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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Monojit Chatterji |
| Abstract: | This brief survey examines the returns to education in India , and then examines the role of education on both economic growth and economic development with particular reference to India. Throughout, the objective is to draw out the implications of the empirical results for education policy. The results suggest that female education is of particular importance in India. They also suggest that perhaps because of the externalities it generates, primary education is more important than might be deduced from its relatively low private rate of return. |
| Keywords: | education, economic growth, economic development |
| JEL: | I2 O53 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dun:dpaper:210&r=cwa |
| By: | Pedro de Araujo (Colorado College) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS-3), this paper analyzes the socioeconomic correlates of sexual behavior, HIV/AIDS knowledge and stigma in India. The main findings are that, overall, the Indian population is faithful and abstains from sex with very small variations across socioeconomic classes. However, given the large size of the population, there is still room for some concern as condom use is low, knowledge about the disease is poor, and stigma is high; especially with respect to less educated, poorer, single males and women in general. Obvious policy recommendations are; therefore, to increase condom distribution and awareness, increase very heavily HIV/AIDS basic education, and promote women empowerment with respect to sexual choices. |
| Keywords: | HIV/AIDS, Condom, Stigma, India |
| JEL: | C13 C25 O53 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inu:caeprp:2008-019_updated&r=cwa |
| By: | Mushed, S, Mansoob; Mamoon, Dawood |
| Abstract: | Conflict between Pakistan and India can be best understood in a multivariate framework where variables such as economic performance, multilateral trade with the rest of the world, bilateral trade, military expenditure, democracy scores and population are simultaneously taken into account. Our empirical investigation based on time series econometrics from 1950-2005, allowing us to truly address causality, suggests that reduced bilateral trade, greater military expenditure, less development expenditure, lower levels of democracy, lower growth rates and less general trade openness are all conflict enhancing, albeit with lags in some cases. Moreover, there is reverse causality between bilateral trade, militarization and conflict; low levels of bilateral trade and high militarization are conflict enhancing, equally conflict also reduces bilateral trade and raises militarization. Economic growth is conflict mitigating, but the reverse is not true. Globalization, or a greater openness to trade with the rest of the world, is the most significant driver of a liberal peace, corroborating a modified form of the capitalist peace, rather than a common democratic political orientation suggested by the pure form of the Kantian liberal peace. |
| Keywords: | Inter-State Conflict and Trade; Democracy and COnflict; COnflict and Economic Development |
| JEL: | F59 F1 F51 C72 |
| Date: | 2008–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10429&r=cwa |
| By: | Mamoon, Dawood; S. Mansoob, Murshed |
| Abstract: | We examine whether greater inter-state trade, democracy and reduced military spending lower belligerence between India and Pakistan. We begin with theoretical models covering the opportunity costs of conflict in terms of trade losses and security spending, as well as the costs of making concessions to rivals. Conflict between the two nations can be best understood in a multivariate framework where variables such as economic performance, integration with rest of the world, bilateral trade, military expenditure, democracy scores and population are simultaneously considered. Our empirical investigation based on time series econometrics from 1950-2005 suggests that reduced bilateral trade, greater military expenditure, less development expenditure, lower levels of democracy, lower growth rates and less general trade openness are all conflict enhancing. Globalization, or a greater openness to international trade with the rest of the world, is the most significant driver of a liberal peace, rather than a common democratic orientation suggested by the pure form of the democratic peace. |
| Keywords: | Inter-state conflict and trade; democracy and conflict; conflict and economic development. |
| JEL: | F15 F52 F51 C7 |
| Date: | 2008–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10431&r=cwa |
| By: | Kumar, Nagesh (Research and Information Systems); Chadha, Alka (Department of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | Indian and Chinese enterprises have emerged as important outward investors in recent times with their involvement in a number of prominent Greenfield investments and acquisitions. The theory of international business posits that the ownership of some unique advantages having a revenue generating potential abroad combined with the presence of internalization and locational advantages leads to outward FDI. Conventional MNEs based in the industrialized countries have grown on the strength of ownership advantages derived from innovatory activity that is largely concentrated in these countries. It examines the case of steel industry that has become an important sector of overseas activity for Chinese and Indian companies with a string of major acquisitions of foreign MNEs for acquiring footprints and natural resources in order to identify the sources of ownership advantages and strategies of outward investments from emerging countries. |
| Keywords: | FDI outflows, steel, India |
| JEL: | O1 L61 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008053&r=cwa |
| By: | Ira N. Gang; Kunal Sen; Myeong-Su Yun |
| Abstract: | Affirmative action has been at the heart of public policies towards the socially disadvantaged in India. Compensatory discrimination policies which have been adopted for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) since independence were recommended for Other Backward Classes (OBC) by the Mandal Commission established by the Indian government in 1979. We examine why OBC have lower living standards, as measured by per capita household consumption expenditures, relative to the mainstream population, and whether these reasons are similar to those observed for SC and ST. We find that while the causes of the living standard gap for the OBC are broadly similar to those for the SC and ST, the role of educational attainment in explaining the gap is higher in imporatnce for the OBC. |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edb:cedidp:08-12&r=cwa |
| By: | Fortanier, Fabienne (University of Amsterdam Business School); Tulder, Rob van (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores whether the internationalization trajectories - patterns over time in the level, pace, variability and temporal concentration of international expansion - of large firms from China and India are fundamentally different from those of developed country firms. A longitudinal cross-country comparative study of 256 large firms for the 1990-2004 period shows that, although internationalization trajectories of large and leading Chinese and Indian firms are indeed different, there are also considerable similarities between established developed country firms and the new firms from emerging markets, not in the least because they often interact within the same sector |
| Keywords: | Internationalization trajectories, Transnationality Index (TNI), longitudinal research, crosscountry comparison |
| JEL: | F21 F23 M19 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008054&r=cwa |
| By: | Sumon Kumar Bhaumik; Manisha Chakrabarty |
| Abstract: | Few researchers have examined the nature and determinants of earnings differentials among religious groups, and none has been undertaken in the context of conflict-prone multi-religious societies likethe one in India. We address this lacuna in the literature by examining the differences in the average (log) earnings of Hindu and Muslim wage earners in India, during the 1987-2005 period. Our results indicate that education differences between Hindu and Muslim wage earners, especially differences in the proportion of wage earners with tertiary education, are largely responsible for the differences in the average (log) earnings of the two religious groups across the years. By contrast, differences in the returns to education do not explain the aforementioned difference in average (log) earnings. Citing other evidence about persistence of educational achievements across generations, however, we argue that attempts to narrow this gap using quotas for Muslim households at educational institutions might be counterproductive from the point of view of conflict avoidance. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edb:cedidp:08-02&r=cwa |
| By: | Matthieu Chemin |
| Abstract: | This paper relates unique data on criminal records of local politicians in India to corruption, crime and poverty. Using a regression discontinuity design, whereby individuals living in districts where a criminal politician barely won are compared to individuals living in districts where a criminal politician barely lost, this paper shows that criminal politicians reduce bribe-taking behavior of law and order officials by 34 percent. One possible explanation for this result is that when interests of politicians and those of interest groups converge, criminal politicians' control over bureaucrats acts as a substitute for bribes from these interest groups. This is not to say that criminal politicians should be elected to eradicate corruption, but rather that corruption is underestimated if only measured by bribe-taking without taking into account political control: as less bribes need to be paid, criminal offences, similar to those mostly committed by criminal politicians, increase by 25 percent. Moreover, the urban headcount ratio, the welfare of those not connected with politicians, increases by 22 percent. |
| Keywords: | Mother's labour supply, preschool and primary school children, childcare policy, treatment effects, natural experiment |
| JEL: | H42 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0825&r=cwa |
| By: | Sarmistha Pal |
| Abstract: | The present paper argues that local public infrastructure exerts a significant and positive effect on the presence of private school as well as the quality of schooling in the Indian villages. Given historical distribution of land and ethnic composition, villages with more unequal distribution of land are more likely to have better access to public infrastructure (for given level of ethnic fractionalization), which in turn enhances the likelihood of having a private school in the village. Results using PROBE survey of household-, school- and village-level data from five north Indian states provide some support to this central hypothesis. There is also evidence that the quality of overall schooling is generally better in villages with a private school; rise of private schools however fails to affect the quality of local state schools. |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edb:cedidp:08-05&r=cwa |
| By: | Kaivan Munshi; Mark Rosenzweig |
| Abstract: | Parochial politics is typically associated with poor leadership and low levels of public good provision. This paper explores the possibility that community involvement in politics need not necessarily worsen governance and, indeed, can be efficiency-enhancing when the context is appropriate. Complementing the new literature on the role of community networks in solving market problems, we test the hypothesis that strong traditional social institutions can discipline the leaders they put forward, successfully substituting for secular political institutions when they are ineffective. Using new data on Indian local governments at the ward level over multiple terms, and exploiting the randomized election reservation system, we find that the presence of a numerically dominant sub-caste (caste equilibrium) is associated with the selection of leaders with superior observed characteristics and with greater public good provision. This improvement in leadership competence occurs without apparently diminishing leaders' responsiveness to their constituency. |
| JEL: | D72 H1 O12 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14335&r=cwa |