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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Roopam Singh; Ranja Sengupta |
| Abstract: | This study attempts to provide an analysis of the gender concerns of the proposed EU India FTA in the field of agriculture and suggest policy changes both in the FTA text as well as in domestic policy. [Paper III]. |
| Keywords: | gender concerns, FTA, EU, India, agriculture, domestic policy, Indian Women, Free Trade Agreement, commodity trade, population, gender, agriculture, employment, poverty line, employment, labourers, trade liberalization |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2444&r=cwa |
| By: | William Joe; Udaya S. Mishra |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the most recent wave of Consumer Expenditure Survey 2004-05 to examine the distribution of Out of Pocket (OOP) healthcare payments in India. [WP 418]. |
| Keywords: | Healthcare Expenditure, Consumer, Drugs Expenditure, Progressivity, Poverty, India, poor, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2448&r=cwa |
| By: | Hutchison, Michael; Sengupta, Rajeswari; Singh, Nirvikar |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the seemingly discretionary and flexible approach of India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), can in practice be described by a Taylor-type rule. We estimate an exchange rate-augmented Taylor rule for India over the period 1980Q1 to 2008Q4, allowing for potential structural shifts between the pre- and post-liberalization periods in order to capture the potential impact of macroeconomic and institutional changes on the RBI's monetary policy rule. Overall, we find that the output gap seems to matter more to the RBI than inflation, there is greater sensitivity to Consumer Price (CPI) inflation that Wholesale Price (WPI) inflation, and exchange rate changes do not play an important role in constraining monetary policy. Moreover, the post-1998 conduct of monetary policy seems to have changed in the direction of less inertia. |
| Keywords: | Reserve Bank of India; Monetary Policy; Taylor Rule; Indian Economy |
| JEL: | E43 E58 E52 |
| Date: | 2010–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:21106&r=cwa |
| By: | Aimee Chin (University of Houston & NBER); Nishith Prakash (Dartmouth College, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) & Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM)) |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged minority groups on poverty. To address the concern that political reservation is endogenous in the relationship between poverty and reservation, we take advantage of the state-time variation in reservation in state legislative assemblies in India that arises from national policies that cause reservations to be revised and the time lags with which the revised reservations are implemented due to the timing of state elections. Using data on sixteen major Indian states for the period 1960-1992, we find that increasing the share of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes significantly reduces poverty while increasing the share of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes has no impact on poverty. Political reservation for Scheduled Tribes has a greater effect on rural poverty than urban poverty, and appears to benefit people near the poverty line as well as those far below it. |
| Keywords: | Affirmative Action, Poverty, Minorities, India. |
| JEL: | I38 J15 J78 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:201003&r=cwa |
| By: | Alivelu G; M. Gopinath Reddy; Srinivasulu K |
| Abstract: | In this paper, an attempt is made to enquire into the politics of the government and business relation and how it affects the industrial development in general and expansion of manufacturing sector in particular in the state of Andhra Pradesh. [CESS WP 82]. |
| Keywords: | Andhra Pradesh, State-business relations, business relation, India, Tamil Nadu, industrialists, bureaucrats, Gujarat, political regimes, institutions, manufacturing sector, politics, industrial development, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2440&r=cwa |
| By: | Husain, Zakir; Chatterjee, Amrita |
| Abstract: | Primary completion rates of Muslims in West Bengal are substantially lower than that of upper caste communities as well as backward castes, scheduled castes and tribes. Further, analysis of age-specific pcr indicates that differences in pcr between Muslims and other communities may have actually increased in recent years. An econometric analysis reveals that age, gender, household size and expenditure levels, education and gender of decision-maker, etc, are important determinants of these differences in pcr. But use of Census data and District Information System for Education statistics indicates that deficiencies in infrastructural facilities in Muslim-concentrated districts also have a significant role in the low pcrs of Muslim children. |
| Keywords: | Education; Inequality: Oaxaca decomposition; Logit; India |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2009–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:21185&r=cwa |
| By: | Mehtabul Azam (World Bank, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Aimee Chin (University of Houston & NBER); Nishith Prakash (Dartmouth College, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) & Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM)) |
| Abstract: | India's colonial legacy and linguistic diversity give English an important role in its economy,and this role has expanded due to globalization in recent decades. It is widely believed that there are sizable economic returns to English-language skills in India, but the extent of these returns is unknown due to lack of a microdata set containing measures of both earnings and English ability. In this paper, we use a newly available data set - the India Human Development Survey, 2005 to quantify the effects of English-speaking ability on wages. We find that being fluent in English (compared to not speaking any English) increases hourly wages of men by 34%, which is as much as the return to completing secondary school and half as much as the return to completing a Bachelor's degree. Being able to speak a little English significantly increases male hourly wages 13%. There is considerable heterogeneity in returns to English. More experienced and more educated workers receive higher returns to English. The complementarity between English skills and education appears to have strengthened over time. Only the more educated among young workers earn a premium for English skill, whereas older workers across all education groups do. |
| Keywords: | English Language, Human Capital, India. |
| JEL: | J31 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:201002&r=cwa |
| By: | Giuseppe Tattara (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | Medical tourism is a term to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care. Services typically sought by travelers include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries. Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry. This article deals with the situation of India that is promoting the "high-tech healing" of its private healthcare sector as a tourist attraction. The government hopes to encourage a building trade in medical tourism, selling foreigners the idea of travelling to India for low-cost but world-class medical treatment and India is becoming a "global health destination". This policy however does not develops into better services for the local population as corporale hospitals are clustered in urban settings, their prices are out of reach to the locals and the quota of beds reserved free of charge to the domestic population is often disregarded. |
| Keywords: | Medical tourism, Corporale hospitals, Life expectacy, Economic development, Inequality |
| JEL: | I12 I18 I38 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2010_02&r=cwa |
| By: | Shoba Arun; Samuel Annim; Thankom Arun |
| Abstract: | This paper is motivated by the observation that type and combination of assets play a significant role in reducing incidences of shocks by asset-poor households. Asset-based strategies treat assets not just as resources, but also as an agency to transform such resources to improve livelihood choices and tackle risks and shocks. Focusing on the case of adivasi households in the South Indian state of Kerala, we find that the type, number and combinations of specific assets (primarily social and physical capital) yield varied magnitudes of household resilience to both idiosyncratic and covariate shocks. Thus, social policies for specific social groups need to focus on the nature of asset and their combination, rather than welfare-based considerations. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:11209&r=cwa |
| By: | Saul Estrin; Martha Prevezer |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the role of informal institutions is central to understanding the functioning of corporate governance. We focus on the four largest emerging markets; Brazil, Russia India and China – commonly referred to as the BRIC countries. Our analysis is based on the Helmke and Levitsky framework of informal institutions and focuses on two related aspects of corporate governance: firm ownership structures and property rights; and the relationship between firms and external investors. We argue that for China and some states of India, ‘substitutive’ informal institutions, whereby informal institutions substitute for and replace ineffective formal institutions, are critical in creating corporate governance leading to positive domestic and foreign investment. In contrast, Russia is characterized by ‘competing’ informal institutions whereby various informal mechanisms of corporate governance associated with corruption and clientelism undermine the functioning of reasonably well set-out formal institutions relating to shareholder rights and relations with investors. Finally Brazil is characterized by ‘accommodating’ informal institutions which get round the effectively enforced but restrictive formal institutions and reconcile varying objectives that are held between actors in formal and informal institutions. |
| Keywords: | institutions (informal and formal), corporate governance, shareholder rights, suppliers of finance, emerging markets |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:31&r=cwa |
| By: | Dutta, Mousumi; Husain, Zakir |
| Abstract: | It was initially believed that the rapid growth of the Information Technology (IT) industry in India would generate less exploitative avenues of employment for women. Further, economic empowerment would strengthen the bargaining power of women within the household and improve her self-esteem. However, recent studies argue that the IT sector has been unable to isolate itself from the social context, so that the organizational process continues to be shaped by the conflicting and asymmetrical gender relationships that prevail in Indian society. This leads to the imposition of a dual burden (of work and home commitments) on working women. Based on a survey of women workers in Calcutta’s IT sector, this paper agues that contextual developments have weakened the patriarchal foundations of the family. This has allowed women workers to break out of a passive mould and attempt to carve out their individual destinies. However, organizational constraints and the family structure impose structural constraints on their agency, so that women workers have to adapt their aspirations to contextual realities. Decision-making of working women may, in this emerging situation, be conceptualized in terms of Simon’s satisficing model. |
| Keywords: | Women’s agency; Gender; Information Technology; Calcutta; Satisficing |
| JEL: | J16 |
| Date: | 2010–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20899&r=cwa |
| By: | Lekha S. Chakraborty |
| Abstract: | Despite the policy realm’s growing recognition of fiscal devolution in gender development, there have been relatively few attempts to translate gender commitments into fiscal commitments. This paper aims to engage in this significant debate, focusing on the plausibility of incorporating gender into financial devolution, with the Thirteenth Finance Commission of India as backdrop. Given the disturbing demographics--the monotonous decline in the juvenile sex ratio, especially in some of the prosperous states of India--there can be no valid objection to using Finance Commission transfers for this purpose. A simple method for accomplishing this could be to introduce some weight in favor of the female population of the states in the Commission’s fiscal devolution formula. The message would be even stronger and more appropriate if the population of girl children only--that is, the number of girls in the 0–6 age cohort--is adopted as the basis for determining the states’ relative shares of the amount to be disbursed by applying the allotted weight. A special dispensation for girls would also be justifiable in a scheme of need-based equalization transfers. While social mores cannot be changed by fiscal fiats, particularly when prejudices run deep, a proactive approach by a high constitutional body like the Finance Commission is called for, especially when the prejudices are blatantly oppressive. Indeed, such action is imperative. The intergovernmental transfer system can and should play a role in upholding the right to life for India’s girl children. That being said, it needs to be mentioned that it is not plausible to incorporate more gender variables in the Finance Commission’s already complex transfer formula. In other words, inclusion of a "gender inequality index" in the formula may not result in the intended results, as the variables included in the index may cancel one another out. Accepting the fact that incorporating gender criteria in fiscal devolution could only be the second-best principle for engendering fiscal policy, the paper argues that newfound policy space for the feminization of local governance, coupled with an engendered fiscal devolution to the third tier, can lead to public expenditure decisions that correspond more closely to the revealed preferences ("voice") of women. With the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, this policy space is favorable at the local level for conducting gender responsive budgeting. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal Decentralization; Federalism; Fiscal Transfers; Gender |
| JEL: | H77 J16 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_590&r=cwa |
| By: | Halil Ýbrahim Aydin; Ahmet Degerli; Pinar Ozlu |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1003&r=cwa |
| By: | Surabhi Mittal; Gaurav Tripathi; Sanjay Gandhi |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates a series of questions that explore this topic: What kind of information do farmers value the most to improve agricultural productivity? Do mobile phones and mobile-enabled agricultural services have an impact on agriculture? What are the factors that impede the realisation of the full productivity enhancing potential of mobile phones? The answers to these questions have important implications for mobile operators, for information service providers, and for policymakers. The quality of information, its timeliness and trustworthiness are the three important features that have to be ensured to enable farmers to use it effectively to improve productivity. [ICRIER WP No. 246]. |
| Keywords: | information, Indian,socio-economic, fishermen, agricultural productivity, farmers, services, mobile operators, information, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2443&r=cwa |
| By: | Parsley, David |
| Abstract: | This paper studies exchange rate pass-through in South Africa at the most disaggregated level possible. To accomplish this, two distinct panels of disaggregated data are employed. The first data set contains annual prices of 158 individual goods and services at the consumer level from 1990 to 2009. The second panel contains quarterly average import unit-values for twenty-six 8-digit import categories from ten of South Africa’s top trading partners from 1998 Q1 to 2009 Q2. The study finds low pass-through to consumer prices (between 15 and 25 percent in the two years following an exchange rate change), slow convergence to long run purchasing power parity (6.4 years), and no apparent tendency for pass-through to have declined during the last twenty years. Relatively high estimates were found for import price pass-through from Brazil and the United States (75 percent), while Taiwan, Switzerland, India, Great Britain, and Germany were nearer the overall average of 60 percent. As with final consumer prices, there is little evidence of a decline in pass-through to import prices. |
| Keywords: | exchange rate pass-through; |
| JEL: | F40 F30 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:21115&r=cwa |
| By: | Hasan, Zubair |
| Abstract: | This paper raises the issue of an initial structure-objective mismatch in the launching of Islamic finance. The abolition of interest and promotion of growth with equity were goals of the conceived system. These goals expressed a long run vision to improve the condition of the Muslim communities across the world. However, the organizational form adopted for Islamic finance was of the existing commercial banks which provided essentially short-term loans on interest to trade industry and commerce. The choice thus involved an intrinsic mismatch between the structure and objectives of Islamic finance. The mismatch did carry some advantages, but on a more important side it exposed Islamic finance to commitments and influences which could not mostly align well with the goals the pioneers had in mind. Note that in focus here is not the reversal of the mismatch but its consequences that have forced the nascent Islamic system to convergence and competition with the mature conventional finance the West dominates. It is not the ground realities that are being adapted to Shari’ah norms; it is the norms that are being stretched to limit for meeting the demands of the conventional system. Ordinary Muslims who hoped to benefit from Islamic financing remain unattended. Thus, what Islamic finance can or cannot change will depend on where its ongoing integration with the conventional system leads it to. Currently, most merits claimed for the Islamic system defy evidence. The basic reforms financial systems require in the face of current crisis are the control of credit, leverage lure, and speculation. Islamic finance is in principle better equipped to achieve these ends. |
| Keywords: | Islam; Finance; convergence; credit creation; leverage; social responsibility;derivatives;Shari'ah; financial crisis |
| JEL: | D63 E51 E50 E61 |
| Date: | 2010–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:21224&r=cwa |
| By: | Patrick PLANE (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International); SEKKAT; Ridha NOUIRA |
| Abstract: | Recent literature suggests that a proactive strategy consisting of deliberate real exchange rate depreciation can promote exports diversification and growth. This paper is built on these recent developments and investigates whether four developing countries have adopted such a strategy. Data from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia are used to construct and compare the macroeconomic Real Effective exchange rate (REER), similar exchange rates at the sector level (SREER) and the macroeconomic Equilibrium Real Effective exchange rate (EREER). It shows that there are instances where the objective of diversifying exports through depreciation of exchange rate comes at the expense of further misalignment (REER departs from the EREER) and, then, monetary authorities are doomed to choose. The results show that Morocco and Tunisia are choosing the proactive exchange rate strategy while Egypt and Jordan are not. This fits with the observation that the former are doing much better than the latter in terms of exports diversification. |
| Keywords: | Exchange rate, Exports diversification, Misalignment, Undervaluation |
| JEL: | O53 O24 O14 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1148&r=cwa |