multi-Fractal Inter-Trade Duration Model, with Application to U.S. Equities by Fei Chen, Francis X. Diebold, Frank Schorfheide #18078 (AP)http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18078?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

30. The Rise and Fall of Unions in the U.S. by Emin M. Dinlersoz, Jeremy Greenwood #18079 (EFG) http://papers.nber.org/papers/W18079?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

Category: Economics

The Importance of Manufacturing in Economic Development: Past, Present and Future Perspectives

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Wim Naude and Adam Szirmai

UNU-MERIT Workin Paper No. 20102-041, May 2012

The structural transformation of a traditional economy dominated by primary activities into a modern economy where high-productivity activities in manufacturing assume an important role remains a defining feature of economic development. The challenges to attain such structural transformation may be more daunting than in the past. Based on a recent UNU-WIDER/UNUMERIT project on industrialization this paper discusses the past and present roles of the manufacturing sector in structural change and analyses new challenges facing industrial policy. New challenges discussed in the paper include: (i) integration into global value chains, (ii) the shrinking of policy space in the present international order, (iii) the rise of the Asian driver economies, (iv) new opportunities provided by resource-based industrialization, (v) the accelerating pace of technological change in manufacturing, (vi) how to deal with jobless growth in manufacturing, (vii) creating adequate systems of financial intermediation, and (viii) how to respond to the threats of global warming and climate change. We argue that structural transformation of developing countries requires a type of manufacturing sector development that can deliver high-quality employment, that is aligned with the international division of labour, and that would not lead to autarky, or a reversal of global gains in establishing openness in trade. Industrial policy can make valuable contributions in this regard if the lessons of the past and the challenges of the future are sufficiently taken into consideration.

URL: http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2012/wp2012-041.pdf

Courtesy:UNU-MERIT

Category: Development, Growth, Industrial policy, Industrialization, Manufacturing industries

Human Capital, Economic Growth, and Inequality in China

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by James J Heckman and Junjian Yi

IZA Discussion Paper NO.6550, May 2012

China’s rapid growth was fueled by substantial physical capital investments applied to a large stock of medium skilled labor acquired before economic reforms began. As development proceeded, the demand for high skilled labor has grown, and, in the past decade, China has made substantial investments in producing it. The egalitarian access to medium skilled education characteristic of the pre-reform era has given rise to substantial inequality in access to higher levels of education. China’s growth will be fostered by expanding access to all levels of education, reducing impediments to labor mobility, and expanding the private sector.

URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6550.pdf

Courtesy:IZA

Category: China, Economic Growth, Education, Inequality

Like Father, Like Son? Intergenerational Education Mobility in India

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Mehtabul Azam and Vipul Bhatt

IZA Discussion Paper No.6549, May 2012

An important constraint in studying intergenerational education mobility for India is the lack of data that contain information about parents’ education for the entire adult population. This paper employs a novel strategy to create a unique father-son matched data that is representative of the entire adult male population in India. Using this father-son matched data, we study the extent of intergenerational mobility in educational attainment in India since 1940s and provide an estimate of how India ranks among other nations. We also document this mobility across social groups, and states in India. Finally, we investigate the evolution of mobility in educational attainment across the two generations and whether this trend differs across social groups and state boundaries. We find that there have been significant improvements in educational mobility across generations in India, at the aggregate level, across social groups, and across states. Although most of the Indian states have made significant progress over time, in terms of improved mobility, there remains significant variation across states with some states faring worse than the others

URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6549.pdf

Courtesy:IZA

Category: Education, India

Inclusive Growth under a Neo-liberal Policy Framework:Some Critical Questions

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Indira Hirway

Economic & Political Weekly, May 19, 2012

“Inclusive growth” is a fashionable term these days, used widely in a large number of emerging and developing countries in the context of the neo-liberal policy framework, which is expected to deliver growth, and also inclusive growth. Empirical evidence from most of these countries however indicates that the neo-liberal policies have not been very successful in including the excluded in the mainstream development process. The paper observes that there is an urgent need to give a fresh look at the macroeconomic framework underlying the present policies. To start with, there is a need to end the tug of war between the growth and redistribution phases of neo-liberal policies. This is because the mainstream growth process that creates exclusion as well as inequalities tends to overpower the redistribution process and intensifies exclusions. The macroeconomic policies such as fiscal and monetary policies will have to play a much larger role in achieving developmental goals. There is also a need to expand the boundaries of macroeconomics to include natural resources as well as unpaid work within its purview to make it relevant and real.

URL: http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/17469.pdf

Courtesy:EPW

Category: Inclusive growth, India

Counting Undernourished Children

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Brinda Viswanathan

Economic & Political Weekly, May 19, 2012

The report of the Hunger and Malnutrition Survey, which was conducted between October 2010 and February 2011 to assess the rate of under-nutrition among children under the age of fi ve in 100 focus districts of rural India, makes progress in measuring under-nutrition at the district level in some of the states. It also presents the important fi nding that there has been an overall reduction in underweight rates.

URL: http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/17459.pdf

Courtesy:EPW

Category: Child health, India, Nutrition

Provincial Migration in China: Preliminary Insights from the 2010 Population Census

Posted | on May 16, 2012 | by Anitha | Comments Off

by Andrew M. Fischer

ISS Working Paper No. 541,May 2012

In anticipation of the forthcoming release of the 2010 national population
census of China, this paper compares the limited population data that have
been released so far with annual data on natural population increase since the
2000 census in order to construct a rough but robust measure of net migration
for each province in China between these two censuses. The results emphasise
the extent of net out-migration from much of interior and western China as
well as the degree to which rapid population growth in five coastal growth
poles has been due to net in-migration. In total, 15 out of 31 provinces
experienced net population outflows between the two censuses according to
this measure, versus only six that experienced negative population growth,
leaving nine provinces that registered positive population growth at the same time as net out-migration. Three exceptions to the western pattern of net outflows were the Tibet Autonomous Region, Xinjiang and Ningxia, which
had the highest average natural population increase rates in China and also
continued to experience moderate net in-migration. Overall, the sheer extent
and speed of these flows, which have been mostly contained within national
borders, sheds light on the enormity of the developmental challenges facing
the government in this context, as well as the demographic pressures placed on the coastal growth poles absorbing most of the net flows. Moreover, there
appears to be little association between rates of net migration and provincial
rates of economic growth or even provincial levels of per capita GDP during
this period, except in the broadest interregional sense that the three coastal
province-level entities exhibiting the strongest rates of net in-migration –
Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin – were by far the most affluent in China.

URL: http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32290/wp541.pdf

Courtesy: ISS

Category: Census, Population, provincial migration

Public and Private Sector Banks:Convergence in Performance

Posted | on May 15, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Sidharth Sinha

Economic & Political Weekly, May 19, 2012

This article examines the performance of public sector banks and the new private sector banks over the period 2005-06 to 2010-11. What emerges is that while the relative performance of public sector banks had improved signifi cantly by 2005-06, the new private sector banks had moved ahead by 2010-11. It appears that early gains by public sector banks may have been the result of initial slack in the system and new gains will require radical changes in human resource management and corporate governance practices.Such reforms are urgent in the light og the proposal to issue new banking licenses.

URL: http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/17460.pdf

Courtesy:EPW

Category: Banking, India, Private Sector, Public Sector

The US Railroads- their evolution, structure and operations

Posted | on May 15, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

By Bodhibrata Nag

IIMC WPS No.699/ May, 2012

Both India and the United States of America share a common history of dominant role of railroads in the development of the economy. While the first common carrier of the US, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O, now part of CSXT), commenced services on a 13 mile stretch in 1830, railways commenced operations in India in 1853 on the 21 mile Mumbai-Thane stretch (1). While the US railroads expanded westwards over the next fifty years to bridge the American continent, Indian railroads were also being built to connect the vast subcontinent to the major sea-ports albeit at a much slower pace.

URL: http://facultylive.iimcal.ac.in/sites/facultylive.iimcal.ac.in/files/WPS%20699.pdf

Courtesy:IIMC

Category: India, Rail transport, United States, rail roads

Public Procurement- a case study of the Indian Railways

Posted | on May 15, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Bidhibrata Nag

IIMC WPS No.698/May, 2012

Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest public sector organizations. Its network, traffic, organization and extent of vertical integration are gigantic. This paper undertakes a critical examination of its procurement process to understand the procedures and institutional mechanisms which have evolved over time for safeguarding institutional interests. The paper examines issues such as organizational structure, procurement organization, source selection methodology, procurement oversight and regulation and their impact on the economy, efficiency, transparency and accountability aspects of procurement. It is found that a unique combination of internal vigil, external oversight by independent bodies and organizational characteristics contribute to robust procurement processes.

URL: http://facultylive.iimcal.ac.in/sites/facultylive.iimcal.ac.in/files/WPS%20698.pdf

Courtesy:IIMC

Category: India, Rail transport

Food Price Inflation in India (2008 to 2010) :A Commodity-wise Analysis of the Causal Factors

Posted | on May 14, 2012 | by Gopakumar | Comments Off

by Sthanu R Nair and Leena Mary Eapen

Economic & Political Weekly, May 19, 2012

This paper analyses the causes of the high inflation experienced in 12 food commodities between January 2008 and July 2010. It is shown that a majority of the commodities were subject to inflationary pressures due to domestic supply-side constraints. They include pulses, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, spices, tea, coffee and sugar. Cost escalation was the primary reason for rising prices of milk and eggs. The high inflation of rice was caused by a complex interplay of factors. With the exception of milk, the paper finds no concrete evidence to support the popular view that the higher food prices in recent years was the outcome of a “secular shift” in food consumption patterns towards high-value agriculture products. Developments in the global economy have influenced the domestic food prices mainly through passing on world oil price increases. High cost food imports played only a very limited role.

URL: http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/17467.pdf

Courtesy:EPW

Category: Food Prices, India, Inflation

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Updates from KNRaj Library, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram

Original Articles

EDITORIALS

From Mitterrand to Hollande

Hazardous Mountains

Burma’s Beginning

From 50 Years Ago (19 May 2012)

COMMENTARY

Are We Serious about Our Energy Security?

Aesthetics of Civil Society: ‘Fight the Filth’ Campaign in Mumbai

Tripoli Is ‘Free’?

Counting Undernourished Children

Public and Private Sector Banks: Convergence in Performance

R H Patil: A Tribute

A Visionary and Institution Builder

FROM THE STATES

Kerala: A Year of Governing Precariously

BOOK REVIEWS

A Chaotic Collection

Exhaustive Study of Tibet

PERSPECTIVES

India Inc. and Its Moral Discontents

SPECIAL ARTICLES

Food Price Inflation in India (2008 to 2010)

‘Encounters’ and the Telling Silence of Children

Inclusive Growth under a Neo-liberal Policy Framework

NOTES

Tribal Women’s Perspective on the Land Acquisition Bill

DISCUSSION

Reinventing the Third World: A Rejoinder

CURRENT STATISTICS

Macroeconomic Indicators (19 May 2012)

Trends in Agricultural Production

Secondary Market Transactions in Government Securities and the Forex Market – April 2012

LETTERS

Judicial Impunity

Policy on Beef and Pork

BJP and Lingayat Maths

A Very Bleak Show

EDITORIALS

Under High Finance’s Grip

Hostage to Wrong Ideas

Crocodile Tears

From 50 Years Ago (12 May 2012)

MARGIN SPEAK

RTE: A Symbolic Gesture

COMMENTARY

The Civil-Military Divide

Moving Constitutional Borders

Norwegian Child Services: A Tale of Ethnocentric Hegemony

Illustrations in Statutes: A Forgotten Statutory Practice

Regulating Utilities: A Legislative Framework

BOOK REVIEWS

Caste Identity and Economics

A Superfi cial Picture

INSIGHT

In the Jungle of Law

SPECIAL ARTICLES

Inefficiency and Abuse of Compulsory Land Acquisition

Migration, Transnational Flows, and Development in India

Creating Employment in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan

NOTES

How Representative Has the Lok Sabha Been?

DISCUSSION

An Act of Transgression

CURRENT STATISTICS

Macroeconomic Indicators (12 May 2012)

Money and Banking: Trends and Key Ratios (Rs Crore)

LETTERS

Resisting Culinary Fascism

Consolidating Religio-Political Forces

Preserving Medical Records

Fact-Finding on Mega Dams in North-East

URL: http://epw.in/epw/user/contentPrev.jsp

Original Article

Original Articles

Contents

Visualising a region: Phaniswarnath Renu and the archive of the ‘regional–rural’ in the 1950s

Oral tradition, nationalism and Assamese social history: Remembering a peasant uprising

Rice trade in the ‘rice bowl of Bengal’: Burdwan 1880–1947