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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Sheila Bhalla |
| Abstract: | This paper based on Indian and international documents assesses existing definition, criteria and methodologies for estimating employment and income generated in the informal economy in India. [NCEUS WP NO 3]. |
| Keywords: | employment, income, informal economy, India, informal, Indian, employment, Asia, Africa, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2200&r=cwa |
| By: | Arup Maharatna |
| Abstract: | Construction of a long-term demographic perspective on India’s tribal population rests on the premise that aggregation over diverse tribal groups is valid not only in statistical and quantitative terms, but it is useful both conceptually and operationally. |
| Keywords: | census, India, India's tribes, tribes, demographic, anthropology, human, civilization, historians, anthropologists, Scheduled Caste, population, British period, SC, sociologists |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2191&r=cwa |
| By: | Pradhan, Jaya Prakash |
| Abstract: | This study has analyzed the relative growth performance of Indian firms under the current economic slowdown and explored factors helping certain Indian companies to do relatively better even in this crisis period. It has been observed that the overall growth and stability of the global economy has become extremely important for the growth performance of Indian firms. In fact, sales and profitability growth of some 450 Indian manufacturing and IT firms were significantly reversed with the condition of global market turning adverse since late 2008. It is interesting that those Indian firms were relatively young in age and more focused on global market have been better off in terms of sales and profit growth than other firms. Also large firms and those having higher advertising intensities have enjoyed higher profit growth in this period. The concern for policy markers is that Indian companies have significantly reduced their technological activities due to falling sales and profit growth under the slowdown, besides their slashing of resource allocation for advertising and labour. |
| Keywords: | Economic Slowdown; Firm Growth; India. |
| JEL: | E32 O53 L10 |
| Date: | 2009–09–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17145&r=cwa |
| By: | Hrushikesh Mallick |
| Abstract: | The study attempts to examine the impact of remittances on macroeconomic activities (private consumption and investment) and its implications on economic growth in India for the period from 1966-67 to 2003-04. Estimating a general consumption model, the results indicate that remittances along with debt, money supply (net of bank demand deposits) and income, consistently have a positive influence on private consumption. [WP no. 407]. |
| Keywords: | income, emigrant workers, economy, debt, money supply, bank, demand deposits, bank, bank demand deposits, Remittances, consumption, Investment, Growth, Interest Rates, Government Borrowings, Openness of the economy, macroeconomic activities, consumption, investment, private consumption, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2199&r=cwa |
| By: | A. Gautam |
| Abstract: | To study the adverse health effects of exposure to ambient air pollution in different areas of Dehra Doon. To examine the relationship between the levels of air pollution and the percentage of affected people in selected area of Dehra Doon city. Air quality monitoring and a questionnaire-based health survey in four areas of Dehra Doon were conducted during January and February 2003. The selected areas included two commercial areas, Lakhi Bagh and Clock Tower, both with highly congested vehicular traffic. For comparison two residential areas, Vasant Vihar and Kedarpuram were also studied. Kedarpuram is a less urbanised but a medium density area compared to Vasant Vihar. |
| Keywords: | health eefects, air pollution, pollution, Dehra Doon, questionnaire, residential areas, India, health, health survey, vehicular traffic, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2192&r=cwa |
| By: | Khan, Rana Ejaz Ali; Gill, Abid Rashid |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Out of 120 districts of Pakistan (for rural areas) only 40 are food secure while 80 (67 percent) are food insecure. Within these food insecure districts, 38 (46 percent) are extremely food insecure. The matter of food security in rural areas is of immense nature and needs to be probed. A number of factors are responsible for the situation. The current paper examines the determinants of three aspects of food security in rural areas of Pakistan, i.e. food availability, accessibility and absorption. For the purpose a series of models is applied on district level data of rural areas of Pakistan. The production of wheat, rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds, poultry meat and fish at the district level is found to affect food availability positively. All the district except of Sindh are more probable to be food insecure in availability. In the food accessibility electrification and adult literacy emerged as the factors having negative effect. Child immunization, safe drinking water and number of hospitals have shown positive effect on food absorption. |
| Keywords: | Food production; Rural areas; Pakistan; Food security; Devolution. |
| JEL: | Q1 Q15 Q18 |
| Date: | 2009–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17146&r=cwa |
| By: | Karthik Muralidharan; Venkatesh Sundararaman |
| Abstract: | Performance pay for teachers is frequently suggested as a way of improving education outcomes in schools, but the theoretical predictions regarding its effectiveness are ambiguous and the empirical evidence to date is limited and mixed. We present results from a randomized evaluation of a teacher incentive program implemented across a large representative sample of government-run rural primary schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The program provided bonus payments to teachers based on the average improvement of their students' test scores in independently administered learning assessments (with a mean bonus of 30% of monthly pay). At the end of two years of the program, students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.28 and 0.16 standard deviations in math and language tests respectively. They scored significantly higher on "conceptual" as well as "mechanical" components of the tests, suggesting that the gains in test scores represented an actual increase in learning outcomes. Incentive schools also performed better on subjects for which there were no incentives, suggesting positive spillovers. Group and individual incentive schools performed equally well in the first year of the program, but the individual incentive schools outperformed in the second year. Incentive schools performed significantly better than other randomly-chosen schools that received additional schooling inputs of a similar value. |
| JEL: | C93 I21 M52 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15323&r=cwa |
| By: | Duvvuri Subbarao |
| Abstract: | How do we, as individuals, approach issues of ethics and values? Are our approaches different in our personal and professional lives? Are issues of ethics different in the financial sector? What are the ethical issues thrown up by the current crisis? Has economics, as an academic discipline, lost its value base? Is that the root cause for the malaise in the financial sector? How do we in the Reserve Bank interpret our mandate towards ethical standards and values in all that we do? Some of these questions are addressed here. [Keynote address at the Conference on ‘Ethics and the World of Finance’ organised by Sri Sathya Sai University, Prasanthi Nilayam, Andhra Pradesh]. |
| Keywords: | finance, economics, reserve bank, India, children, ethics, values, financial sector, ethical standards, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2201&r=cwa |
| By: | Khan, Rana Ejaz Ali; Gill, Abid Rashid |
| Abstract: | To meet the public deficit, Government of Pakistan has been disproportionately borrowing from the scheduled banks and general public which are also the source of funding for private investment. Even the public sector corporations are doing the same. From the crowding out perspective borrowing and public expenditure are the same, as borrowing is mainly undertaken for financing expenditures. The issue of crowding out or crowding in effect of public borrowing on private investment needs considerable attention. The current study has investigated the crowding-out effect of public borrowing on private investment in the country. An investment function of three independent variables, i.e. public borrowing, GDP and lending rate has been estimated through unit root test, co-integration test and vector error correction model. The time series data of 34 years, i.e. fiscal year of 1971-72 to 2005-06, taken from Federal Bureau of Statistics and Finance Division, Government of Pakistan has been used. The results do not corroborate the crowding-out hypothesis in Pakistan explaining the market imperfections and substantial amount of excess liquidity. The results provide the evidence of crowding-in effect, which explains the direction of public expenditures towards private sector through contractors, politicians and bureaucrats, instead of public projects. The provision of subsidy, transfer payments, and substantial amount of micro-credit also explain the phenomenon of crowding-in. The evidence has important implications for fiscal management. To avoid unnecessary inflation and external indebtedness associated with deficit financing, government should rely on domestic sources. As long as excess liquidity prevails in financial system, the domestic resources, other than State Bank of Pakistan may be used to meet the deficit without hurting private investment. |
| Keywords: | Public Borrowing; Private Investment; Interest Rate; Subsidies; Transfer Payments; |
| JEL: | E51 E22 H2 G28 E4 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16292&r=cwa |
| By: | Korhonen, Iikka (BOFIT); Fidrmuc , Jarko (BOFIT) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the transmission of global financial crisis to business cycles in China and India. The pattern of business cycles in emerging Asian economies generally displays a low degree of synchronization with the OECD countries, which is consistent with the decoupling hypothesis. By contrast, however, the current financial crisis has had a significant effect on economic developments in emerging Asian economies. Applying dynamic correlations, we find wide differences for different frequencies of cyclical development. More specifically, at business cycle frequencies, dynamic correlations are typically low or negative, but they are also influenced most by the global financial crisis. Finally, we find a significant link between trade ties and dynamic correlations of GDP growth rates in emerging Asian countries and OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | financial crisis; business cycles; decoupling; trade; dynamic correlation |
| JEL: | E32 F15 F41 |
| Date: | 2009–08–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofitp:2009_011&r=cwa |
| By: | Fatma Gul Unal |
| Abstract: | Utilizing a 2002 household-level World Bank Survey for rural Turkey, this paper explores the link between concentration of land ownership and rural factor markets. We construct a unique index that measures market malfunctioning based on the neoclassical model linking land and labor endowments through factor markets to household income. We further test whether land ownership concentration affects market malfunctioning. Our empirical investigation supports the claim that factor markets are structurally limited in reducing existing inequalities as a result of land ownership concentration. Our findings show that in the presence of land ownership inequality, malfunctioning rural factor markets result in increased land concentration, increased income inequality, and inefficient resource allocation. This work fills an important empirical gap within the development literature and establishes a positive association between asset inequality and factor market failure. |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_575&r=cwa |
| By: | Fernandez, Pablo (IESE Business School) |
| Abstract: | The average Market Risk Premium (MRP) used in 2008 by professors in the United States (6.3%) was higher than the one used by their colleagues in Europe (5.3%). We also report statistics for 18 countries: the average MRP used in 2008 ranges from 4.1% (Belgium) to 10.5% (India). The dispersion of the MRP used was high: the average MRP used by professors of the same institution range was 3.5% and that of the same country was 6.9%. The average MRP used in 2007 was 1.5% lower than the one used in 2000. 15% of the professors decreased their MRP in 2008 (1.5% on average) and 24% increased it (2% on average). 66% of the professors used a lower MRP in 2007 than in 2000 (22% used a higher one). Most surveys have been interested in the Expected MRP, but this survey asks about the Required MRP. The paper also contains the references that professors use to justify their MRP, and comments from 180 professors that illustrate the various interpretations of what is the required MRP and explain the confusion of students and practitioners about its concept and magnitude. |
| Keywords: | equity premium puzzle; required equity premium; expected equity premium; historical equity premium; |
| JEL: | M21 |
| Date: | 2009–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0796&r=cwa |