|
on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Bakshi, Sanjeev; Pathak, Prasanta |
| Abstract: | India is an ageing population. A large informal sector provides ample scope to absorb human resources even at older ages. Therefore, like other developing countries a large proportion of older adults in India lead an economically active life. The present study investigates the association of various factors namely, gender, household per capita monthly expenditure, place of residence, education, marital status, age etc. with the state of being economically active. For this purpose three nationally representative samples that were collected as a part of the national sample survey (NSS) are utilized. These samples represent the older adult population of India during the periods 1986-87, 1995-96 and 2004. The logistic regression models are then applied to estimate the effects of all these factors. These effects are analyzed and changes in these effects are compared over time points. In a nutshell the states of the variables that are conducive to being economically active are being male, residing in rural areas and lower educational levels. Ill health on the other hand adversely affects the probability of being economically active. The study emphasizes the need for taking care of the health needs of the older adults to help them remain active for longer duration. |
| Keywords: | ageing; economic activity; older adults |
| JEL: | J14 J1 |
| Date: | 2010–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23246&r=cwa |
| By: | Kajal Lahiri; Gultekin Isiklar |
| Abstract: | Using a Factor Structural Vector Autoregressive (FSVAR) model and monthly GDP growth forecasts during 1995-2003, we find that Indian economy responds largely to domestic and Asian common shocks, and much less to shocks the from the West. However, when we exclude the Asian crisis period from our sample, the Western factor comes out as strong as the Asian factor contributing 16% each to the Indian real GDP growth, suggesting that the dynamics of transmission mechanism is time-varying. Our methodology on the use of forecast data can help policy makers of especially developing countries with frequent economic crises and data limitations to adjust their policy targets in real time. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nya:albaec:10-06&r=cwa |
| By: | Megha Mukim; Peter Nunnenkamp |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the determinants of the location choices made by foreign investors at the district level in India to gauge the relative importance of economic geography factors, local business conditions, and the presence of previous foreign investors. We employ a discrete-choice model and Poisson regressions to control for the potential violation of the assumption of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives. Our sample includes about 19,500 foreign investment projects approved in 447 districts from 1991-2005. We find that foreign investors strongly prefer locations where other foreign investors are. They are also attracted to industrially diverse locations and those with better infrastructure. We conclude that the concentration of FDI in a few locations could fuel regional divergence in post-reform India |
| Keywords: | FDI, economic geography, location choice, infrastructure |
| JEL: | F23 R12 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1628&r=cwa |
| By: | M S Sriram |
| Abstract: | The paper looks at the growth and commercialization of microfinance in India. It starts out be looking at how the commercial microfinance has evolved internationally by discussing two specific examples and then moves on to examine the specifics cases of four large microfinance institutions in India. The basic argument of the paper is that most of the early microfinance in India happened through donor and philanthropic funds. These funds came in to not-for-profit organizations. However as the activities scaled up, it was imperative to move to a commercial format. The paper examines the growth imperatives and the transformation processes. The paper then proceeds to look at the implications of the transformation process and its effect on the personal enrichment of the promoters of MFI as well as the governance implications. Basically it questions the moral and ethical fabric on which some to the large microfinance institutions are built. It ends by answering a set of questions that may emanate out of this discussion.[W.P. No. 2010-03-04] |
| Keywords: | growth, commercialization, microfinance, internationally, philanthropic funds, not-for-profit organizations, imperative, commercial format, transformation process, implications, governance, institutions, emanate, discussion |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2539&r=cwa |
| By: | Onkar , Shivraj Swami; N. , Senthil Kumar; Palash , Baruah |
| Abstract: | This study analyse the trends in deposits and credit deployments of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in the State of Karnataka during the post reform period (March 1992- March 2008). Basic data for this study were collected from the various issues of Basic Statistical Returns of Scheduled Commercial Banks in India published by Reserve Bank of India. Deposits, advances (outstanding) and credit-deposit ratios were three important parameters used to assess the performance of RRBs. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) was computed to study whether there were any changes in the pattern of the flow of sectoral credit lending by the RRBs over the study period. In the area of deposit mobilisation and credit disbursements, the RRBs had made a notable progress during the post reform period. C-D ratios of RRBs were fluctuating throughout the study period. It was found that RRBs continued to focus on agriculture credit disbursements in the Sate of Karnataka. At the same time, RRBs had favored credit to personal loans in place of rural artisan industries credit and “other small scale industries” credit. |
| Keywords: | Regional Rural Banks;trends; deposits and credit deployments; Karnataka; India |
| JEL: | O18 H81 R51 Q14 G21 |
| Date: | 2010–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23289&r=cwa |
| By: | Renaud Egreteau |
| Abstract: | This paper intends first to give a brief overview of the rise and growth of some of those separatist groups, with a special focus on the Nagas, the Mizos and the Assam movement. An analysis of the degeneration of these sub-nationalist movements into mere criminal groups has been proposed in this paper. With the Indian Armed Forces having more and more capacities and discretionary power of action, insurgency has radicalised its forms and activities. The criminalisation process will be broached by focusing the study on few separatist groups that have dropped their original revolutionary and lofty ideals to concentrate their struggle on easy money and underground activities, in spite of the fact that individualised interests, internecine rivalries and indiscriminate violence have often turned the population against those outfits. Finally, how has the externality of the insurgency influenced this phenomenon? The third part of the paper will propose an overview of the rapid externalisation of all the insurgent groups. The linkages they have established across borders enabled them to obtain friendly support (Pakistan), funding (China, LTTE) and strategic shelter (Burma, Bangladesh). Finally there will be an attempt to demonstrate how these external connections fuelled the instability in the Northeast and conceptualised their struggle and survival. [Occasional Paper No. 16] |
| Keywords: | separatist groups, special focus, Nagas, Mizos, Assam movement, criminal groups, proposed, Indian Armed Forces, capacities, discretionary power, action, insurgency, radicalised, internecine rivalries, Pakistan, China, LTTE, Burma, Bangladesh, fuelled, conceptualised, struggle, survival |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2547&r=cwa |
| By: | Bhaumik, Sumon K. (Aston University); Chakrabarty, Manisha (Indian Institute of Management) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, using data from the 61st round of the (Indian) National Sample Survey, we examine the relative impacts of personal-household and state-level characteristics (including government policy) on the likelihood of transition from one educational level to the next. Our analysis suggests that the most important factors driving these transition likelihoods are personal and household characteristics like gender and education of household heads. However, state-level characteristics and government policies have a significant impact on these transition likelihoods as well, especially for transitions from the lowest levels of education to somewhat higher levels. The odds of making the transition to higher education, especially tertiary education, are systematically lower for women than for men, for individuals in rural areas than those in urban areas, and for Muslims than for Hindus. An important conclusion of our analysis is that there is significant scope for government policy to address educational gaps between various demographic and other groups in the country. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment, likelihood of transition, government policy |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4954&r=cwa |
| By: | Tisdell, Clem |
| Abstract: | Recent trends in the growth of cities particularly in developing countries (and especially in India and China) are identified. Beneficial and negative sharing mechanisms influencing the growth of cities are examined. Economic benefits of agglomeration arise not so much from the type of economic goods available in a city location (such as common property or local public goods) but from the enhanced operation of processes of economic exchange. Two theoretical implications of the growth of cities are considered, namely: (1) city growth results in growing inequality of income and wealth within the city and (2) a city will expand beyond its optimal size. Nevertheless, the growth of cities is linked with increased levels of per capita income nationally. Worldwide growth of cities is connected with increasing globalization and with rising income inequality. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration economies, China, city-sizes, common property, economic growth, globalization, income distribution, India, open-access resources, quasi-public goods, spillovers, Community/Rural/Urban Development, |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uqseet:90626&r=cwa |
| By: | Erik Monsen (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Germany); Prashanth Mahagaonkar (University of Wuppertal, Germany); Christian Dienes (University of Wuppertal, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Occupational transition from salaried to self-employment is an important issue in developed economies, but is even more critical in emerging economies, as individuals' occupational choices can drive economic development. Using data on 3637 individuals from India, we examine the effect of regional factors on actual and intended transition. We find that self-employment and unemployment rates decrease actual and intended transition, and the effects are at least four times greater than that of individual-level factors. In addition, we find that urban versus rural location moderates the effects of income ratios and state GDP, with the effects being greater in rural locations. |
| Keywords: | Occupational Transition, Self-Employment, Emerging Economies |
| JEL: | J24 J62 L26 O12 O18 O53 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp10007&r=cwa |
| By: | Tejas A. Desai |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to explain certain cultural differences that may have contributed to this imbalance between the Indian and American higher education systems.[W.P. No. 2009-04-03] |
| Keywords: | cultural,imbalance, Indian, American, higher education systems, Cross-cultural Perspective, East, West, Twain |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2540&r=cwa |
| By: | Rema Hanna; Leigh Linden |
| Abstract: | In this paper, a methodology to measure discrimination in educational contexts is illustrated. In India, exam competition is run through which children compete for a large financial prize and teachers have been recruited to grade the exams.Then there is a random assignment of child “characteristics†(age, gender, and caste) to the cover sheets of the exams to ensure that there is no systematic relationship between the characteristics observed by the teachers and the quality of the exams. It has been found out that teachers give exams that are assigned to be lower caste scores that are about 0.03 to 0.09 standard deviations lower than exams that are assigned to be high caste. The effect is small relative to the real differences in scores between the high and lower caste children. Low-performing, low caste children and top-performing females tend to lose out the most due to discrimination. Interestingly, findings also suggest that the discrimination against low caste students is driven by low caste teachers, while teachers who belong to higher caste groups do not appear to discriminate at all. This result runs counter to the previous literature, which tends to find that individuals discriminate in favor of members of their own groups.[Working Paper no. 230] |
| Keywords: | methodology, discrimination, educational contexts, large financial prize, teachers, characteristicsage, gender, and caste, cover sheets, exams, favor |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2541&r=cwa |
| By: | Michalopoulos, Stelios; Naghavi, Alireza; Prarolo, Giovanni |
| Abstract: | This research examines the economic origins of Islam and uncovers two empirical regularities. First, Muslim countries, virtual countries and ethnic groups, exhibit highly unequal regional agricultural endowments. Second, Muslim adherence is systematically larger along the pre-Islamic trade routes in the Old World. The theory argues that this particular type of geography (i) determined the economic aspects of the religious doctrine upon which Islam was formed, and (ii) shaped its subsequent economic performance. It suggests that the unequal distribution of land endowments conferred differential gains from trade across regions, fostering predatory behavior from the poorly endowed ones. In such an environment it was mutually beneficial to institute a system of income redistribution. However, a higher propensity to save by the rich would exacerbate wealth inequality rendering redistribution unsustainable, leading to the demise of the Islamic unity. Consequently, income inequality had to remain within limits for Islam to persist. This was instituted via restrictions on physical capital accumulation. Such rules rendered the investments on public goods, through religious endowments, increasingly attractive. As a result, capital accumulation remained low and wealth inequality bounded. Geography and trade shaped the set of economically relevant religious principles of Islam affecting its economic trajectory in the preindustrial world. |
| Keywords: | O10; O13; O16; O17; O18; F10; Z12 |
| JEL: | Z12 O10 F10 |
| Date: | 2010–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23136&r=cwa |
| By: | Supriya Garikipati |
| Abstract: | Impact evaluation studies routinely find that lending to women benefits their households, but not necessarily the women concerned. The reasons for this paradox are not well understood. This, I argue, is partly because of the obsession with viewing women’s empowerment as outcomes alone and ignoring the processes leading to these. I investigate this paradox by examining the processes surrounding loan use for a case study from rural India. The way in which women’s loans are used is found to be critical to their empowerment. Specifically, women whose loans are invested in household assets can find the process disempowering. This is because women lack co-ownership in household’s productive assets. Where loan diversion by households cannot be controlled, women’s joint ownership of household assets emerges as integral to their empowerment. This paper cautions against the excessive focus on women’s outcomes as a measure of their empowerment. |
| Keywords: | Microcredit; Women’s Empowerment; Outcomes; Processes; India |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/57623&r=cwa |
| By: | James Copestake |
| Abstract: | This paper appraises options for research relating to microfinance in India, doing so in the broad context of rival macro pressures to accelerate economic growth, maintain political order, reduce poverty and adapt to climate change. This paper first set out a general well-being regime framework that can be used for this analysis and sketch the role microfinance plays within it. Section 2 uses it to inform a brief historical discussion of the evolution of microfinance in India. Section 3 develops the analysis further by considering possible effects of three external drivers of change: rising political aspirations; climate change and food insecurity; and new information and communication technology (ICT). Section 4 uses these examples to discuss methodological options for policy-relevant empirical research. It also suggests that microfinance is an important arena for exploring empirically the tension inherent in the idea of development management. The term microfinance is widely used to refer to institutions governing savings, credit, insurance and monetary payments by relatively poor people, including those regulated by both official laws and informal norms. Analysis of microfinance is widely framed as a purely micro issue, centered on the motivation and behavior of specific users and providers. However, such analysis is almost invariably located - whether explicitly or implicitly - in a wider view of how the state, markets and society institute poverty. In India as elsewhere, for example, private microfinance organizations is viewed positively as a force for promoting financial inclusion by “making markets work for the poor”; and at the same time viewed negatively as a smokescreen behind which the state can retreat from a ‘social banking’ strategy of mobilizing much larger resources to challenge pervasive and chronic indebtedness. Following Brett (2009) this paper regards such seemingly polarized views as jointly contributing also to an intermediate “pluralist liberal orthodoxy” struggling to identify the least worst combination of state, market and civic mechanisms for addressing poverty and oppression in countries where their potential to do so is deeply compromised by capacity constraints and vested interests. Microfinance – along with all potential instruments of development – needs to be appraised against country-specific historical realities. Evaluating it instead in relation to a universal view of its role in some idealized market or state-led view of development can be viewed either as a naïve and idle distraction, or as irresponsible and self-serving. |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/57621&r=cwa |
| By: | S. Michalopoulos; A. Naghavi; G. Prarolo |
| Abstract: | This research examines the economic origins of Islam and uncovers two empirical regularities. First, Muslim countries, virtual countries and ethnic groups, exhibit highly unequal regional agricultural endowments. Second, Muslim adherence is systematically larger along the pre-Islamic trade routes in the Old World. The theory argues that this particular type of geography (i) determined the economic aspects of the religious doctrine upon which Islam was formed, and (ii) shaped its subsequent economic performance. It suggests that the unequal distribution of land endowments conferred differential gains from trade across regions, fostering predatory behavior from the poorly endowed ones. In such an environment it was mutually bene.cial to institute a system of income redistribution. However, a higher propensity to save by the rich would exacerbate wealth inequality rendering redistribution unsustainable, leading to the demise of the Islamic unity. Consequently, income inequality had to remain within limits for Islam to persist. This was instituted via restrictions on physical capital accumulation. Such rules rendered the investments on public goods, through religious endowments, increasingly attractive. As a result, capital accumulation remained low and wealth inequality bounded. Geography and trade shaped the set of economically relevant religious principles of Islam affecting its economic trajectory in the preindustrial world. |
| JEL: | O10 O13 O16 O17 O18 F10 Z12 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:700&r=cwa |
| By: | Karthik Dhandapani; Rakesh Basant |
| Abstract: | This paper is about measuring empirical relatedness to capture the myriad reasons used by firms to combine various businesses in emerging economies as a response to various institutional voids, without giving undue importance to any specific rationale. In this paper there has been a purport to address this lacuna in research by proposing an empirically implementable measure for institutional relatedness having the features described above. It has also been shown that the empirical estimates for India of our measure of relatedness are in consonance with the tendencies observed by studies using the case-study method and seem to be linked with the institutional transitions that have been observed in recent years.[W.P. No. 2009-05-02] |
| Keywords: | measuring, empirical, relatedness, capture, myriad, lacuna, implementable, case-study, institutional transitions, observed, recent years |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2543&r=cwa |
| By: | Nabil Aflouk (CEPN - Centre d'économie de l'Université de Paris Nord - CNRS : UMR7115 - Université Paris-Nord - Paris XIII); Jacques Mazier (CEPN - Centre d'économie de l'Université de Paris Nord - CNRS : UMR7115 - Université Paris-Nord - Paris XIII); Jamel Saadaoui (CEPN - Centre d'économie de l'Université de Paris Nord - CNRS : UMR7115 - Université Paris-Nord - Paris XIII) |
| Abstract: | Since the mid-1990s, the world imbalances have increased significantly with a large US current deficit facing Asian surpluses, mainly Chinese. Since 2007, a partial reduction of these imbalances has been obtained, largely thanks to production's decreases, without large exchange rate adjustments. The Asian surpluses have remained important. The objective of this paper is to examine the exchange rate misalignments (ERM) of the main emerging countries in Asia and Latin America since the 1980s, so as to shed light on the 2000s by a long term analysis and compare with the industrialized countries' case. Our results confirm that ERM have been reduced since the mid-2000s at the world level, but the dollar remained overvalued against the East Asian countries, except the yen. Chinese, Indian and Brazilian exchange rate policies have been much contrasted since the 1980s. The Indian rupee has been more often overvalued while a more balance situation prevailed in Brazil only since the 2000s. The Latin American countries have faced wider and more dispersed ERM and current imbalances than East Asian countries. But Argentina, Chile and Uruguay benefits now of undervalued currencies while Mexico is closer to equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Equilibrium Exchange Rate, Current Account Balance, Macroeconomic Balance, Emerging Countries |
| Date: | 2010–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00484808_v2&r=cwa |
| By: | Gordhan K Saini |
| Abstract: | This paper reports findings from the survey of India’s textiles and clothing exporters. The survey method has been used to identify and assess the impact of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) and the Cost of Compliance (COC) expenditure by the exporters.[WP-2009-008] |
| Keywords: | Non-Tariff Barriers, Non-Tariff Measures, Cost of Compliance |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2546&r=cwa |
| By: | Cizakca, Murat |
| Abstract: | All governments need to borrow from the public. Known as domestic borrowing, this is not an easy process. For Muslim countries, where interest is prohibited, this process becomes extra ordinarily difficult. I will start this article by examining the concept of uncertainty, gharar, in Islam and then move on to the origins of Islamic domestic borrowing, which is referred to in modern parlance as sukuk. The value of modern sukuk issued at the end of 2009 has reached roughly USD 100 billions. While most people think that this is a newly invented instrument, the institutional roots can be traced back for centuries. |
| Keywords: | gharar; domestic borrowing; public borrowing; sukuk; esham; cash waqfs |
| JEL: | N00 N25 B25 |
| Date: | 2010–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23205&r=cwa |
| By: | Erol Taymaz (Middle East Technical University); Ebru Voyvoda (Middle East Technical University); Kamil Yilmaz (Koc University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines direct and indirect contributions of foreign firms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to aggregate productivity growth. We focus our attention on foreign firms and small firms for three reasons. First, industrial policy in almost all countries is oriented towards supporting SMEs and attracting foreign investment. Second, these two categories of firms contribute to micro-heterogeneity in all industries. Third, the recent industrial dynamics literature on foreign investment and small firms emphasizes the potential benefits of foreign firms and SMEs in generating new technologies, and creating new jobs. Using the data for Turkish manufacturing plants, we estimate production functions for all ISIC 4-digit level industries for the 1983-2001 period. We decompose productivity growth into its components (structural change, entry and exit, technical change, efficiency change, and scale effects) by firm ownership and size. The decomposition analysis by firm ownership and size allows us to understand the sources of productivity contributions by foreign firms and small firms. |
| Keywords: | Productivity dynamics, decomposition, foreign direct investment, small and medium sized enterprises |
| JEL: | D24 L25 L60 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1020&r=cwa |
| By: | Sirin Saracoglu (Department of Economics, METU); Zeynep Akgul (Department of Economics, METU) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of international capital flows in a small open econ omy utilizing a dynamic general equilibrium framework based on a three-sector Ramsey growth model. In order to analyze the impact of international capital mobility on production, consumption and allocation of resources across three sectors ,two different economic environments are modelled. The first model represents an open economy with capital mobility (a more comprehensive environment),and the second model introduces a closed economy with no capital mobility. Numerical applications of the models use data from the Turkish economy for the year 2002. The numerical results demonstrate that the presence of capital mobility, despite being limited by a borrowing constraint, reverses the impact of economic growth on production and resource allocation. The results also show that while production in the closed economy model simply adjusts to domestic demand, that of the open economy model is not constrained by it. Results further point that although there is positive growth in income and output in both environments, income growth in the capital mobility environment falls short of that in the no capital mobility environment. This result can be attributed to the relatively slower accumulation of capi tal in the former, which may be compensated by a positive rate of technological progress to accompany international capital flows. |
| Keywords: | International Capital Flows,Human Capital, Multisector economy,Borrowing Constraint |
| JEL: | F43 O41 C61 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1001&r=cwa |