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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Ajit Zacharias; Vamsi Vakulabharanam |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we conduct the novel exercise of analyzing the relationship between overall wealth inequality and caste divisions in India using nationally representative surveys on household wealth conducted during 1991–92 and 2002–03. According to our findings, the groups in India that are generally considered disadvantaged (known as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes) have, as one would expect, substantially lower wealth than the "forward" caste groups, while the Other Backward Classes and non-Hindus occupy positions in the middle. Using the ANOGI decomposition technique, we estimate that between-caste inequality accounted for about 13 percent of overall wealth inequality in 2002–03, in part due to the considerable heterogeneity within the broadly defined caste groups. The stratification parameters indicate that the forward caste Hindus overlap little with the other caste groups, while the latter have significantly higher degrees of overlap with one another and with the overall population. Using this method, we are also able to comment on the emergence and strengthening of a "creamy layer," or relatively well-off group, among the disadvantaged castes, especially the Scheduled Tribes. |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_566&r=cwa |
| By: | Mukherjee, Sacchidananda; Shah, Zankhana; Kumar, M. Dinesh |
| Abstract: | Urban water demand is rapidly growing in India due to high growth in urban population and rapid industrialization. Meeting this growing demand is a big challenge for the urban planners in India. Incidentally, urban areas in arid and semi arid regions of India are experiencing rapid growth. As a result, the supplies from local water resources including aquifers are far less than the high and concentrated water demands in most urban areas. Under such situations, the cities have to rely on large reservoirs. The paper argues that urban growth would be jeopardized in absence of water supplies from large reservoirs. The analysis of 302 urban centres shows that as population of cities grow, their reliance on surface water sources also grows. Also, greater the share of surface water in the city water supplies, better the level of water supply. A multiple regression analysis of 190 class I cities and 240 class II towns further supports this finding. In Class I cities, with every unit increase in population, there is a 1.12 unit increase in quantum of water supplies. Whereas in Class II towns, with every increase in population, there is only a 0.40 unit increase in quantum of water supply. This shows greater capacities of large cities to respond to the growing water demands, induced by population growth and urbanization. The future projections of population growth, economic development and future water demands clearly means that the role of large reservoirs in meeting the demand of urban water supply is going to be more critical. |
| Keywords: | urban water supply; large reservoirs; urbanization; population growth; India. |
| JEL: | O18 O13 P25 Q25 O14 A12 D61 C01 B41 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15640&r=cwa |
| By: | Pandey, Manoj K. |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the causal relationship between disability and poverty among Indian elderly. Using different poverty measures and statistical tests, the paper also attempts to analyze the depth of poverty among disabled elderly. A special round of National Sample Survey data on disability is used for this purpose. The results confirm the hypothesis of causal relationship between poverty and disability. Further, our analysis suggests for higher level of poverty and income inequality among disabled elderly and differences in the income levels vary significantly across different age groups, gender, social group and educational status. |
| Keywords: | Poverty; Disability; Inequality; Poverty measures; Elderly; Estimation |
| JEL: | C13 J14 D63 I32 |
| Date: | 2009–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15580&r=cwa |
| By: | Das, Keshab; Pradhan, Jaya Prakash |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses emerging issues concerning externally-oriented SMEs in India and the nature of important business risks faced by them during the period of global financial crisis. The unimpressive export performance of SMEs during the period of reforms is also a reflection of the limitations of the institutional support as also weak forms of production organization. The state needs to play a proactive role in contributing to enhancing SME competitiveness. Whereas financially well protected Indian SMEs are likely to be more competitive and efficient, a greater recognition of the potential of domestic market and provision of business-facilitating infrastructure holds the key for success of SMEs across board. |
| Keywords: | Financial Crisis; SMEs; Exports; Business Risks |
| JEL: | L11 F10 |
| Date: | 2009–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15522&r=cwa |
| By: | Philip Oreopoulos |
| Abstract: | Thousands of resumes were sent in response to online job postings across multiple occupations in Toronto to investigate why Canadian immigrants, allowed in based on skill, struggle in the labor market. Resumes were constructed to plausibly represent recent immigrants under the point system from the three largest countries of origin (China, India, and Pakistan) and Britain, as well as non-immigrants with and without ethnic-sounding names. In addition to names, I randomized where applicants received their undergraduate degree, whether their job experience was gained in Toronto or Mumbai (or another foreign city), whether they listed being fluent in multiple languages (including French). The study produced four main findings: 1) Interview request rates for English-named applicants with Canadian education and experience were more than three times higher compared to resumes with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names with foreign education and experience (5 percent versus 16 percent), but were no different compared to foreign applicants from Britain. 2) Employers valued experience acquired in Canada much more than if acquired in a foreign country. Changing foreign resumes to include only experience from Canada raised callback rates to 11 percent. 3) Among resumes listing 4 to 6 years of Canadian experience, whether an applicant’s degree was from Canada or not, or whether the applicant obtained additional Canadian education or not had no impact on the chances for an interview request. 4) Canadian applicants that differed only by name had substantially different callback rates: Those with English-sounding names received interview requests 40 percent more often than applicants with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names (16 percent versus 11 percent). Overall, the results suggest considerable employer discrimination against applicants with ethnic names or with experience from foreign firms. |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J7 K31 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15036&r=cwa |
| By: | Altinanahtar, Alper; Halicioglu, Ferda |
| Abstract: | This study is the first attempt to empirically examine the determinants of suicides in the case of Turkey using the time-series data for the period 1974-2007. This research proposes that the suicides in Turkey are related to some economic and social factors and they exhibit a dynamic relationship amongst them. Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration testing procedure is employed to obtain the short-run and long-run elasticities of suicides with respect to per capita real income, divorce rates, urbanization and liquidation. The empirical results reveal that the urbanization has the highest impact on suicides, which is followed by per capita real income and liquidation. The results also provide some important policy recommendations to reduce suicides. |
| Keywords: | Suicide; cointegration; time-series; Turkey. |
| JEL: | I12 C22 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15568&r=cwa |
| By: | Akram, Naeem |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the impacts of different health indicators on Economic growth in Pakistan. The Cointegration and Error Correction techniques were applied on the time series data of Pakistan for the period of 1972-2006. We find that Per capita GDP is positively influenced by health indicators in the long run and health indicators are having significant impact on per capita GDP. However, in the short run the health indicators fails to put significant impact on per capita GDP. It reveals that health indicators have a long run impact on economic growth. . It suggests that impact of health is only a long run phenomenon and in the short run there is no significant relationship exists between health variables and economic growth. The major policy implication of the study is that if we desire a high levels of per capita income, we can achieve it by increasing and improving the stock of health human capital, especially if current stocks are at lower end. Moreover, study also points out a rather diminutive role of public health expenditure in determining the per capita GDP. |
| Keywords: | Health human capital; Economic growth; Per capita GDP; Cointegration; Error Correction |
| JEL: | O1 O53 C22 O4 I1 |
| Date: | 2009–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15454&r=cwa |
| By: | Seema Jayachandran; Ilyana Kuziemko |
| Abstract: | Medical research indicates that breastfeeding suppresses post-natal fertility. We model the implications for breastfeeding decisions and test the model's predictions using survey data from India. First, we find that breastfeeding increases with birth order, since mothers near or beyond their desired total fertility are more likely to make use of the contraceptive properties of nursing. Second, given a preference for having sons, mothers with no or few sons want to conceive again and thus limit their breastfeeding. We indeed find that daughters are weaned sooner than sons, and, moreover, for both sons and daughters, having few or no older brothers results in earlier weaning. Third, these gender effects peak as mothers approach their target family size, when their decision about future childbearing (and therefore breastfeeding) is highly marginal and most sensitive to considerations such as ideal sex composition. Because breastfeeding protects against water- and food-borne disease, our model also makes predictions regarding health outcomes. We find that child-mortality patterns mirror those of breastfeeding with respect to gender and its interactions with birth order and ideal family size. Our results suggest that the gender gap in breastfeeding explains 14 percent of excess female child mortality in India, or about 22,000 "missing girls" each year. |
| JEL: | I1 J13 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15041&r=cwa |
| By: | Uppal, Yogesh |
| Abstract: | I examine the effect of legislative turnover on the size and composition of government expenditures in Indian state elections during 1980-2000. The paper finds that excessive turnover in Indian state elections results in an inefficient government expenditure policy. First, the higher the turnover, the larger is the size of government. Second, excessive turnover affects the allocative efficiency of the government expenditure by skewing the composition of government spending towards pure consumption expenditure and away from more productive investment expenditure. The findings imply that a lack of a proper commitment mechanism in political markets could be a source of inefficiency in government policy. |
| Keywords: | Legislative turnover; Indian elections; government spending |
| JEL: | E62 H11 H7 H5 |
| Date: | 2009–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15657&r=cwa |
| By: | Alper Duman (Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Access to external nance for small and medium enterprises is vital for survival and growth of such rms. In this paper we have analyzed the determinants of access to credit in microenterprises of Turkey. We use a unique dataset covering a large sample of microenterprises. We nd that size and signals of wealth positively aect the likelihood of getting a formal credit. |
| Keywords: | Credit Markets, Informal Firms |
| JEL: | D21 O17 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:izm:wpaper:0905&r=cwa |
| By: | Tokel, Omer Emre; Yucel, Eray M. |
| Abstract: | 1990s were the years of enormous growth of information exchange. Rapid development, augmented coverage and wide accessibility of Internet have been the key factors of that amazing growth. People’s access to economic and financial data was one of the major areas in which new trends and patterns of usage were observed. Owing to the elevated importance of financial information in today’s sophisticated markets, it is hypothesized that the linkage between data access patterns and economic events should display some regularity. In addition, one should be able to explain part of the irregularities. This study examines the access statistics of the Central Bank of Turkey’s Electronic Data Delivery System on these grounds. Using OLS and EGARCH models, significant evidence was obtained for the existence of regularities (i.e. calendar effects) in the data. |
| Keywords: | Data access; Macroeconomic data; Return to information; Economics of information |
| JEL: | C50 G10 |
| Date: | 2009–06–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15704&r=cwa |
| By: | Alper Duman (Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics); Efe Postalci (Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We provide an analysis of corporate governance networks implied by members of board of directors of 319 companies listed in Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) for the year 2007. Our configuration yields a bipartite network for which we provide small world statistics in addition to the usual measures commonly used in network analysis. We find that the networks have low density. However, within the giant component, the average path among agents is very low and the clustering coefficient is considerably high. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance, Networks |
| JEL: | D21 D85 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:izm:wpaper:0904&r=cwa |
| By: | Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the Dornbusch and Edwards (1990) analytical framework to investigate the macroeconomic populism in Iran under the Ahmadinejad government. My thesis endeavours to place the government of Ahmadinejad in a populist context and forecasts its fall mainly due to macroeconomic instabilities. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how closely Ahmadinejad’s government follows the model of Dornbusch and Edwards (1990). |
| Keywords: | Iran; Populism; Ahmadinejad; Economic Growth |
| JEL: | N45 H11 O53 |
| Date: | 2009–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15546&r=cwa |
| By: | Harb, Nasri |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long and short-run relationship between oil exports, non oil GDP and investment in five major oil exporting countries. Its goal is to verify the effect of natural resources exports on the economic performance. It considers the effect of cross sectional correlations and uses the corresponding panel unit root tests to study the long-run characteristics of our series. The results show that resources' exports have no long-run relationship with the macro variables. A VAR analysis is used to estimate the short-run dynamics and shows that the effect of oil exports on those variables depends on local policies. |
| Keywords: | GCC; Natural Resources; Oil; Productivity; Investment; Labor Force; Unit root; Growth; Cointegration; VAR. |
| JEL: | O43 C23 C22 O40 F43 |
| Date: | 2008–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15576&r=cwa |
| By: | Harabi, Najib |
| Abstract: | The paper describes and explains empirically the economic performance of four key creative industries (the book publishing, music sound recording, film production and software industries) in five Arab countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon). Using the Porter (Diamond) model as its theoretical background, a survey was conducted in the years 2002-03 among 242 experts, covering firm representatives, industry and government experts. The results were incorporated into five national case studies. This paper synthesizes the results of those national reports, giving a comparative account of the performance of the four creative industries in these Arab countries. The overall results of the study suggest that creative industries in Arab countries are substantially underdeveloped, and there remains a great potential that should systematically be mobilized. A discussion of how this can be achieved is offered, based upon a well-designed and implemented process of upgrading and innovation in companies, industries and clusters related to creative activities. Public policy can play in this process an important role, as shown in the example of promoting Shanghai creative industries, where the Municipal Government has played a key role. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge-based industry; knowledge economy; creative industry; creative economy; cultural industry; copyright –based industry; Arab countries; Arab world; Morocco; Tunisia; Egypt; Jordan and Lebanon |
| JEL: | L82 Z11 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15628&r=cwa |
| By: | Al Ghannam, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | The world economy currently suffers from a global financial and economic crisis that has become severe since the second half of 2008. This global financial situation was triggered by the advent of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States that became apparent from the mid-2007s. This paper focuses on the impact of the current financial crisis on the global economies (USA, European Union, Asia, Arab & Middle East and Egypt) and the solution to overcome this crisis whether by free economic recovery or government's intervention. |
| Keywords: | The Financial Crisis & The Future of The Egyptian Economy A New Global View on the American Subprime Housing Crisis |
| JEL: | A1 A2 |
| Date: | 2009–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15474&r=cwa |
| By: | Onour, Ibrahim |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a nonparametric test to investigate nonlinearity in the long-run equilibrium relationship between GCC stock markets returns. The results in the paper show strong evidence of bivariate and multivariate cointegration between five of GCC stock markets. However, Bahrain stock market is evidenced segmented from the group of GCC markets. It is indicated that there is bivariate nonlinear cointegrating relationship linking Kuwait stock market with each of Saudi, and Dubai markets. Nonlinearity also realized between Saudi market and each of Dubai and Abu-Dhabi markets, as well as between Muscat and Kuwait stock markets. |
| Keywords: | Cointegration;nonlinear;unit roots |
| JEL: | C10 C50 G10 |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15187&r=cwa |
| By: | Misra, Jaydev |
| Abstract: | Democratic decentralization in the state of West Bengal, of its own, are not producing systems that are more effective or more accountable to local needs and interests. The formal mechanisms matter less than the informal institutions that underpin local political economies. And the understanding of it by the poor may have been reflected in the ballot box of last Panchayat election held in 2008. If 'only alternative of the left is better left', then the left strategy of democratic decentralization must have to be replaced by alternative model with more accountability, less corruption and abolition of those clientilsm. |
| Keywords: | Democratic decentralization; participation; access; control; sustainable development; clientelism |
| JEL: | R58 R0 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15718&r=cwa |
| By: | Kundu, AMIT |
| Abstract: | Domestic workers, most of whom arefemale are hired to work in private households. But their work remains unrecognised as a legitimate form of activity. This paper through micro level study shows that young married women coming from distant places with higher number of children, with low and uncertain income ofother family members, prefer part-time domestic work to supplement their family income. Through Engel's ratio, it is identified that the standard of living is slightly better than that of part-time domestic workers. But most of the domestic workers of West Bengal are deprived of over time pay, public holidays and timely payment of salaries. |
| Keywords: | Domestic Worker; Labour Laws; Conditions of Work; Rights; |
| JEL: | J40 |
| Date: | 2008–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7636&r=cwa |