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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Baharom, A.H.; Habibullah, M.S. |
| Abstract: | This study examines the meaningful relationship between economic growth, and service sector contribution and domestic investment in two major Asian economies, namely India and China. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure is employed to analyze the impact of the selected variables namely (1) contribution by the service sector, (2) (4) domestic investment on economic growth and vice versa. The period of interest is 1960-2005 using annual data. The empirical results demonstrate that for the case of India, there is (1) a unidirectional causality from domestic investment to economic growth and (2) from economic growth to services. As for China, only unidirectional causality from services sector to economic growth is detected, while no meaningful relationship was found between domestic investment and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Service-led; investment-led; growth; China; India |
| JEL: | E22 E01 |
| Date: | 2008–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11924&r=cwa |
| By: | Abay Asfaw; Stephan Klasen (Georg-August Universität Göttingen / Germany); Francesca Lamanna (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | The “missing women” dilemma in India has sparked interest in investigating gender discrimination in the provision of health care in the country. No studies, however, have directly examined this discrimination in relation to household behavior in health care financing. We hypothesize that households who face tight budget constraints are more likely to spend their meager resources on hospitalization of boys rather than girls. We use the 60th Indian National Sample Survey and a multinomial logit model to test this hypothesis and to shed some light on this important but overlooked issue. The results reveal that while the gap in the probability of boys’ and girls’ hospitalization and usage of household income and savings is relatively small, the gender gap in the probability of hospitalization and usage of scarce resources is very high. Ceteris paribus, the probability of boys to be hospitalized by financing from relatively scarce sources such as borrowing, sale of assets, help from friends, etc., is much higher than that of girls. Moreover, the results indicate that the gender gap deepens as we move from the richest to poorest households. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, health care finance, hospitalization, India |
| JEL: | I12 O15 J71 |
| Date: | 2008–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:177&r=cwa |
| By: | Douhan, Robin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Nordberg, Anders (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | It is often assumed that recent success in the high-technology software industry will lead India's development. However, evidence suggest that basic manufacturing industry is stagnant. This paper proposes a mechanism that ties these two trends together. A big-push type of model, featuring linkages between firms, demand spill-over, and technology choice is elaborated. By imposing different cost structures on the manufacturing and high-technology industries the model describes outcome in terms of distribution between sectors. It is found that a policy which promotes a high-technology sector can have negative effects on the manufacturing industry as well as aggregate income. Directing resources towards infrastructure, on the other hand, benefits all sectors and increases aggregate income. The results from the model are found to correspond with the recent development pattern in India. |
| Keywords: | Industrialization; India; Industrial Structure |
| JEL: | L16 O14 O25 |
| Date: | 2008–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0778&r=cwa |
| By: | Memon, Manzoor Hussain; Baig, Waqar Saleem; Ali, Muhammad |
| Abstract: | This paper is an attempt to investigate the causal relationships among agriculture and exports in Pakistan by using time series data for the period between 1971 and 2007. There are several efforts reflecting greater interest in exploring the possible relation between the international trade and economic growth. Increasing of Gross Domestic Product is the main target of almost every economy. Promoting exports of the country is one of the ways of achieving economic growth. Pakistan is among the developing countries, emphasizing to boost its exports since its inception. The major share of Pakistan’s export has strong backward linkages with the agricultural sector both in terms of primary and value added commodities. The findings have significant implications on Pakistan’s economic policy as both the variables have shown strong long-run relationship. There is also a bi-directional Granger-causality between the total exports and agricultural GDP. However, for short-run, both the variable does not cause each other in either direction. |
| Keywords: | Causality; Growth; Gross Domestic Product; Agriculture; Exports; Pakistan |
| JEL: | C32 F40 C50 C12 F14 O40 Q10 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11845&r=cwa |
| By: | Raghbendra Jha; Katsushi S. Imai; Raghav Gaiha |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effects of access to Rural Public Works (RPW) and Public Distribution System (PDS), a public food subsidy programme, on consumption poverty, vulnerability and undernutrition in India drawing upon the large household data sets constructed by National Sample Survey (NSS) data, 50th round in 1993-1994 and 61st round in 2004-2005. Treatment-effects model and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) model are used to take account of the sample selection bias in evaluating the effects of RPW or PDS on poverty. We have found significant and negative effects of the household participation in RPW and Food for Work Programmes on poverty, undernutrition (e.g. protein) and vulnerability in 1993 and 2004. On the contrary, poverty and undernutrition are significantly higher for the households with access to PDS than those without, whilst PDS has significant effects on reducing vulnerability of households in 1993 and 2004. We also applied the pseudo panel model which confirms that PDS decreased the vulnerability based on 80% of the poverty threshold. However, state-wise results of treatment effects model show considerable diversity of policy effects among different states. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Undernutrition, Vulnerability, Rural Public Works (RPW), Public Distribution System (PDS), Poverty Reduction Policy, Treatment Effects Model, Propensity Score Matching (PSM) Model, India |
| JEL: | C21 C23 C31 I32 I38 O15 O22 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:asarcc:2008-08&r=cwa |
| By: | B, Ranjula (Department of Economics); Wallentin, Fan Yang (Department of Information Science, Division of Statistics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Microfinance programs like Self Help Group Bank linkage program (SHG), aim to empower women through provision of financial services. We investigate this further to determine whether it is the economic or the non-economic factors that have a greater impact on empowering women. Using household survey data on SHG from India, a general structural model is adopted where the latent women empowerment and its latent components (economic factors and financial confidence, managerial control, behavioural changes, education and networking, communication and political participation and awareness) are measured using observed indicators. The results show that for SHG members, economic factors, managerial control and behavioural changes are the most significant factors in empowering women. |
| Keywords: | microfinance; impact; women empowerment |
| JEL: | D12 D63 D91 J16 O12 O16 |
| Date: | 2008–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2008_011&r=cwa |
| By: | Iqbal, Javed |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the main features of the Stock market in Pakistan focussing on post-liberalization period. The aspects of the market investigated include liberalization of the market, integration the market with the world markets, trading and settlement mechanism, and corporate governance issues. Finally salient features of the market are compared to a selected set of emerging and developed markets. Pakistan’s stock market is smaller in size but is significantly more active than the markets of this size. In recent years the market has provided very high returns to investors. In 2002 the market was declared as the best performing stock market globally. |
| Keywords: | Stock Market; Pakistan |
| JEL: | G10 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11868&r=cwa |
| By: | Fatma Gul Unal |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between farm size and yield per acre in Turkey using heretofore untapped data from a 2002 farm-level survey of 5,003 rural households. After controlling for village, household, and agroclimatic heterogeneity, a strong inverse relationship between farm size and yield is found to be prevalent in all regions of Turkey. The paper also investigates the impact of land fragmentation on productivity and labor input per acre, and finds a positive relationship. These results favor labor-centered theories that point to higher labor input per decare as the source of the inverse size-yield relationship. |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_551&r=cwa |
| By: | Hirnissa, M.T; Habibullah, M.S.; Baharom, A.H. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the causality between military expenditure and income inequality in selected Asian countries namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, India and South Korea for the period 1970-2005. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure is employed to (1) analyze the impact of military expenditure on income inequality and (2) the impact of income inequality on military expenditure as well. Interestingly our results indicate one way causality running from military expenditure to income inequality only for the case of Malaysia and bidirectional causality for the case of Singapore. As for the remaining countries, no meaningful relationship could be detected and it can be seen as sign of good governance in these countries. |
| Keywords: | defense spending; ARDL; Income Inequality |
| JEL: | E24 E20 |
| Date: | 2008–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11916&r=cwa |
| By: | M., Azali; R.C., Royfaizal; C., Lee |
| Abstract: | Members of Asian countries have been thinking about using others’ currencies instead of U.S. Dollar for regional trade. Hence, there is a strong case to study the Japanese Yen as an alternative hard currency in this region for trade transaction. This paper investigates the long-run co-integration to determine the possibility and feasibility to use Yen as a future vehicle currency in the Asian region namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Korea and India by examining their daily exchange rate movements denominated in Yen. Empirical evidence shows that four out of eight countries namely Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Korea are the countries that support our hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Exchange Rate; Cointegration; Granger-causality; Asian |
| JEL: | F31 F33 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11891&r=cwa |
| By: | G. Cornelis van Kooten; Govinda R. Timilsina |
| Abstract: | In this study, the prospects of wind power at the global level are reviewed. Existing studies indicate that the earth’s wind energy supply potential significantly exceeds global energy demand. Yet, only 1% of the global electricity demand is currently derived from wind power despite 40% annual growth in wind generating capacity over the last 25 years. More than 98% of total current wind power capacity is installed in the developed countries plus China and India. Existing studies estimate that wind power could supply 7% to 34% of global electricity needs by 2050. Wind power faces a large number of technical, financial, institutional, market and other barriers. To overcome these, many countries have employed various policy instruments, including capital subsidies, tax incentives, tradable energy certificates, feed-in tariffs, grid access guarantees and mandatory standards. Besides these policies, climate change mitigation initiatives resulting from the Kyoto Protocol (e.g., CO2-emission reduction targets in developed, the Clean Development Mechanism in developing countries) have played a pivotal role in promoting wind power. |
| Keywords: | wind energy, renewable energy, electricity grids |
| JEL: | Q25 Q32 Q42 Q48 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2008-13&r=cwa |