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Matching keywords : spatial inequality, disparity, ethnic tensions, regional disparity

Inequality in a Global Perspective

The basic story of global inequality in the last three decades has been an overall decline, but one which is composed of quite intricate patterns. There has been a decline in between country inequalit...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 08 Jun 2020

The Political Economy of Gender Budgeting: Empirical Evidence from India

Gender budgeting is a public policy innovation to transform the gender commitments into budgetary commitments. The political economy process of gender budgeting in India has encompassed four distinct...

by Lekha Chakraborty | On 02 Apr 2019

Gender and Corporate Success: An Empirical Analysis of Gender-Based Corporate Performance on a Sample of Asian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The paper will provide policy suggestions, such as establishment of credit guarantee funds for easing the female-owned SMEs’ access to finance in Asia. Implementation of supportive policies for female...

by Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary | On 01 Apr 2019

Enlargement Decisions of Regional Trading Blocs with Asymmetric Members

This paper analyzes the conditions under which an existing bilateral free trade area (FTA) prefers to expand in size and when it prefers consolidation through customs union (CU) formation when the exi...

by Sunandan Ghosh | On 31 Jan 2019

Wage Inequalities in India

This paper examines the dimension of inequality since our earlier work on poverty and deprivation suggest that social inequality seems to overwhelm all other inequalities in a whole range of indicator...

by K.P. Kannan | On 31 Jan 2019

The Development of Education and Health Services in Asia and the Role of the State

This paper analyses the dramatic spread of education and healthcare in Asia and also the large variations in that spread across and within countries over fifty years. Apart from differences in initial...

by Sudipto Mundle | On 14 Jan 2019

The Impact of Trade Conflict on Developing Asia

This paper analyzes the effects of the current trade conflict on developing Asia using the Asian Development Bank’s Multiregional Input–Output Table (MRIOT), allowing us to calculate the impact on ind...

by Abdul Abiad | On 21 Dec 2018

Does Regional Integration Matter for Inclusive Growth? Evidence from the Multidimensional Regional Integration Index

This paper employs a multidimensional approach to gauge the degree of regional integration and analyze impact on growth, inequality, and poverty. It constructs a multidimensional regional integration...

by Cyn-Young Park | On 26 Oct 2018

Financial Market Integration and Income Inequality

This paper uncovers novel empirical evidence that financial market integration and financial market development interact to change income inequality. When other things are controlled, the effect of fi...

by Jae wook Jung | On 11 Sep 2018

Investing in Health Security for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific: Managing Health Threats Through Regional and Intersectoral Cooperation

Asia is a hot spot for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, including those with pandemic potential. At the same time, the region is grappling with growing antimicrobial resistance and the hea...

by Megan Counahan | On 24 Aug 2018

Enabling Smart Urban Redevelopment in India through Floor Area Ratio Incentives

This working paper assesses the potential of incentive FAR approaches in two Indian cities, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, for leveraging the economic value of urban land. A thorough analysis of Mumbai’s clust...

by Apoorva Shenvi | On 25 Jul 2018

Mainstreaming SMEs: Promoting Inclusive Growth in APEC

SME development as a major domestic policy objective that is consistent and reinforced within APEC would not only engender inclusive growth, but also enable SMEs to become drivers of growth for the do...

by Erlinda M. Medalla | On 06 Jul 2018

Activist to Entrepreneur – The Role of Social Enterprise in Supporting Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan

This report sets out to establish how well social enterprise really does address gender inequality and women's empowerment in Pakistan. It is part of a series of reports commissioned by the British Co...

by Mark Richardson | On 28 Jun 2018

Trade Costs, Time, and Supply Chain Reliability

This paper uses measures of international transport time, in median and standard deviation, based on shipment-level data from the Universal Postal Union, to analyze the effect of time on trade costs....

by Utsav Kumar | On 14 Jun 2018

Economic Policy for Artificial Intelligence

Recent progress in artificial intelligence (AI) – a general purpose technology affecting many industries - has been focused on advances in machine learning, which recast as a quality adjusted drop in...

by Ajay K. Agrawal | On 12 Jun 2018

The Impact of Monetary and Tax Policy on Income Inequality in Japan

This paper assesses the effects of the most recent monetary policy behavior of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) (in particular, zero interest rate policy and negative interest rate policy) and Japanese tax pol...

by Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary | On 09 Jun 2018

Constructing the Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation and Integration Index: A Panel Approach

This paper proposes a panel approach in the construction of the Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation and Integration Index (ARCII) to strengthen the index’s ability to track the progress of economic inte...

by Cyn-Young Park | On 06 Jun 2018

Do Information and Communication Technologies Empower Female Workers? Firm-Level Evidence from Viet Nam

This paper studies the effects of firms’ investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) on their demand for female and skilled workers. Using the gradual liberalization of the broadba...

by Natalie Chun | On 31 May 2018

Global Banking Network and Regional Financial Contagion

This paper investigates and tests the role of regional exposures in financial contagion from advanced to emerging market economies through the global banking network using data on cross-border bilater...

by Cyn Young Park | On 31 May 2018

Income Inequality and Depression: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Association and a Scoping Review of Mechanisms

Most countries have witnessed a dramatic increase of income inequality in the past three decades. This paper addresses the question of whether income inequality is associated with the population prev...

by | On 31 May 2018

Economic Policy for Artificial Intelligence

Recent progress in artificial intelligence (AI) – a general purpose technology affecting many industries - has been focused on advances in machine learning, which we recast...

by | On 30 May 2018

Global Inequality When Unequal Countries Create Unequal People

Current global inequality measures assume that national-mean income does not matter to economic welfare at given household income, as measured in surveys. The paper questions...

by Martin Ravallion | On 16 May 2018

Technological Progress and Future of Kuznets Curve

This study considers the fluctuation in the degree of income inequality after the Kuznets curve completes a single inverted U-shaped curve. It ascertains that new-born technological inventions incre...

by Inyong Shin | On 14 May 2018

World Economic Outlook, April 2018: Cyclical Upswing, Structural Change

The global economic upswing that began around mid-2016 has become broader and stronger. This new World Economic Outlook report projects that advanced economies as a group will continue to expand above...

by International Monetary Fund [IMF] | On 08 May 2018

Climate Policy under Cooperation and Competition between Regions with Spatial Heat Transport

The paper builds a novel stochastic dynamic regional integrated assessment model (IAM) of the climate and economic system including a number of important climate science elements that are missing in m...

by Yongyang Cai | On 04 Apr 2018

A Comparison of Global Governance Across Sectors: Global Health, Trade and Multilateral Development Finance

To what extent do the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank remain central today and how much influence do they still wield in shaping the global agenda? While...

by | On 30 Mar 2018

Human Capital and Income Equality

This study investigates empirically how human capital, measured by educational attainment, is related to income distribution. The regressions, using a panel data set covering a broad range of countr...

by | On 30 Mar 2018

Trade Rules in E-commerce: WTO and India

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is an integral part of business activities, and various models of e-commerce have emerged with liberalisation and technological developments. Global e-commerce trade...

by | On 28 Mar 2018

Regional Cooperation to Combat Climate Change: The Way Forward

This paper is based on the presentation given by the author at the Fifth WIEF roundtable on climate change held in Dhaka, organized by the WIEF secretariat on 20 March 2012. The paper will introduce t...

by | On 21 Mar 2018

Estimating Poverty in Pakistan: The Non-food Consumption Share Approach

The paper says that poverty alleviation is the most persistent challenge facing Pakistan since its inception.

by Rashida Haq | On 21 Mar 2018

Modelling Gender Dimensions of the Impact of Economic Reforms on Time Allocation among Market Work, Household Work, and Leisure

The paper says that the gender has been largely ignored at the theoretical, empirical and policy design levels, thereby perpetuating gender biases in the actual working of economies, promoting gender...

by Rizwana Siddiqui | On 20 Mar 2018

Financial Inclusion: New Measurement and Cross-Country Impact Assessment

This paper introduces a new index of financial inclusion for 151 economies using principal component analysis to compute weights for aggregating nine indicators of access, availability, and usage. It...

by Rogelio V. Mercado, Jr. | On 20 Mar 2018

Trade, Technology, and Prosperity An Account of Evidence from a Labor-market Perspective

This report assesses the state of economic research into those areas, with a particular focus on empirical methodologies and their adequacy for an assessment of general-equilibrium outcomes. While di...

by Marc-Andreas Muendler | On 20 Mar 2018

Continuing Caste inequalities in Rural Uttar Pradesh

A continuous mixed opinion on the relevance of caste based reservations and caste as a factor of socioeconomic disparity in the recent period demands update of evidence on socioeconomic inequalities...

by Srinivas Goli | On 16 Mar 2018

Fiscal Policy Effectiveness and Inequality: Efficacy of Gender Budgeting in Asia Pacific

Gender budgeting is a fiscal approach that seeks to use a country’s national and/or local budget(s) to reduce inequality and promote economic growth and equitable development. While literature has exp...

by Lekha Chakraborty | On 16 Mar 2018

SAARC Food Bank (SFB) Institutional Architecture and Issues of Operationalisation

In view of the need for an appropriate institutional architecture to address the food security concerns in South Asia, issues of proper operationalisation of the SAARC Food Bank (SFB) have assumed cr...

by | On 06 Mar 2018

Sticky Expectations and Consumption Dynamics

Macroeconomic models often invoke consumption “habits” to explain the substantial persistence of aggregate consumption growth. But a large literature has found no evidence of habits in microeconomic d...

by Christopher D. Carroll | On 05 Mar 2018

Trade with Correlation

The paper develops a trade model in which productivity—the result of a country’s ability to adopt global technologies—presents an arbitrary pattern of spatial correlation. The model generates the full...

by Nelson Lind | On 05 Mar 2018

Focus: Women, Gender and Armed Conflict

The end of the Cold War in 1989 did not, as had been expected, bring about a reduction in armed conflicts. More than two thirds of the poorest countries in the world are in conflict regions. The natur...

by Austrian Development Agency (ADA) | On 21 Feb 2018

War on the Female Body: Rape and Sexual Violence during Conflict

This article focuses on rape as a weapon of war, the sociological impacts of which can be widespread and long-lasting. This is especially due to the ensuing terror and disruption to livelihoods, relat...

by AMSA Global Health | On 21 Feb 2018

Sexual Violence in the “People’s War” – The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Girls in Nepal

The report described the level and cases of gender based sexual violence during the armed conflict and proved that both the warring parties were involved in such heinous acts. It also showed the letha...

by Institute of Human Rights Communication, Nepal (IHRICON | On 21 Feb 2018

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: A Cross-National Comparison of Circumstances Related to State Forces’ Use of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts

This study aims to explore and identify circumstances related to the use of sexual violence by armed groups, and by state forces in particular. The overall purpose is to contribute to an understandi...

by Matilda Carlsson | On 20 Feb 2018

A New Measure of Inter-industry Distance and Its Application to the U.S. Regional Growth

The paper also suggests that our index can serve as an alternative measure of the industrial linkages.

by Yoon Joon | On 01 Feb 2018

Conflict and Education in Manipur: A Comparative Analysis

Conflict, violence and social upheaval have been the greatest threats to mankind since the dawn of civilisation. Poorest communities, children and education sector are among the most severely affect...

by Komol Singha | On 24 Jan 2018

Gender Inequality and Early Childhood Development

Plan International’s commitment to tackle discrimination and exclusion and advance children’s rights and equality for girls lies at the heart of our new Organisational Purpose. Our ambition to tackle...

by | On 22 Jan 2018

The Politics of Institutional Reform and Post-Conflict Violence in Nepal

How does the reform of state institutions shape prospects for peace after war? Existing re- search on the institutional causes of peace focuses on how institutional designs, as the out- comes of ref...

by Julia Strasheim | On 17 Jan 2018

Northeast India: The Emerging Scenarios

The paper narrates that in today’s age of globalization and trans-border connectivity, the Northeast is fast emerging as the potential gateway for India to Southeast and East Asia through Myanmar.

by Namrata Goswami | On 17 Jan 2018

Technological Change, Automation and Employment: A Short Review of Theory and Evidence

A selective survey of recent papers in the area of technological change, automation and employment is presented. The objective is to convey analytical ideas and the empirical evidence that have inform...

by K. V. Ramaswamy | On 16 Jan 2018

Inequality, Employment and Public Policy

This paper examines dimensions of inequality including labour market inequalities and discusses public policies needed for reduction in inequalities. It discusses both inequality of outcomes and inequ...

by S.Mahendra Dev | On 16 Jan 2018

Using Gross Trade Data to Map Archetypal GVCs

This paper introduces a new, publicly available database for tracking merchandise trade in the global value chains for apparel/textile/footwear, motor vehicles and parts, and electronics, developed or...

by Michael Ferrantino | On 16 Jan 2018

Prospects of India–Bangladesh Economic Cooperation: Implications for South Asian Regional Cooperation

In recent years, South Asia has received growing attention as a region that is integrating successfully into the global economy. To maximize the benefits in terms of faster growth and poverty reductio...

by Prabir De | On 19 Dec 2017

Immigrants’ Residential Choices and their Consequences

This paper investigates the causes and effects of the spatial distribution of immigrants across US cities. We document that: a) immigrants concentrate in large, high-wage, and expensive cities, b) the...

by | On 18 Dec 2017

Aging and Inequality : The Perspective of Labor Income Share

Despite a growing literature on population aging, empirical studies exploring mechanisms between aging and income inequality are scarce. This paper estimates the impact of aging on inequality via the...

by | On 18 Dec 2017

Ethnic fragmentation and School Provision in India

In this paper, we study the impact of ethnic fragmentation on the provision of private and public schools, separately. The distinction is made because the two types of schools have different objective...

by Bharti Nandwani | On 13 Dec 2017

PIDS Calls For ‘Intelligent’ Discourse On Federalism

The study says that the policymakers should see merit in examining whether federalism can indeed address the sociopolitical and economic problems that hamper the country’s growth.

by PIDS Information Staff | On 11 Dec 2017

Technology, Jobs and Inequality Evidence from India’s Manufacturing Sector

Faced with easier access to foreign technology and imported capital goods, firms in India's organised manufacturing sector adopted advanced techniques of production leading to increasing automation an...

by Radhicka Kapoor | On 01 Dec 2017

Gender Mainstreaming Case Study : India - Chhattisgarh Irrigation Development Project

The Chhattisgarh Irrigation Development Project (CIDP) aimed to increase agricultural productivity, improve rural livelihoods, and reduce poverty by improving irrigation delivery, enhancing agricult...

by | On 22 Nov 2017

Urban Consumption Inequality in China, 1995–2013

The paper uses 1995, 2002 and 2013 CHIP data to investigate the urban household consumption expenditure inequality. The overall inequality of urban household consumption expenditure measured by Gini c...

by Qingjie Xia | On 20 Nov 2017

Effects of Trade and Services Liberalization on Wage Inequality in India

We examine the effects of trade and services liberalization on wage inequality in India. We find that labor reallocations and wage shifts attributable to liberalization account for at most 29% of the...

by | On 14 Nov 2017

Inequality and Expectations in a Model of Technology Adoption and Growth

This paper highlights the role of initial wealth inequality in determining the technology adoption decision of firms, which in turn impacts upon the overall productivity in an economy. Wealth inequali...

by Surbhi Badhwar | On 08 Nov 2017

Analyzing Adoption of soil Conservation Measures by Farmers in Darjeeling District, India

The study attempts to assess the key determinants of the decision to adopt soil conservation. The study area is Teesta River Watershed, in Darjeeling District in the Eastern Himalayas. In the watershe...

by Chandan Singha | On 07 Nov 2017

Educational Achievement Through the Lens of Social Inequality : A Study in a Tribal Belt of Madhya Pradesh

The connection between social inequality and the actual level of learning is not as well understood in India as the patterns of inequality in enrolment. A study was conducted of 23 neighbouring and si...

by | On 02 Nov 2017

Sustainable Development Goals: Assessing Commitments towards Financing and Inequality

In September 2015, heads of States and representatives of 193 countries assembled at the United Nations General Assembly to give shape to the Post- 2015 Development Agenda: ‘Transforming Our World: Th...

by | On 25 Oct 2017

Deepening Economic Cooperation between India and Sri Lanka

This study analyzes the India–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) over the past decade. It is noted that bilateral trade between the countries has increased steadily and India became the most favored...

by Kavita Iyengar | On 13 Oct 2017

Towards ‘Make in South Asia’: Evolving Regional Values Chains

One of the most important ways in which several of the common developmental challenges in South Asia could be addressed is by focusing on manufacturing. In the new context, manufacturing becomes key...

by Ram Upendra Das | On 04 Oct 2017

Secondary Towns and Poverty Reduction: Refocusing the Urbanization Agenda

This review is framed around the exploration of a central hypothesis: A shift in public investment towards secondary towns from big cities will improve poverty reduction performance.

by Luc Christiaensen | On 27 Sep 2017

Structural Transformation and Income Distribution: Kuznets and Beyond

This paper explores the question of structural transformation and income distribution through the eyes of the pioneer in such analysis, Simon Kuznets.

by Ravi Kanbur | On 27 Sep 2017

Federalism and the Formation of States in India

In recent days, the process of federalization within the Indian Union has become more debatable due to the unequal federal development at various levels. In this context, the issues of state formation...

by Susant Kumar Naik | On 14 Sep 2017

Economic Globalization and Income Inequality: Cross-country Empirical Evidence

This paper analyses the effect of economic globalization on income inequality in both cross-country and country-specific framework using panel data techniques and policy simulations. The sample compri...

by Sovna Mohanty | On 07 Sep 2017

Toward a New Frame for Regional Films: Manbhum Videos and the Other Side of (Indian) Cinema

This article focuses on the production and mass circulation of locally produced videos in and across socially marginalized areas of Bengal. It emerges from the research conducted on the video industry...

by Madhuja Mukherjee | On 31 Aug 2017

Economic Integration and Development Partnerships: Southern Perspectives

Regional integration (RI) is a process by which countries enter into an agreement to upgrade cooperation through common institutions and rules. The objectives of the agreement could range from economi...

by Research and Information System for Developing Countries | On 24 Aug 2017

Devolution, Democracy and Development in Kenya

The report says that the practice of local democracy has so far mirrored the problems at the national level, with vote-buying, compromised primaries and allegations of vote-rigging in many gubernatori...

by Agnes Cornell | On 10 Aug 2017

Can Social Protection and Labour Programmes Contribute to Social Inclusion? Evidence from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal

Discussions around the post-2015 development goals and the proposed ‘leave no-one behind’ principle have revived global interest in inequality and the role of social protection in promoting social...

by | On 04 Aug 2017

Gender, Islam, and law

This paper considers arguments about Islam and women’s welfare, and, at greater length, how legal systems with Islamic elements treat women, with a focus on how women fare in Islamic family courts. Ke...

by John R. Bowen | On 02 Aug 2017

Inequality of Opportunities Among Ethnic Groups in the Philippines

This paper contributes to the scant body of literature on inequalities among and within ethnic groups in the Philippines by examining both the vertical and horizontal measures in terms of opportunitie...

by Celia M. Reyes | On 02 Aug 2017

The India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement: An Appraisal of Progress

The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore came into effect on 1st August 2005. It was the first such comprehensive FTA signed by India with any country c...

by V. S. Seshadri | On 02 Aug 2017

Mapping the cotton value chain in Pakistan: A preliminary assessment for identification of climate vulnerabilities & pathways to adaptation

This approach was chosen to understand the consequences of climate risks as well as the adaptation measures needed to cope with adverse impacts in order to ensure the resilience of all actors involved...

by Samavia Batool | On 01 Aug 2017

Rethinking Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Asia: Balancing Economic and Environmental Objectives

The OECD or ‘standard’ model of electricity sector reforms has been widely adopted in non-OECD Asian countries since the 1990s. However, despite two decades of attempts at reforms, no notable progress...

by Tooraj Jamasb | On 31 Jul 2017

Jati, Local Public Goods and Village Governance: Private Actions and Public Outcomes

This paper purports to understand whether voting along narrow parochial lines in socially and ethnically fragmented societies has measurable gains. Using data from rural India, we establish that ident...

by Raghbendra Jha | On 31 Jul 2017

A Case for Institutional Demand as Effective Social Protection: Supporting Smallholders Through Procurement and Food Assistance Programmes

This paper focuses on the rationale for state-based market interventions to support smallholder production along with some case studies that follow the evolution and impact of what we call ‘institutio...

by Ryan Nehring | On 28 Jul 2017

Localising the gender equality goal through urban planning tools in South Asia

This paper also highlights the need for a coordinated approach to SDG implementation by demonstrating the case of gender equality and urban planning.

by Shrimoyee Bhattacharya | On 26 Jul 2017

Sustainable Energy Access Planning: A Framework

This report presents a framework for sustainable energy access planning that planners and policy makers can use to design cost-effective clean energy supply systems that both poor and nonpoor can sust...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 24 Jul 2017

Trade Facilitation for a More Inclusive and Connected Asia and Pacific Region: Progress and Way Forward

This study also describes trade facilitation projects that promote development through deepening regional cooperation and integration.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 14 Jul 2017

Maldives: Overcoming the Challenges of a Small Island State

This report provides support to the Maldivian government in formulating its high-priority policies by identifying the critical constraints to achieving inclusive growth. The report also provides polic...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 12 Jul 2017

Implementation of the ASEAN+3 Multi-Currency Bond Issuance Framework: ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Sub-Forum 1 Phase 3 Report

The report says that the ASEAN+3 Multi-Currency Bond Issuance Framework (AMBIF) is a policy initiative under the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) to help facilitate intraregional transactions thro...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 11 Jul 2017

Cambodia: Addressing the Skills Gap

The report says that Cambodia’s growth in the last 20 years has been remarkable and the lives of its people have improved substantially. But low-cost labor advantages on a narrow economic base have dr...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 30 Jun 2017

Fiji: Building Inclusive Institutions for Sustained Growth

This study, using an inclusive growth framework, has identified the critical constraints that Fiji needs to address to strengthen investor sentiment even further and achieve inclusive growth.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 27 Jun 2017

Asian Development Outlook 2015 Supplement: Growth Holds Its Own in Developing Asia

The report says Asia’s developing economies remain on track to post growth of 5.8% in 2015 and 6.0% in 2016, as the region’s economies remain resilient to continued economic weakness in industrialized...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 26 Jun 2017

Development of Backward Areas Outcome of the interventions so far

The problem of balanced regional development received much greater attention in the Third Five Year Plan. The Plan took a more positive view of the possibility of reaching regional balance. It stated...

by MC Singhi | On 22 Jun 2017

Fiji: Creating Quality Jobs - Employment Diagnostic Study

This report, a joint effort of the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization, seeks to foster a deeper understanding of the context, constraints, and opportunities for increasin...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 21 Jun 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Asia: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms - Integrative Report

This report measures the size of associated subsidies on these fossil fuels including direct transfers, tax exemptions, subsidized credit, and losses of state enterprises in India, Indonesia, and Thai...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 14 Jun 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Nepal Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women Project

This report presents the case study of that project, whose special features include responsiveness to local contexts and to conditions created by conflict, a well-coordinated system for women collecti...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 06 Jun 2017

Myanmar Transport Sector Policy Note: River Transport

Myanmar has an extensive river network that is well positioned to serve the country’s main transport corridors, including the link between Yangon and Mandalay. However, main rivers are difficult to na...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 31 May 2017

Tajikistan: Promoting Export Diversification and Growth

Tajikistan has sustained high economic growth since its civil war ended in 1997. Real gross domestic product (GDP) during 1997–2015 grew at an average 7.2% a year, driven mainly by agriculture and ser...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 24 May 2017

Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing Asia-Pacific

This report explores three entry points to the theme of poverty and prosperity: (i) managing urbanization for inclusive development, (ii) strengthening responses to rural poverty in the context of t...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 May 2017

Income Generation and Inequality in India's Agricultural Sector: The Consequences of Land Fragmentation

This paper is a contribution to understanding income generation and inequality in India's agricultural sector. The paper analyses the National Sample Surveys of agriculture in 2003 and 2013 using desc...

by Sanjoy Chakravorty | On 02 May 2017

Global Wage Report 2016/17: Wage Inequality in the Workplace

This new ILO Global Wage Report – the fifth in a series that now spans over a decade – contributes to this agenda by making comparative data and information on recent wage trends available to governme...

by International Labour Organization [ILO] | On 14 Apr 2017

Opportunities for Women: Challenging Harmful Social Norms and Gender Stereotypes to Unlock Women’s Potential

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, shaped by both public and private sectors and the voices of civil society, was adopted by world leaders two years ago as a blueprint for making our world m...

by | On 16 Mar 2017

Poverty Targeting Through Public Goods

In national accounts, government expenditures are used to measure the value of public spending. These expenditures grossly overestimate the value of services received by Indian households because th...

by Anders Kjelsrud | On 01 Mar 2017

Is Domestic Violence a Lesser Crime? Countering the Backlash against Section 498A, IPC

The situation today is that domestic violence is treated as a `social crime’ when compared with violence by strangers, even though it is much more severe in nature. Why is wife beating considered as a...

by Shalu Nigam | On 21 Feb 2017

Educational Inequality in India: An Analysis of Gender Differences in Reading and Mathematics

This paper analyzes gender differences in reading and mathematics among Indian children ages 8-11 using data from the 2005 India Human Development Survey. Employing descriptive statistics and ordered...

by | On 15 Feb 2017

Collective Action on South Asia's 'Wicked Problems'

The problems of water, energy, climate change, and urbanisation, are all intertwined; they are, also, all 'wicked'. There is little consensus on how to effectively navigate these problems, let alone,...

by | On 02 Feb 2017

The Influence of Gender Budgeting in Indian States on Gender Inequality and Fiscal Spending

This study investigates the effect of gender budgeting in India on gender inequality and fiscal spending. Gender budgeting is an approach to budgeting in which governments use fiscal policies and ad...

by Janet G Stotsky | On 23 Jan 2017

Unequal India in an Unequal World: Causes, Consequences & Policy Options

Disparities in income and wealth have all along been present in almost every society across the world. However, the rate of increase in inequality in the distribution of income and wealth has been ala...

by | On 10 Jan 2017

Inter-ethnic Fertility Spillovers and the Role of Forward-looking Behavior: Evidence from Peninsular Malaysia

Demographic pressures can create competition for limited private and public resources and exacerbate pre-existing inter-ethnic tensions. At the same time, inter-ethnic competition may influence indivi...

by | On 23 Dec 2016

The Problem of Inequality

The paper examines consumption, income, regional, social and gender inequalities in India. Income inequalities are much higher that of consumption. It also looks at inequalities in opportunities like...

by S.Mahendra Dev | On 19 Dec 2016

Identity, Household Work, and Subjective Well-Being among Rural Women in Bangladesh

Despite increases in women’s employment, significant gender disparity exists in the time men and women spend on household and care work. Understanding how social expectations govern gender roles and c...

by Greg Seymour | On 15 Dec 2016

An Analysis of Urban Growth Trends in the Post-Economic Reforms Period in India

Significant changes have been observed since 1991 in the nature and pattern of urban growth in India. Our cities are in the midst of restructuring space, in terms of both use and form. The paper addre...

by | On 14 Dec 2016

Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Global Burden of Diseases is an annual effort to measure the health of populations at regional, country, and selected subnational levels. GBD produces estimates of mortality and morbidity by cause, a...

by | On 29 Nov 2016

MGNREGS: Political Economy, Local Governance and Asset Creation in South India

MGNREGS, the premier centrally-sponsored national rural livelihood scheme, is one of the most elaborately designed and implemented public workfare programmes in India. While a large number of studi...

by Vinoj Abraham | On 10 Oct 2016

Will China’s Demographic Transition Exacerbate Its Income Inequality? A CGE Modeling with Top-down Microsimulation

Demographic transition due to population aging is an emerging trend throughout the developing world, and it is especially acute in China, which has undergone demographic transition more rapidly than...

by Xinxin Wang | On 10 Oct 2016

Poor Women in Urban India: Issues and Strategies

It is generally recognised that poverty is experienced differently according to their gender, age, caste, class and ethnicity and within households. Income levels, food security and indeed life choice...

by | On 05 Oct 2016

Interactions between Policy Assumptions and Rural Women's Work - A Case Study

The concern of this paper is limited to the approaches to rural women's development and an understanding of their work roles in the planning strategies. [CWDS Working paper].

by Kumud Sharma | On 30 Sep 2016

World Social Science Report

Economic inequalities in income and wealth, social inequalities in health, education and access to welfare services, gender and racial inequalities, cultural and religious discrimination, barriers to...

by | On 22 Sep 2016

Long-Range Growth: Economic Development in the Global Network of Air Links

This paper studies the impact of international long-distance flights on the global spatial allocation of economic activity. To identify causal effects, it exploits variation due to regulatory and tech...

by Filipe Campante | On 21 Sep 2016

Group Inequality in Democracies: Lessons from Cross-National Experiences

Group inequality is a prominent feature of many modern democracies. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of what we know about the ways in which major democracies have viewed social groups and a...

by Rohini Somanathan | On 19 Sep 2016

Zoning and the Economic Geography of Cities

Comprehensive zoning is ubiquitous in U.S. cities, yet surprisingly little is known about its long-run impacts. This paper provides the first attempt to measure the causal effect of land use regulatio...

by Allison Shertzer | On 19 Sep 2016

Habitat III National Reports for the Asia-Pacific Region

The National Reports received to date were considered during the development of the Regional Report and examples from National Reports have been incorporated into the Regional Report as appropriate T...

by United Nations (UN) | On 07 Sep 2016

Words Matter: A Textual Analysis of SBP’s Monetary Policy Reviews

In this paper a textual analysis is performed of monetary policy statements issued during the past ten years by State Bank of Pakistan and compare them with policy reviews of seven selected central ...

by Asif Mahmood | On 07 Sep 2016

Counting Critically: SDG ‘Follow-up and Review’ Needs Interlinked Indicators, Monitoring and Evaluation

Global indicators are important for understanding progress towards each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, they can mask sub-national and thematic variations. They cannot explain ho...

by | On 02 Sep 2016

Potential Effects of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on the Philippine Economy

Using a global computable general equilibrium model, the paper analyzes the potential effects of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on the Philippine economy. The analysis involves an...

by | On 30 Aug 2016

Environmentally Induced Migration from Bangladesh to India

Environmental crisis in the rural areas of developing countries is increasingly becoming an important cause of cross-border migration of population and South Asia is no exception to this phenomenon. S...

by | On 22 Aug 2016

Migration and Refugee Issue Between India and Bangladesh

In the era of globalisation, where opening of borders is being advocated all over the world, there is one issue over which no nation-state is ready to compromise with its territorial borders. The issu...

by | On 22 Aug 2016

The History of Humanitarian Action in East and Southeast Asia: Asian Perspectives

ASEAN assumed different roles in responding to humanitarian crises in Cambodia (in the 1970s) and Myanmar (Cyclone Nargis in 2008). For the Cambodia situation, ASEAN was playing the role of ‘antagonis...

by | On 19 Aug 2016

Estimation of the Food Poverty Line

To monitor changes in absolute poverty across time, it is crucial to ensure that the established poverty line is a fixed standard of living that represents the minimum standard required by an individu...

by Jose Ramon Alber | On 17 Aug 2016

Trade Liberalization and Regional Dynamics

We study the evolution of trade liberalization’s effects on local labor markets, following Brazil’s early 1990s trade liberalization. Regions that initially specialized in industries facing larger t...

by Rafael Dix-Carneiro | On 16 Aug 2016

How Do Maternity Leave and Discriminatory Social Norms Relate to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries?

Increasing women’s participation in paid employment is a fundamental step towards women’s economic empowerment and improving development outcomes. The benefits of increasing women’s labour force parti...

by Somali Cerise | On 12 Aug 2016

Inequality, Poverty, and Antipoverty Transfers

This report reviews the main trends in global poverty, assesses projections on poverty trends for the medium term, and considers the implications for antipoverty policy. Three main points emerge from...

by Armando Barrientos | On 10 Aug 2016

Global Estimates 2015: People Displaced by Disasters

The time is opportune to ensure the causes and consequences of this urgent issue are better addressed. Policy makers are pushing for concerted progress across humanitarian and sustainable development...

by | On 01 Aug 2016

Empowering India with Gender Equality

Achieving gender equality has become a development challenge for India. Women are entitled to live with dignity in society and enjoy freedom from humiliation, fear, exploitation and every type of viol...

by Sanghamitra Deobhanj | On 28 Jul 2016

Gender and Migration

The identification of gendered ramifications of migratory processes has meant greater attention has been paid by policymakers and scholars alike than has been done previously. There are a number of re...

by | On 25 Jul 2016

State and the IT Industry in India: A Policy Critique

By adopting a historical comparative perspective,this paper assesses the role of state (both national and subnational) in industrialisation through the growth and policy experience of an ‘achieving’ s...

by Keshab Das | On 20 Jul 2016

Vulnerability to Poverty: Tajikistan During and After the Global Financial Crisis

The paper examines vulnerability to poverty in Tajikistan during the global financial crisis, focusing on the roles played by international migration and remittances, using a formal, practical, and ea...

by Ira N. Gang | On 19 Jul 2016

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in India

Gender-based inequalities translate into greater value being placed on the health and survival of males than of females. In India, examples of health and population indicators that are driven by gende...

by | On 15 Jul 2016

Reimagining India’s Urban Future: A Framework for Securing High-Growth, Low-Carbon, Climate-Resilient Urban Development in India

This paper reviews the current state of the literature on Indian urbanization to analyze existing urban development trajectories at the state level in order to understand the challenges Indian cities...

by Meenu Tewari | On 15 Jul 2016

India’s Informal Trade with Pakistan

This study (i) identifies factors determining informal trade, (ii) prepares estimates of India's informal trade with Pakistan (iii) examines the modalities of informal trade (iv) analyzes the transact...

by Nisha Taneja | On 13 Jul 2016

Conflicts in the South China Sea and China ASEAN Economic Interdependence: A Challenge to Cooperation

This paper analyzes the absence of correlation between China-ASEAN economic interdependence and dispute settlement in the South China Sea, against liberals’ prediction. It argues that there are a few...

by | On 13 Jul 2016

The “Engine of Economic Growth”: An Overview of Private Investment Policies, Trends, and Projects in Cambodia

This paper aims to present an overview and analysis of the current investment landscape in Cambodia, as well as its impacts on people and the environment. It is hoped that the information ...

by Mark Grimsditch | On 01 Jul 2016

Malnutrition: Unanswered Questions from Attapadi

India claims to have achieved financial growth of 7% but despite this high growth rate, poverty and inequality has also grown exponentially and social security, standard of life, security of labor ha...

by Child Rights and You CRY | On 27 Jun 2016

Book Review: Depoliticising Social Change and the Celebration of Inequality in Rural India

Review of Inside-Outside: Two Views of Social Change in Rural India. Edited by B. S. Baviskar and D. W. Attwood, Sage Publications, New Delh, 2014.

by | On 20 Jun 2016

What Future for the Cities Within our Cities?

According to a report from the Mckinsey Global Institute, India is set to witness a leap in urban population by almost 25 crore over the next 20 years. That translates to roughly 35,000 more people in...

by | On 09 Jun 2016

Property Rights and Gender Bias: Evidence from Land Reform in West Bengal

While land reforms are typically pursued in order to raise productivity and reduce inequality across households, an unintended consequence may be increased within-household gender inequality. We analy...

by | On 03 Jun 2016

The Contours and Concerns of Drought-Induced Migration

Umi Daniel is currently working as Head Migration Thematic unit at Aide et Action South Asia. His areas of interests are tribal empowerment, people’s right to food, micro level planning, rights and en...

by Umi Daniel | On 03 Jun 2016

The Tradeoffs between GHGs Emissions, Income Inequality and Productivity

Rising emission of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and growing economic inequalities have emerged as key challenges for policymakers over the past two decades and the problems are likely to intensify in th...

by Unmesh Patnaik | On 03 Jun 2016

An Economy for The 1%: How Privilege and Power in the Economy Drive Extreme Inequality and How This Can Be Stopped

Credit Suisse recently revealed that the richest 1% have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together. Meanwhile, the wealth owned by the bottom half of humanity has fallen by a...

by | On 02 Jun 2016

How Forced Displacements Caused by a Violent Conflict Affect Wages in Colombia

In this paper, we analyze how forced displacements caused by violent conflicts affect the wages of displaced workers in Colombia, a country characterized by a long historical prevalence of violent con...

by | On 02 Jun 2016

The Accumulated Effects of Inequality

Discrimination against women from or even before birth guarantees them a marginal role in Indian society, and ensures that they are poorer, less educated, and facing more unemployment and health risks...

by | On 31 May 2016

Fairness for Children: A League Table of Inequality in Child Well-Being in Rich Countries

This Report Card presents an overview of inequalities in child well-being in 41 countries of the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It focuses o...

by | On 31 May 2016

Charcoal Supply Chains from Mabalane to Maputo: Who Benefits?

Charcoal is the main cooking energy source for people living in Maputo city. It is also a crucial source of income for rural producers in Mabalane district, a key supplier of Maputo’s charcoal. But Ma...

by Sophia Baumert | On 25 May 2016

Stop Stunting in South Asia: A Common Narrative on Maternal and Child Nutrition

Governments in South Asia are progressively acknowledging that child stunting is both a marker and a maker of poor development. UNICEF regional and country offices in South Asia work with regional bo...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 24 May 2016

Women’s Labour Migration from Asia and the Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges

In an era of unprecedented human mobility, migration from and within the Asia-Pacific region has assumed gendered dimensions, with implications for migration flows, trends and patterns. Gender roles,...

by | On 19 May 2016

Looking Back on Two Decades of Poverty and Well-Being in India

This paper provides an overview of poverty and well-being trends in India since the mid-1990s. Poverty reduction since 2005 has been much faster than the earlier decade, as a result of broad-based gro...

by | On 19 May 2016

Does Size Matter? The Productivity of Government Expenditures and the Size of States: Evidence from India

Some politicians argue for the splitting and combining of states to increase government productivity, but there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the optimal size of a state. Using data from Indian...

by Cornelis Haasnoot | On 18 May 2016

Assessing the Challenges of Climate Change to Biodiversity in Food and Agriculture Production in the Pacific

Ten countries from the Pacific have gathered in Nadi, Fiji, for a regional consultation on the region’s biodiversity for food and agriculture. The consultation, on the State of Biodiversity for Food a...

by Nadi Fiji | On 17 May 2016

Understanding the Election in Assam (Part 1)

The mainstream narrative on Assam is defined by an excessive focus on linguistic, ethnic, and religious strife, but many of the voters speak of development and economic growth, not social conflict, as...

by | On 05 May 2016

Measuring Progress Towards MDGs in Child Health: Should Base Line Sensitivity and Inequity Matter?

Measurement of achievement or progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should be suggestive of the issues involved in intertemporal comparison. Commonly, we observe that the measure...

by Udaya S. Mishra | On 03 May 2016

Spatial Convergence in Public Expenditure across Indian States: Implication of Federal Transfers

Using the spatial econometrics approach, this study analyses such spill- over effect in public expenditure. Econometric estimates suggest significant spatial spill- ove...

by | On 02 May 2016

Economic Reforms, Poverty and Inequality

It is going to be 25 years since India embarked on big-bang economic reforms in 1991. What are the achievements in terms of growth and inclusive growth in the post-reform period? What are the issues i...

by S. Mahendra Dev | On 02 May 2016

Inequality, Neighbourhoods and Variation in Prices

In this study we examine the link between of income distribution and wholesale price of wheat using panel data. We have weekly time series data on prices for wheat for 3 districts in Uttar-Pradesh in...

by | On 02 May 2016

A Comparative Study of Living Conditions in Slums of Three Metro Cities in India

A comparative study of representative slums across three largest metro cities in India through primary surveys. It is found that certain characteristics, such as large average household size, poor hou...

by Sugata Bag | On 28 Apr 2016

Employment and Earnings in Rural India: 2004-2012

This paper analyzes the changes in employment and earnings of paid workers in rural India from 2004/05 to 2011/12. While the employment rate of adults remained stable at 51 percent during this perio...

by Shantanu Khanna | On 04 Apr 2016

How the Collapse of ‘Chimerica’ Will Affect South Asia

India and Pakistan, the two large countries in South Asia, must work for the region’s collective good rather than moving closer to the United States and China, respectively, and promoting the interest...

by Shahid Javed Burki | On 28 Mar 2016

Impact of the People’s Republic of China’s Growth Slowdown on Emerging Asia: A General Equilibrium Analysis

As an important global and regional economic power, the PRC’s growth slowdown may cause large spillover effects to its neighboring economies. Using a multi-sectoral global computable general equilibri...

by Fan Zhai | On 22 Mar 2016

Structural Change, Economic Growth and Trade: Case for Regional Reallocation of Investment in India

The economic structure and rates of growth across the states in India are markedly different, with significant disparities in income per capita growth as well as sector-specific performance. The high-...

by Alokesh Barua | On 21 Mar 2016

Contested Idea of Nation Madhesi Upsurge in Nepal

The end of World War II marked the advent of Ethnic disputes in the world. The explicit wars for territory converted into implicit wars for identity and recognition; perhaps, because a part of the pop...

by Kalpana Jha | On 21 Mar 2016

Impact of Property Rights Reform to Support China’s Rural-Urban Integration

As part of a national experiment, in 2008 Chengdu prefecture implemented ambitious property rights reforms, including complete registration of all land together with measures to ease transferability a...

by Songqing Jin | On 20 Mar 2016

Trade and Wage Inequality: A Specific Factor Model with Intermediate Goods

In this paper we have made an attempt to explain the observed rising inequality between unskilled and skilled wages, or, fall in relative wages of unskilled labour within a general equilibrium framewo...

by Alokesh Barua | On 16 Mar 2016

Impact of Strengthening Intellectual Property Rights Regime on Income Inequality: An Econometric Analysis

This paper examines the impact of strengthening Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on within-country income inequality for a cross-section of 65 developed and developing countries for the time period...

by Swati Saini | On 16 Mar 2016

Intergenerational Mobility, Human Capital Composition and Distance to Technological Frontier

The focus of this study is to analyze the relation between intergenerational mobility (upward and downward mobility) and wage inequality (between skilled and unskilled workers) in a dynamic endogenous...

by Sujata Basu | On 15 Mar 2016

On Wage Inequality, Trade and Technology: Theory and Empirics

This paper is intended to contribute in the analysis of the movements of real wages of skilled and unskilled labour in Indian manufacturing over the last two decades and thereby trying to provide plau...

by Alokesh Barua | On 15 Mar 2016

Endogenous Human Capital Formation, Distance to Frontier and Growth

The paper examines human capital’s contribution to economy-wide technological progress through two channels – imitation and innovation – innovation being more skilled-intensive than innovation. It d...

by Sujata Basu | On 15 Mar 2016

Investing in Natural Capital for a Sustainable Future in the Greater Mekong Subregion

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is poised to continue developing at a significant pace. The subregion is well placed to benefit from the emerging Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Com...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 15 Mar 2016

Disaster Risk Management in Asia and the Pacific

The study considers key trends, in terms of disaster incidence, sources of vulnerability, and social and economic impacts. This is followed by discussions of some of the major issues: compound disaste...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 15 Mar 2016

Winners and Losers in the Arab Awakening

On January 25, 2012, one year has passed since the protests began on Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Events in the Middle East and North Africa over the past year have altered many previously held beliefs abou...

by | On 14 Mar 2016

A New Divide in the South China Sea

Nazery Khalid evaluates the prospect of peace in the South China Sea based on how the recent spat between China and Philippines is panning out.

by | On 14 Mar 2016

Toward Crisis Management in East Asia’s Seas

Maritime disputes in in the East and South China Seas escalated in 2013 and remain locked in a dangerous cycle of action and reaction with the attendant danger of a direct military confrontation betwe...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Missiles and Reunions: Thaw or Freeze on the Korean Peninsula?

Family reunions between North and South Korea may be an encouraging sign of a thaw in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which could lead to further trust-building activities and economic cooperation....

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Reed Bank: Next Flashpoint for China and the Philippines in the South China Sea?

The Philippines is seeking to develop the seabed hydrocarbon resources of Reed Bank in the South China Sea, an area under dispute with China. Should Manila put plan to action, Beijing is likely to dis...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Myanmar’s Fragile Ceasefire

Resolving Myanmar’s protracted civil war is the country’s defining challenge. With declarations of support signed for a National Ceasefire Agreement, there is much optimism that Myanmar is finally on...

by | On 10 Mar 2016

Distributional Impact of Structural Adjustment on Income Inequality in Pakistan: A SAM-based Analysis

This study intends to analyze the impact of fiscal policy relating to subsidies (production and consumption subsidies), government current expenditure and expenditure on health and education on income...

by Zafar Iqbal | On 10 Mar 2016

Spatial Differences and Socio-economic Determinants of Health Poverty

This study has three objectives: first, to construct a health poverty index (HPI) for Pakistan using household data from Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey 2012-13; second,...

by Nasir Iqbal | On 10 Mar 2016

Institutional Change in Market-Liberal State Capitalism: An Integrative Perspective on the Development of the Private Business Sector in China

This paper shows that a more accurate depiction of the development of China’s private sector is gained by considering the complex interaction between bottom-up and top- down processes. First, the pape...

by | On 09 Mar 2016

Transboundary Pollution as an Issue in Northeast Asian Regional Politics

The paper investigates the political aspects of the coorperation between China, South Korea and Japan to address transboundary pollution in Northeast Asia. Investigating the motivations, modalities an...

by Reinhard Drifte | On 09 Mar 2016

Energy Security in Northeast Asia: Putin, Progress and Problems

This article intends to bring to light the energy security concept in the region, while analyzing how this multilateral cooperative energy scheme can contribute to building a new regional economic sec...

by Se Hyun Ahn | On 09 Mar 2016

Class Gains in Fisheries Management in India: Reflections from Two States

The debate on common property resource centres on issues of a particular strategy for managing it in order to cater to the growing demand for communities that depend on it and the economy at large tha...

by Jharna Pathak | On 09 Mar 2016

The Politics of Public Debt: Neoliberalism, Capitalist Development, and the Restructuring of the State

Rising public debt has been widespread in democratic-capitalist political economies since the 1970s, generally accompanied among other things by weak economic growth, rising unemployment, increasing i...

by | On 08 Mar 2016

Measuring Women’s Disempowerment in Agriculture in Pakistan

This paper calculates a Women’s Disempowerment Index to examine women’s control over production, resources, income, household decisions, and time burden. The index is based on a slightly modified me...

by Nuzhat Ahmad | On 04 Mar 2016

Post¬- Election Violence

There were expectations that the Ivory Coast presidential election in November 2010 would put an end to the North¬South divide that had emerged in the country since the 2002 civil war. Instead, the...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 03 Mar 2016

Climate Change and Migration: What Are the Connections?

The Jakarta Post recently reported experts as saying that ‘[e]xtreme weather caused by climate change has given people another reason to migrate’. The comment was made in reference to a soon-to-be rel...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 03 Mar 2016

Myanmar’s National Reconciliation Process: A Positive for the Region?

Since taking office in March 2011, Myanmar’s new government has implemented a host of reforms. These include the release of some political prisoners,a lifting of restrictions on media freedoms, the...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 02 Mar 2016

Economic and Political Relations Between Bhutan and Neighbouring Countries

The diversification of Bhutan’s relations began with its entry into the United Nations in 1971, and while external relations continued to be largely confined to India, the establishment of its relatio...

by | On 02 Mar 2016

An Enquiry Into Migration and Homelessness - A Developmental Discourse: Evidence From Mumbai City

Existence of structural and social inequality with growing poverty and shrinking livelihoods and other factors forced to people or entire families to migrate towards cities in search of means of survi...

by | On 01 Mar 2016

Challenges and Developments in the Financial Systems of the Southeast Asian Economies

This paper discusses the economies and financial systems of Southeast Asia (SEA) and focuses on challenges and developments in the region. Despite the diversity of SEA economies and some important exc...

by Toshiyuki Shimada | On 29 Feb 2016

Asia-Pacific Migration Report 2015 Migrants' Contributions to Development

The Report assesses the development impacts of migrants in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and provides guidance on the steps countries, regional organizations, civil society actors and other...

by United Nations Economic and Social Commission (UNESCAP) | On 29 Feb 2016

Information for Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons and Needs in South Asia

This paper serves as background for a South Asian regional workshop that will bring together adaptation information users and producers to inform likely new investments in the information base for cli...

by Ayesha Dinshaw | On 29 Feb 2016

Human Security 20 Years On: The evolution of human security

The latter part of the 21st century witnessed a shift in the understanding of international security. As tensions between countries eased with the end of the Cold War, new and significant security c...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

A Model of Gender Inequality and Economic Growth

This paper introduces a model of gender inequality and economic growth that focuses on the determination of women’s time allocation among market production, home production, child rearing, and child e...

by Jinyoung Kim | On 27 Feb 2016

Are Maternal and Child Care Programs Reaching the Poorest Regions ?

While the national average for maternal and child health services utilization shows improvement, the Philippines is yet to achieve the MDG targets for maternal and child health. This study shows inequ...

by Rouselle F. Lavado | On 25 Feb 2016

Resolving Internal Conflict in Myanmar: A Human Security Approach

National security in Myanmar has always been equated with state security by the ruling military junta. However, the drive to protect the state has led to insecurities for its people. This paper argues...

by | On 25 Feb 2016

Prospects of Wheat and Sugar Trade between India and Pakistan: A Simple Welfare Analysis

Due to a long history of strained political relations between India and Pakistan, trade possibilities between the two neighbouring countries have rarely been studied [Nabi and Nasim (2001), Mukherji (...

by Abid Burki | On 24 Feb 2016

The Hong Kong Declaration and Agriculture: Implications for Bangladesh

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), established in 1993, is a civil society initiative to promote an ongoing dialogue between the principal partners in the decision-making and implementing process....

by Uttam Kumar Deb | On 24 Feb 2016

Typhoon Kestana: Asia’s Katrina

The devastation and catastrophe wrought by Typhoon Kestana on the Philippines’ capital Manila reflect a huge gap between rising vulnerabilities and preparedness at the national and regional levels. As...

by | On 24 Feb 2016

ASEAN’s Journey in Cyberspace: A Tale of ‘Divided’ Cities

In 1997, ASEAN leaders envisaged Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as the technology that would foster the region’s economic integration and has since commissioned numerous projects and...

by | On 24 Feb 2016

Asean-China Trade Relations :15 Years of Development and Prospects",The Gioi Publishers,2008 Recent Development of China-ASEAN Trade and Economic Relations: From Regional Perspective

Abstract: The development of China-ASEAN trade and economic relations within the recent 15 years has of great significance not only for both sides but also for the whole East-Asia region. This paper i...

by Zhao Jianglin | On 24 Feb 2016

Report on “Regional Consultation on the Responsibility to Protect

Five years have passed since the signing of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, when United Nations (UN) member states agreed to the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). Contained in paragraph 138 of...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 24 Feb 2016

Human Securitising’ the Climate Security Debate

Efforts to understand the connection between climate change and national, regional and international security have fuelled something of a climate security industry, evidenced in a range of reports fro...

by Lorraine Elliot | On 24 Feb 2016

Operationalising Regimes and Recognising Actors: Responding to Crises in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia as a region has a unique history, and the evolving relationships between its communities, states, regional organisations and the international community reflect this. Given this context...

by Alistair Cook | On 24 Feb 2016

Why Inequality Matters in Poverty Reduction and Why the Middle Class Needs Policy Attention

While the Philippines has had a new economic growth trajectory in recent years, the country has had little progress in reducing poverty and in making growth more inclusive. In this paper, the authors...

by Jose Ramon G. Albert | On 24 Feb 2016

Ensuring Urban Food Security in ASEAN

This policy brief provides the main findings of the Food Security Expert Group Meeting which was convened by the RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies in Singapore on 4-5 August 2010....

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Financial Institutions and Structures for Growth in East Asia

The paper examines the changing size, shape and range of financial markets in the region indicates the extent to which regional markets have become more efficient and have improved in quality since th...

by Jenny Corbett | On 23 Feb 2016

Industrial Growth And Environmental Industrial Growth And Environmental Industrial Growth And Environmental Degradation: Degradation: Degradation: A Case Study Of Tiruppur Textile Cluster A Case Study Of Tiruppur Textile Cluster A Case Study Of Tiruppur Textile Cluster

The rapid economic growth achieved after globalization by most of the developing countries, has imposed considerable social costs and has become a major threat to sustainable development. However it i...

by Prakash Nelliyat | On 23 Feb 2016

Non-Traditional Security Challenges, Regional Governance, and the ASEAN Political-Security Community

Much of the attention on institutional development within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has focused on the progress in establishing the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC)....

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Indian Innovation Systems and Emergence of Biopharmaceutical Sector: Issues and Prospects

The prospective entry of generic dominated Indian pharmaceutical sector in the ambit of new technologies is likely to give filip to emergence of strong biopharmaceutical sector.It is pertinent in this...

by Sachin Chaturvedi | On 23 Feb 2016

Recent Monetary Policy Statement of   Bangladesh Bank (July 2009)

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), established in 1993, is a civil society initiative to promote an ongoing dialogue between the principal partners in the decision-making and implementing process....

by Debapriya Bhattacharya | On 22 Feb 2016

Agriculture and Food Security in Asia by 2030

Rapid trade-led economic growth in emerging Asia has been shifting the global economic and industrial centres of gravity away from the north Atlantic, raising the importance of Asia in world trade but...

by Kym Anderson | On 22 Feb 2016

Deepening Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Financial Markets

This paper discusses the financial landscape of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a region engaged in building an economic community (a “single market and production base”) by 2015....

by Choong Lee | On 21 Feb 2016

Regional Integration in South Asia: What Role for Trade Facilitation?

The trade performance of countries in South Asia over the past two decades has been poor relative to other regions. Exports from South Asia have doubled over the past 20 years to approximately USD 100...

by John Wilson | On 21 Feb 2016

Infrastructure Gap in South Asia Inequality of Access to Infrastructure Services

The South Asia region is home to the largest pool of individuals living under the poverty line, coupled with a fast-growing population. The importance of access to basic infrastructure services on wel...

by Dan Biller | On 21 Feb 2016

Cross-Border Electricity Cooperation in South Asia

South Asian countries, facing challenges in efficiently meeting growing electricity demand, can benefit from increased cross-border electricity cooperation and trade by harnessing complementarities in...

by Anoop Singh | On 21 Feb 2016

Regional Financial Arrangements and the International Monetary Fund

The rise of regional monetary arrangements poses a challenge for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s global surveillance efforts. This paper reviews how the IMF has responded to earlier regional i...

by Barry Eichengreen | On 21 Feb 2016

Singapore’s Growing Role in Asian Food Security

In seeking to ensure its own food security Singapore, may be transforming itself from a passive food importer to an active contributor to the regional and global food system – through research and dev...

by | On 20 Feb 2016

Floods and Regional Disaster Preparedness: Too Little, Too Late?

As the floods in Thailand and Cambodia continue, the state of regional cooperation is proving critical in addressing the difficulties faced by affected countries. Disaster preparedness is increasingly...

by | On 20 Feb 2016

Roadmap for the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) in Asia: Personalities, Institutions and Processes

It is over six years since the 2005 UN World Summit endorsed the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP), thus recognising an individual state’s responsibility to protect its citizens from four mass atrociti...

by | On 20 Feb 2016

Plight of the Rohingya: ASEAN Credibility Again at Stake

The suffering of the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state is putting pressure on ASEAN to intervene. Coming just before their 21st Summit, the wisdom and stewardship of ASEAN leaders will be tested onc...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Expert Working Group Meeting on Food Wastage in Southeast Asia

The implications of the estimated 30-50 per cent global food wastage for energy, soil, water and human resources are substantial. Recognising the need to pay greater attention to this issue, the RSIS...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 19 Feb 2016

On compact, Integrated & Connected Cities

The Urban Planning and Design focus area of UN-Habitat aims to support cities, regional and national authorities in adopting improved policies, plans and designs for more compact, socially inclusive,...

by Rafael Tuts | On 19 Feb 2016

Post-Industrial Dynamics and Urban Housing

In his lecture on “Post-industrial dynamics and urban housing”, Hugo Priemus advocates a mixed urban housing strategy to provide high-quality urban housing for knowledge workers and affordable housing...

by Hugo Priemus | On 19 Feb 2016

Street-led city-wide slum upgrading

This lecture proposes a fundamental shift in addressing the problems of slums, and suggests an approach that focuses on streets as the engine for urban transformation. The strategy brought forward by...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Discourse on Kashmir: From Territoriality to ‘Enlightened Sovereignty’

The author calls for renewed focus on the idea of ‘soft borders’ between India and Pakistan, with particular reference to Jammu and Kashmir, in the light of a theory of ‘enlightened sovereignty’ that...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Climate Risks, Regional Integration, and Sustainability in the Mekong Region

It is a pleasure to introduce this book, the major output of the second phase of the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET). Since its start in 2005, the SUMERNET program has aimed to strength...

by Institute Stockholm Environment | On 18 Feb 2016

Food Security: What It Means for a Food-Importing Country

Most countries depend on three “food taps” – imports, self-production, reserve stocks – to make food available. All countries import some amount of food to meet their increasingly diverse dietary dema...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

Income Inequality in ASEAN: Perceptions on Regional Stability from Indonesia and the Philippines

ASEAN’s normative framework is underpinned by the principle of non-interference which generally relates to political and security issues. Another regional norm is that leaders attempt to formulate com...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

Food Security Robustness: A Driver of Enhanced Regional Cooperation?

Food security encompasses multiple, inter-connected dimensions, from production-related concerns, to market and price dynamics, environmental trends and policy approaches. Given this, ‘robustness’, th...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency: A Review of the Literature

This Working Paper comprises a literature review that was carried out to inform the formulation of a research project on power, violence, citizenship and agency, which addresses how social actors reac...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

An ASEAN Nuclear Crisis Centre: Preparing for a Technological Disaster in Southeast Asia

As some Southeast Asian countries consider using nuclear energy, the region should now be preparing a regional nuclear emergency response, incorporating technological and nuclear emergencies into its...

by | On 16 Feb 2016

ASEAN’s Haze Shroud: Grave Threat to Human Security

Transboundary haze pollution is posing significant multiple risks to the well-being and security of people in ASEAN. Beyond looking at it as an environmental issue, it is a severe threat to human secu...

by | On 16 Feb 2016

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank: Should Asia Have Both?

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) face three sets of challenges: those that are common to others in the official development finance community; those that are common to the World Ban...

by Vikram Nehru | On 16 Feb 2016

Thailand’s Economic Integration with Neighboring Countries and Possible Connectivity with South Asia

Thailand’s increasing importance as a regional co-production base and as an intra-regional trade and border trade hub is due mainly to recent changes in its economic structure, namely, the lack of ope...

by Suthiphand Chirathivat | On 16 Feb 2016

A Deadly Triangle: Afghanistan, Pakistan and India

The hostility between India and Pakistan lies at the heart of the current war in Afghanistan. Most observers in the West view the Afghanistan conflict as a battle between the U.S. and the NATO-led Int...

by William Dalrymple | On 14 Feb 2016

Does Governance Contribute to Pro-poor Growth? Evidence from Pakistan

This paper explores linkages between governance and pro-poor growth in Pakistan for the period 1996 to 2005. The analysis indicates that governance indicators have low scores and rank at the lowest pe...

by Rashida Haq | On 14 Feb 2016

Trends in Inequality, Welfare, and Growth in Pakistan, 1963-64 to 2004-05

The present study investigates the trends in inequality, welfare, and growth based on per capita household income/consumption in Pakistan, both its rural and urban areas, from 1963-64 to 2004-05. It e...

by Nadia Zakir | On 14 Feb 2016

Horizontal and Vertical Inequalities in India

Indian income inequality reflects the high values typical of most low and middle income economies, well above those observed for the high income LIS countries. There is also substantial variation in i...

by Reeve Vanneman | On 14 Feb 2016

Segmented Schooling: Inequalities in Primary Education

This paper utilizes a newly collected nationally representative survey data from over 41,550 households to examine social inequality in children’s educational outcomes. The focus is on 8 to11 year old...

by Sonalde Desai | On 13 Feb 2016

Structured Inequalities – Factors Associated with Spatial Disparities in Maternity Care in India

This paper seeks to explain disparities in delivery care across districts by focusing on three factors: marriage and kinship patterns; district wealth; governance and quality services. It examines the...

by Sonalde Desai | On 12 Feb 2016

Utilization of Maternal Health Care Services in India: Understanding the Regional Differences

There is great regional variation on utilization of maternal health care services across India. While regional differences have long been established, why women in some states are more likely to utili...

by Sonalde Desai | On 12 Feb 2016

Beyond Geography: Unlocking Human Potential

This Report focuses on the productive abilities of the regions, households and individuals. The report also reinforces the fact that there are inequalities between and within regions, as well as soci...

by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) | On 12 Feb 2016

The Global Gender Gap Report 2013

The Global Gender Gap Index seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men, across a large set of countries and across the four key areas of health,...

by World Economic Forum [WEF] | On 11 Feb 2016

The Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2014

This report looks at what a new energy architecture might look like and how best-in-class enabling environments have already helped some high-ranking countries begin their transitions to more efficien...

by World Economic Forum [WEF] | On 11 Feb 2016

New Perspectives on Ethnic Segregation over Time and Space: A Domains Approach

The term segregation has a strong connotation with residential neighbourhoods, and most studies investigating ethnic segregation focus on the urban mosaic of ethnic concentrations in residential neigh...

by | On 11 Feb 2016

Protecting Shared Traditional Knowledge: Issues, Challenges and Options

Shared and widely distributed traditional knowledge, among communities and across national borders is often the norm rather than the exception. However, it remains an area for which policy and legal s...

by | On 10 Feb 2016

Temporary and Permanent Migrant Selection: Theory and Evidence of Ability-Search Cost Dynamics

The migrant selection literature concentrates primarily on spatial patterns. This paper illustrates the implications of migration duration for patterns of selection by integrating two workhorses of th...

by Joyce Chen | On 07 Feb 2016

Remittances and Poverty Linkages in Pakistan: Evidence and Some Suggestions for Further Analysis

This exercise is envisaged to provide a brief account of the research studies on inter-relationship between remittance inflows from abroad and the poverty levels obtained in the country. This is discu...

by Mohammad Irfan | On 06 Feb 2016

ASEAN Integrity Community: A Vision for Transparent and Accountable Integration

Each ASEAN member state has taken some steps to addressing corruption at the national level, such as ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), but much more is urgently neede...

by Transparency International TI | On 05 Feb 2016

Diplomacy Facing the Revolution of “Transparent Society” and “Risk Society” WikiLeaks: international and regional ramifications

Contrary to the assumption that the leaks of the diplomatic cables represented a heavy and unexpected pressure on American diplomacy - through their exposition of a mode of operation based on hypocris...

by Hichem Al-Karoui | On 03 Feb 2016

Food Security Post-2015: What Countries Need to Do So That Regional Collaboration Can Be Effective

Attempts to explain why ending hunger has been so hard, so here the focus is on four main themes: the complex role of markets, the importance of government policies, the historical process of structur...

by C. Peter Timmer | On 03 Feb 2016

Urbanization and Inequality in Hypertension Diagnosis and Medication in Indonesia

Urbanization has been progressing quickly in Indonesia and the consequences on health and health inequities are still not well understood. In this paper, new empirical evidence is presented on the dif...

by Matthias Helble | On 02 Feb 2016

Syria and Turkey: A Turning Point or a Historical Bet

Syrian-Turkish relations represent a regional and international phenomenon that has attracted a considerable amount of political and media attention; however, research on the dynamics and wagers invol...

by Aqil Mahfoudh | On 02 Feb 2016

Corruption Perceptions Index 2015

Based on expert opinion from around the world, the Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide. Not one of the 168 countries assessed in the 2015 i...

by | On 02 Feb 2016

Economic Inequality and Economic Development: Lessons and Implications of Global Experiences for the Arab World

This paper starts from the premise that economic inequality will be central to Arab policy makers concerns as they devise economic development strategies for the future. In this, the lessons from glob...

by | On 01 Feb 2016

Foreign Labor and Questions of Identity in the Arabian Gulf

Numerous studies have concluded that the large presence of foreign labor in the Gulf could eventually lead to a loss of national identity. Large concentrations of foreigners, composed of numerous ethn...

by | On 01 Feb 2016

Towards 2030 UN Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals: Technical Challenges in Measuring Gender Inequality in Asia Pacific

Against the backdrop of UN 2030 Sustainable Development agenda, this paper analyses the measurement issues in gender-based indices constructed by UNDP and suggests alternatives for choice of variables...

by | On 01 Feb 2016

Youth and Development: Towards a More Inclusive Future

The report examines the pivotal role of Sri Lankan youth. You and Development: Towards a More inclusive Future considers the opportunities and challenges youth face as the nation progresses through th...

by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) | On 01 Feb 2016

Sri Lanka and the 13th Amendment: Tamil Disenchantment

In order to understand the policies and programmes of the present Government, it is necessary to highlight the basic transformation that has taken place in the Island Republic. Chandrika Kumaratunga a...

by Suryanarayan V. | On 31 Jan 2016

Comparing Safeguard Measures in Regional and Bilateral Agreements

This study provides trade negotiators, policy-makers and other stakeholders with a clear, practical comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the various safeguard clauses included i...

by | On 30 Jan 2016

The Future and the WTO: Confronting the Challenges: A collection of short essays

Mutually agreeable solutions have yet to be found for moving the WTO’s stalled Doha Round forward. This collection of short essays aims to help in the search for consensus by providing brief but thoro...

by | On 30 Jan 2016

Voice And Accountability In The Health Sector

The study was carried out in the Mbarali District of Tanzania. A qualitative study design was used. In-depth interviews and focus group discussion were conducted among members of the district health t...

by Health & Education Advice & Research Team HEART | On 30 Jan 2016

Regional Economic Integration in South Asia: Prospects and Challenges

This paper dwells upon some of the conceptual issues pertaining to regional economic cooperation in general and specific to the South Asian region. It also documents the progress made in SAARC, the SA...

by Ram Upendra Das | On 30 Jan 2016

Regional Cooperation for Regional Infrastructure Development: Challenges and Policy Options for South Asia

This paper discusses the emerging scenario in regional infrastructure development in South Asia, identifies the infrastructure challenges for the future, and provides some policy options in order to b...

by Prabir De | On 30 Jan 2016

Rules of Origin under Regional Trade Agreements

It is argued in this paper that both the negotiations and the analytical literature pertaining to Rules of origin (ROO) display a lack of sound understanding of the implications of rules of origin. De...

by Ram Upendra Das | On 30 Jan 2016

Does Governance Matter for Enhancing Trade? Empirical Evidence from Asia

The primary objective of this paper is to find whether or not the governance and institutions matter for enhancing Asia’s trade. In this study, we have performed a comprehensive empirical analysis of...

by Prabir De | On 30 Jan 2016

Impact of Gender Inequality on the Republic of Korea's Long Term Economic Growth: An Application of the Theoretical Model of Gender Inequality and Economic Growth

This paper presents a theoretical model that can analyze the impact of gender inequality on long-term economic growth.

by Jinyoung Kim | On 30 Jan 2016

Making Regional Cooperation Work for South Asia’s Poor

South Asia has attracted global attention because it has experienced rapid GDP growth over the last two decades. What is not so well known is that South Asia is the least integrated region in the worl...

by Ejaz Ghani | On 29 Jan 2016

Investing in Human Capital for Inclusive Growth: Focus on Higher Education

What does the Philippines need to do to transform its economy into a high middle-income economy and ensure that the benefits from such a transformation are within reach of every Filipino? Investment i...

by | On 29 Jan 2016

Services Trade Agreement in South Asia Contours and Modalities

Available literature on regional trade integration in South Asia points to a variety of economic and non-economic factors that have slowed the integration process. The major non-economic factors inclu...

by South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment SAWTEE | On 28 Jan 2016

Mainstreaming Community-Based Conservation in a Transboundary Mountain Landscape Lessons from Kangchenjunga

This paper draws recommendations for transboundary and participatory biodiversity conservation from ICIMOD’s pioneering Kangchenjunga Conservation Landscape Initiative. The Kangchenjunga landscape, sh...

by Karma Phuntsho | On 28 Jan 2016

Inequality and Growth Reconsidered: Lessons from East Asia

East Asian economies have experienced rapid growth over three decades, with relatively low levels of income inequality, and appear to have also achieved reductions in income inequality. We argue that...

by | On 28 Jan 2016

Earnings and Education among Ethnic Groups in Rural India

In rural India social and cultural norms are deep rooted in society. Access to productive assets, employment opportunities and consequently incomes are to a large extent influenced by these social fac...

by Jeemol Unni | On 28 Jan 2016

Uneven Development and Regionalism: A Critique of Received Theories

This paper attempts at critically examining various theoretical approaches concerning uneven development and regionalism. Major theories propounded by the neo-classical regional school, institutionali...

by Sudarshan Iyengar | On 28 Jan 2016

Infrastructure and Growth in a Regional Context: Indian States since the 1980s

The central focus of this paper is to underscore emerging patterns and issues in the availability of and access to physical infrastructure in major Indian states during the two decades since the 1980s...

by Keshab Das | On 28 Jan 2016

Inequality and the Imperative for Inclusive Growth in Asia

Developing Asia’s rapid growth rates that have contributed to a remarkable decline in the incidence of poverty have also been accompanied by rising income and expenditure inequalities and persistenc...

by | On 28 Jan 2016

What’s in a Country Average? Wealth, Gender, and Regional Inequalities in Immunization in India

Recent attention to Millennium Development Goals by the international development community has led to the formation of targets to measure country-level achievements, including achievements on health...

by Abdo Yazbeck | On 28 Jan 2016

Role of Gender in Health Disparity: The South Asian Context

South Asia's girls and women do not have the same life advantage as their Western counterparts. A human rights based approach may help to overcome gender related barriers and improve the wellbeing of...

by Omrana Pasha | On 28 Jan 2016

Health, Inequality and Economic Development

This article explores the connection between income inequality and health in both, poor and rich countries. Mechanisms like non-linear income effects, credit restrictions, nutritional traps, public go...

by | On 28 Jan 2016

How could Mega-Regional Trade Negotiations Affect Agricultural and Food Trade?

A new generation of 'mega-regional' trade deals have the potential to reshape the landscape of global agricultural trade, by establishing new commitments on market access as well as new regulatory nor...

by | On 27 Jan 2016

UNDP Annual Report 2014-2015: Time for Global Action

Voices around the world are demanding leadership and action in 2015 on poverty, inequality and climate change. These universal challenges demand global action, and this year presents unprecedented opp...

by United Nations Development Programme UNDP | On 27 Jan 2016

Achieving Bangladesh's Tourism Potential: Linkages to Export Diversification, Employment Generation and the "Green Economy"

The objective of this working paper is to critically test the assertion that pro-poor "green" tourism is one of the best development options for the majority of least developed countries (LDCs) -- a c...

by Shoaib Akhtar | On 27 Jan 2016

Intellectual Property Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements: Revision and Update

The paper assembles detailed information about the IP provisions contained in active RTAs notified to the WTO. The goal was to expand beyond the more commonly studied RTAs, to review the full array of...

by Maegan McCann | On 27 Jan 2016

The Determinants of Quality Specialization

A growing literature suggests that high-income countries export high-quality goods. Two hypotheses may explain such specialization, with different implications for welfare, inequality, and trade polic...

by Roberta Piermartini | On 26 Jan 2016

Infrastructure Provision , Trade And Development Prospects: Potential Role And Relevance Of The WTO Agreement On Government Procurement (GPA)

The paper, nonetheless, acknowledges that delivering these benefits would involve significant practical and political challenges. It concludes that if the challenges can be overcome and the mutual ben...

by Kodjo Osei-Lah | On 26 Jan 2016

Tbt Provisions In Regional Trade Agreements: To What Extent Do They Go Beyond The WTO TBT Agreement?

This paper investigates whether TBT provisions included in RTAs differ from those under the WTO TBT Agreement, and, if they do, whether they entail broader commitments. Our analysis covers 238 RTAs, o...

by Vira Khoroshavina | On 26 Jan 2016

Nutritional Deprivation Among Indian Pre-school Children: Does Rural-Urban Disparity Matter?

This paper focuses on a particular aspect of such rural-urban difference, namely nutritional status of children. Over the years it is found that under nutrition among children in India; have declining...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 26 Jan 2016

Addressing the Unequal Burden of Malnutrition

The poor are not uniformly disadvantaged. For the most health indicators, the status of ‘excluded groups’ such as scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, and Muslims is significantly worse than that of...

by Sukhade Thorat | On 26 Jan 2016

Contemporary Myanmar: Challenges to Political Process and Reconciliation

This paper outlines the political reforms and reconciliation process presently underway in Myanmar and the challenges posed to it. A detailed analysis of changing power dynamics in Myanmar, and the re...

by | On 25 Jan 2016

Sri Lanka: Towards a ‘National Purpose’

After the heat and dust of the recent parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, the accord between the country’s two main political parties for a ‘national unity government’ seems to offer the best chance...

by | On 23 Jan 2016

Economics of Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Coral Triangle Economics of Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Coral Triangl

Consolidates information on fisheries and aquaculture using a regional lens and analytical tools. Cover the Coral Triangle countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Island...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 22 Jan 2016

SUMMARY OF INDONESIA’S PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT

While Indonesia's rank in overall ease of doing business improved in 2015 according to World Bank's worldwide competitiveness ranking, overall ease of doing business still ranks unfavorably compared t...

by | On 22 Jan 2016

The E15 Initiative: Strengthening the Global Trade and Investment System in the 21st Century

World trade has experienced a significant slowdown since the 2008 financial crisis. Over this period, the global ratio of trade expansion to income growth has halved. An effective global trade and inv...

by World Economic Forum [WEF] | On 22 Jan 2016

India and APEC An Appraisal

This Study surveys the progress that APEC has made towards promoting regional economic cooperation and integration. It examines the desirability of India joining APEC and looks at possible benefits an...

by V. S. Seshadri | On 21 Jan 2016

Climate Change and Cities

This paper is a study of climate change discourse in urban India. It suggests that the policies being articulated to deal with climate issues are premised on incremental changes rather than radical re...

by Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay | On 21 Jan 2016

On Migration and the Policy Process

Accepting that virtually any policy can have some impact on the movement of people, one can also recognize that a series of policies exist that have been developed specifically to deal with migration...

by | On 20 Jan 2016

Report on World Social Situation 2013: Inequality Matters

Published by the Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) of UN DESA, the report places special focus on policy and disadvantaged social groups, in addition to examining the consequences of h...

by United Nations (UN) | On 19 Jan 2016

Work and Welfare: Revisiting the Linkages from a Gender Perspective

This paper examines the relationship between employment and social policy specifically from a gender perspective. It first lays out, in section 1, the conceptual ground, drawing on a range of heterodo...

by | On 19 Jan 2016

Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching

A novel dataset is used to study the impact of male scarcity on marital assortative matching and other marriage market outcomes using the large shock that WWI caused to the number of French men. Using...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

What’s civil about intergroup violence? Five inadequacies of communal and ethnic constructs of urban riots

There are five areas where the categories of ‘communal’ and ‘ethnic’ fall short: in their historical precision, in their scale, in their partial conceptualization of agency, in their ability to engage...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

Does Development Reduce Migration?

The most basic economic theory suggests that rising incomes in developing countries will deter emigration from those countries, an idea that captivates policymakers in international aid and trade dipl...

by | On 15 Jan 2016

A Survey of the Role of Fiscal Policy in Addressing Income Inequality, Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth

A growing concern on widening income gap between the rich and the poor, the policy mismatch in tackling the relative poverty and income inequality have invited increasing volumes of research focusing...

by | On 15 Jan 2016

Gender Sensitivity In Disaster Management

It lies at the intersection of two major challenges: disaster, experienced by many of the rural poor as drought, flood and storms; and the continuing issue of gender imbalances in many aspects of soci...

by Janet Robinson | On 14 Jan 2016

Elementary Education in India: Progress, Setbacks, and Challenges

This paper provides a stocktaking of progress and shortcomings in India’s march towards universalisation of elementary education (UEE), whilst addressing concerns of equity, inclusion, and quality fro...

by | On 13 Jan 2016

Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2016

Regional integration efforts have intensified at varying levels over the years to implement the regional integration initiatives of ASEAN, ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6. Current efforts are still not enough to...

by OECD Development Centre | On 13 Jan 2016

Should Global Goal Setting Continue, and how, in the Post-2015 Era?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were introduced to monitor implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration which set out a vision for inclusive and sustainable globalization based...

by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr | On 13 Jan 2016

Redistributive Policies for Sustainable Development: Looking at the Role of Assets and Equity

Analyses of redistributive policies often focus on income flows to examine the nexus between redistribution and economic growth. With strengthening signs of growing economic inequality in many countri...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

Will Inequality Lead China to the Middle Income Trap?

China has departed from the East Asian model of development by letting inequality to rise to a high level, which is contributing to China’s current problems of macroeconomic imbalance, declining effic...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

Inequality and the Tails: The Palma Proposition and Ratio Revisited

This paper revisits the earlier assessments of the Palma Proposition and the ‘Palma Ratio’. The former is a proposition that currently changes in income or consumption inequality are (almost) exclusiv...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

The Contexts of Social Inclusion

In light of the emphasis on “inclusion” in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this paper contends that social exclusion and inclusion are context-dependent concepts in at least three senses. Fi...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

Inequality and Environmental Sustainability

This paper synthesizes the evidence of a negative correlation between income inequality and environmental quality. It shows that inequality exerts adverse impact on environmental outcomes through seve...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

Trans-Pacific Partnership and India’s Emerging Challenges

The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations has major implications for India, which is aspiring for a larger role in the regional architecture of the Asia-Pacific. India will ha...

by Amitendu Palit | On 10 Jan 2016

Towards ‘Make in South Asia’ Theoretical Basis and Policy Responses for Evolving Regional Values Chains

The paper presents the theoretical canvass emphasising the need to adopt an integrated approach towards trade in goods, trade in services and investment in a regional framework. In this context, rules...

by Ram Upendra Das | On 09 Jan 2016

Indian Military Diplomacy: Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief

The paper focuses on India’s approach to collaboration on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief with major powers and within various regional initiatives. This paper begins with a brief review o...

by C. Raja Mohan | On 09 Jan 2016

Is India Making Waves in South China Sea?

The South China Sea (SCS) disputes are regarded as one of the most difficult regional conflicts in the Asia-Pacific, in an ‘arena of escalating contention. This paper looks at India’s interests and st...

by Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy | On 09 Jan 2016

Initiative for ‘Southern Silk Route’ Linking Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar

This paper looks at the ‘BCIM Regional Cooperation’ and the related proposal to revive the ‘Southern Silk Route’ connecting China and India through Bangladesh and Myanmar. The aim is to understand the...

by | On 09 Jan 2016

New Maritime Silk Road: Converging Interests and Regional Responses

This paper discusses revival of the Maritime Silk Road. It begins with a narration of the historical background of MSR, its origin and development, followed by an analysis of latest announcements by t...

by | On 09 Jan 2016

World Population Prospects The 2015 Revision

Understanding the demographic changes that are likely to unfold over the coming years, as well as the challenges and opportunities that they present for achieving sustainable development, is important...

by United Nations (UN) | On 08 Jan 2016

Institutions for Asian Integration: Innovation and Reform

The formation of regional production networks in East Asia has occurred mainly through market forces, without much help from regional institutions in promoting the creation of a single Asian market. W...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 07 Jan 2016

Asia-Latin America Free Trade Agreements: An Instrument for Inter-Regional Liberalization and Integration?

Trade integration and free trade agreement (FTA)-led cooperation between Asia and Latin America has increased since the early 2000s. Using new criteria, this paper examines whether Asia-Latin America...

by Ganeshan Wignaraja | On 07 Jan 2016

Production Networks, Profits, and Innovative Activity: Evidence from Malaysia and Thailand

Cross-border production networks have been playing an increasingly important role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries’ trade in recent years, but micro-level studies are ra...

by Ganeshan Wignaraja | On 07 Jan 2016

A Tortured History: Federalism and Democracy in Pakistan

This paper looks at the Pakistan Army’s ideological hegemony, especially in the country’s Punjabi-speaking heartland, the continuing focus on the state’s narrative of a religion-based unitary identity...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Financing Development Cooperation in Northeast Asia

Infrastructure connectivity in Northeast Asia — comprising the northeastern People’s Republic of China, Japan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, and the Russi...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 07 Jan 2016

The 2030 Architecture of Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Agreements

This paper investigates and analyzes the present status, potential, and prospects of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreements (FTAs). The move towards the ASEAN Economic Co...

by Suthiphand Chirathivat | On 07 Jan 2016

Public Health and International Partnerships in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Published reports on public health in DPRK are uncommon, but recent planning and financial sustainability exercises, population-based surveys, and other reports, all available online, indicate recover...

by John Grundy | On 07 Jan 2016

Cross-Border Price Differentials and Goods Market Integration in East Asia

As cross-border movements of goods, capital, and labor are intensifying, it is likely that goods markets in East Asia will become increasingly integrated. This study investigates the current state of...

by Woosik Moon | On 07 Jan 2016

Regional Trade Agreements and Enterprises in Southeast Asia

This paper undertakes a comparative and firm-level analysis of the impact of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. It finds that firm-heterogeneity matters in RT...

by Ganeshan Wignaraja | On 07 Jan 2016

Regional Financial Regulation in Asia

The Asian financial crisis (1997-1998) and the global financial crisis (2007-2009) highlighted the potential value of financial regionalism, i.e., regional-level cooperation in financial policy. This...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 07 Jan 2016

Globalization, Infrastructure, and Inclusive Growth

This paper covers threes issues: first, defining and measuring inclusive growth; second, the relationship between international trade and inequality; and third, the links between infrastructure and in...

by Juzhong Zhuang | On 07 Jan 2016

Temporary and Permanent Migrant Selection

The migrant selection literature concentrates primarily on spatial patterns. We integrate two workhorses of the labor literature, the Roy and search models, to illustrate the implications of migration...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

ASEAN Economic Integration through Trade and Foreign Direct Investment: Long-Term Challenges

This paper explores the long-term challenges for trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The region has emerged as an important production base...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 06 Jan 2016

Fungible Borders and Informal Regionalism: Rethinking China’s International Relations

The processes of informal or soft regionalism driving China’s engagement with the regional and global economy are resulting in nuanced understandings of state, security and the conduct of internationa...

by Nimmi Kurian | On 05 Jan 2016

Internal Migration, Poverty and Development in Asia

This article explores the relationship between internal migration and economic growth and development in Asia, concentrating on four countries: China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. Levels of internal...

by | On 05 Jan 2016

Habitat III Issue Papers : 22 – Informal Settlements

Although some governments acknowledge the existence of slums and informal settlements, many do not. This lack of recognition and subsequent response directly undermines city-wide sustainable developme...

by | On 05 Jan 2016

2010 Survey of the Sri Lankan People: Findings from a Public Perceptions Survey

In late 2010 The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka commissioned a public perceptions survey that aimed to capture the post-war mood of the nation. The survey sought to gauge public opinion about the overal...

by The Asia Foundation | On 02 Jan 2016

Towards 'Make in South Asia' Evolving Regional Values Chains

One of the most important ways in which several of the common developmental challenges in South Asia could be addressed is by focusing on manufacturing. This paper highlights insights from the status...

by Ram Das | On 02 Jan 2016

Summary of Indonesia's Poverty Analysis

Economic growth averaging 5.8% since 2010 has helped to lift 3.3 million Indonesians out of poverty. Yet 28 million were still living below the government’s poverty line in March 2014. Indonesia’s nat...

by Priasto Aji Aji | On 01 Jan 2016

Managing Capital Flows in Asia: An Overview of Key Issues

Global capital flows into emerging markets, including those in Asia, continue to be volatile, generating both benefits and costs. The latter are associated with episodes of currency and banking crises...

by Ramón López | On 01 Jan 2016

The Relationship between Structural Change and Inequality: A Conceptual Overview with Special Reference to Developing Asia

Structural change has a far-reaching impact on inequality. Extensive structural change is both a cause and consequence of the exceptionally rapid economic growth, which enabled developing Asia to rais...

by Donghyun Park | On 30 Dec 2015

From a Centralized to a Decentralized Global Economic Architecture: An Overview

This paper argues that calls for a New Bretton Woods system in the aftermath of the global economic crisis — similar to the remarkable 1944 Bretton Woods conference that led to the establishment of va...

by Pradumna Rana | On 30 Dec 2015

Deepening the Social Dimensions of Regional Integration

The present report presents an overview of some recent trends and future challenges regarding the deepening of the social dimensions of regional integration, in light of the Recommendations of the Rep...

by | On 29 Dec 2015

The ASEAN Economic Community: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was set up in 2003 with the objectives of creating a single market and production base, enhancing equitable economic development as well as facilitating the integrat...

by Siowyue Chia | On 29 Dec 2015

The Role of Sri Lanka in Enhancing Connectivity between South Asia and Southeast Asia

Improving physical connectivity between South and Southeast Asia has long been recognized as a key element in promoting greater trade and investment linkages within the region. As an island economy, S...

by Dushni Weerakoon | On 29 Dec 2015

Policies to Enhance Trade Facilitation in South Asia and Southeast Asia

This paper discusses trade facilitation in the context of enhancing trading links between South and Southeast Asia, in a manner understandable to the non-specialist. Presently, these two Asian regions...

by Anthony Bayley | On 29 Dec 2015

Economic Implications of Deeper South Asian–Southeast Asian Integration: A CGE Approach

The paper estimates the potential gains to be large, particularly for South Asia, assuming that the policy- and infrastructure-related variables that increase trade costs are reduced via economic coop...

by Fan Zhai | On 29 Dec 2015

Same Program, Different Outcomes: Understanding Differential Effects from Access to Free, High-Quality Early Care

The Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) was designed to promote the development of low-birth weight (up to 2,500 grams) and premature (up to 37 weeks gestational age) infants. There is eviden...

by | On 29 Dec 2015

Evaluation on the Contribution of UN Women to Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services

During 2012-2013, the UN Women Independent Evaluation Office undertook a corporate thematic evaluation of the UN Women contribution to preventing violence against women (VAW) and expanding access to r...

by UN Women | On 28 Dec 2015

Afghanistan in 2012: A Survey of the Afghan People

Findings from The Asia Foundation's eighth survey in Afghanistan - the broadest public opinion poll in the country of 6,290 Afghan citizens across all 34 provinces.

by Palwasha Kakar | On 26 Dec 2015

Income Distributions, Inequality, and Poverty in Asia, 1992–2010

In this paper, income distributions for developing countries in Asia are modeled using beta-2 distributions, which are estimated by a method of moments procedure applied to grouped data. Estimated par...

by Duangkamon Chotikapanich | On 24 Dec 2015

Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Bangladesh Country Study

Economic integration is being inhibited by the poor state of transport connectivity between Bangladesh, and South Asia and Southeast Asia. This study reviews connectivity initiatives of Bangladesh and...

by Mustafizur Rahman | On 23 Dec 2015

Thailand’s Investment in India’s Northeast: Strategies, Potentials and Risks

The imperatives for Thailand’s investment in the Northeast have come from two important considerations, reflecting longterm strategic objectives of the Look West Policy of Thailand. First, India’s nor...

by | On 22 Dec 2015

Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development

Rising income inequality is often the cause of social and political unrest and is damaging to our future economic well-being. Yet while it is clear that economic growth must also deliver improvements...

by Margareta Drzeniek | On 21 Dec 2015

Urban Development in India in the 21st Century: Policies for Accelerating Urban Growth

This paper traces urban development in India in the 20th century. It studies urbanisation projections made by different scholars in the past, and speculates on a set of economic policy choice reasons...

by Shubhagato Dasgupta | On 21 Dec 2015

The Other JNNURM: What does it Mean for Small Towns in India?

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was launched to address the growing challenges of urbanization by improving infrastructure, governance and the quality of life in cities. This...

by Sama Khan | On 21 Dec 2015

The High and Low Politics of Trade

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in trouble. Its negotiating mechanism has mostly seized up, as reflected in the failure to conclude the long-running Doha Round. No obvious solution to this conun...

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Measuring Internal Migration around the Globe: A Comparative Analysis

Compared with other demographic processes, remarkably little attention has been given to the way internal migration varies between countries around the world. We set out the rationale for such compari...

by Elin Charles-Edwards | On 17 Dec 2015

Income Inequality and Labour Income Share in G20 Countries: Trends, Impacts and Causes

The paper present concise evidence of recent trends in inequality and labour income shares and to identify possible causes as a basis for developing potential policy responses. This report takes up th...

by Internaional Labour Organization [ILO] | On 17 Dec 2015

Exploring the links of multidiscrimination: Considering Britain and India

The concept of multiple discrimination – particularly in the labour market – is fast becoming common parlance among the policy-making circles. Economics and economists, however, have hardly addressed...

by Kanchana Ruwanpura | On 16 Dec 2015

Domestic Work, Wages and Gender Equality: Lessons from Developing Countries

The paper looks at the basic characteristics of female domestic workers, gaps in minimum wage coverage, compliance, and the extent of minimum wage violations. Presenting empirical evidence on labour m...

by | On 16 Dec 2015

Human Capital Potential of India's Future Workforce

This paper discusses India’s demographic dynamics and argues that policymakers have the widest window of opportunity with that segment of population which is poised to enter the workforce between 203...

by Ali Mehdi | On 09 Dec 2015

Skill Transferability, Migration, and Development: Evidence from Population Resettlement in Indonesia

We use a natural experiment in Indonesia to provide causal evidence on the role of location-specific human capital and skill transferability in shaping the spatial distribution of productivity. From 1...

by Samuel Bazzi | On 08 Dec 2015

Regional Inequality and ‘Inclusive Growth’ in India under Globalization: Identification of Lagging States for Strategic Intervention

This paper analyses the trends and patterns of economic inequality across Indian states since the early 1990s. The inter-state inequality in per capita income and consumption expenditure show a clear...

by | On 04 Dec 2015

‘Leave No One Behind’: Gender, Sexuality and the Sustainable Development Goals

If the global commitment to eradicate inequality for all people is truly unequivocal, as leaders claim it to be, the implementation of these Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs to take into acc...

by | On 03 Dec 2015

Terrorism and Security in Asia: Redefining Regional Order?

While a good deal has been written and said about the threat posed by terrorism in Southeast Asia, there has been little work analyzing the impact of terrorism and the war on terror on Asian regional...

by Amitav Acharya | On 22 Nov 2015

Investment and Growth in India under Liberalization: Asymmetries and Instabilities

This paper makes the case that the growth trajectory of the Indian economy in the post-1991 liberalization period is characterised by an inherent source of instability in manufacturing and industrial...

by | On 20 Nov 2015

Regional Trade Openness Index, Income Disparity and Poverty - An Experiment with Indian Data

This study aims to examine how ‘open’ Indian states are with respect to international trade and uses the index of regional openness thus constructed to reflect on several aspects that affect the level...

by | On 19 Nov 2015

Requiring Indian Utilities to Report: Harnessing Disclosure Legislation to Improve Water and Sanitation Services

The paper argues for a regular public reporting of key performance indicators by the WatSan utilities in India. It elaborates on how the policy behind these reforms could be operationalized.

by Premila Nazareth Satyanand | On 18 Nov 2015

India Approaches Replacement Fertility

This Population Bulletin updates a previous Bulletin from 2006, India's Population Reality: Reconciling Change and Tradition. India's population (currently at 1.3 billion) will exceed China's before 2...

by O.P. Sharma | On 18 Nov 2015

An Impact Evaluation of Investment in Infrastructure : The Case of the Railway Connection in Uzbekistan

The objective of this paper is to examine the nature and magnitude of the effects of infrastructure provision on regional economic performance. The empirical evidence of the analysis is based on diffe...

by Naoyuki Yoshino | On 13 Nov 2015

Convergence of Social Security Schemes for Elimination of Child Labour

Child labour is a complex problem rooted in poverty, illiteracy and social inequality. The National Child Labour Policy has identified ‘focusing of general development programmes for benefiting child...

by Helen Sekar | On 10 Nov 2015

Decent Work Country Programmes and Human Mobility

The aim of this review is to assess the ways in which Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs) address the issue of internal migration, and to evaluate the extent to which this discussion is related to...

by | On 06 Nov 2015

Trends and Patterns in Consumption Expenditure: A Review of Class and Rural-Urban Disparities

This paper primarily aims to capture the changing patterns of consumption expenditure of three broad classes, namely, the ‘upper’ ‘middle’ and ‘bottom’ classes in the rural and urban India. In contras...

by | On 05 Nov 2015

Inequality, Social Cooperation and Local Collective Action

This paper examines the relationship between inequality and collective action, and identifies a range of mechanisms that shape the association between income inequality and local collective action. Th...

by | On 29 Oct 2015

Reducing Poverty in India: The Role of Economic Growth

This paper empirically examines the relation between economic growth and poverty alleviation for the case of India. We provide evidence that higher growth rates were associated with faster decline in...

by Pradeep Agrawal | On 26 Oct 2015

Gender Equality and Human Rights

The achievement of substantive equality is understood as having four dimensions: redressing disadvantage; countering stigma, prejudice, humiliation and violence; transforming social and institutional...

by | On 20 Oct 2015

Military Build-up in the Indian Ocean: Implications for Regional Stability

As the Indian Ocean region increasingly becomes a more important geopolitical space, global powers and smaller states are laying down their stakes. This paper examines the military build-up of major I...

by | On 15 Oct 2015

Measuring Poverty in a Growing World

The extent to which growth reduces global poverty has been disputed for 30 years. A major problem is that consumption measured from household surveys, which is used to measure poverty, grows less rapi...

by Angus Deaton | On 13 Oct 2015

Inequality: Trends, Harms and New Agendas

The paper focuses on within-country inequalities. It discusses in particular how the consequences of inequality are shaped by specific mechanisms that operate at the national, community and individual...

by | On 13 Oct 2015

Social and Economic Change in Rural Bihar and the Emerging Policy Framework

This document presents a summary of the initial findings from a research programme on inclusive growth in Bihar, carried out by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. The study aims to unde...

by | On 12 Oct 2015

Labour, Globalization and Inequality: Are Trade Unions Still Redistributive?

Based on a newly-developed data set combining information on industrial relations and labour law, various dimensions of globalization, and controls for demand and supply of skilled labour, this paper...

by | On 12 Oct 2015

Regional Inequality in Bangladesh in the 2000s: Re-Visiting the East-West Divide Debate

The term “East-West divide” as a way of describing regional disparity in Bangladesh has emerged in the policy discourse only in the 2000s. The administrative divisions belonging to the western part of...

by | On 08 Oct 2015

Rural Poverty Reduction Strategy for South Asia

Roughly 40 percent of the world’s poor live in South Asia, where poverty is basically a rural problem. Therefore, a significant gain in rural poverty reduction in this sub-region will be crucial to re...

by | On 30 Sep 2015

The Power of Parity: How Advancing Women's Equality can Add $12 trillion to Global Growth

In this report, MGI explores the economic potential available if the global gender gap were to be closed. The research finds that, in a full-potential scenario in which women play an identical role...

by Jonathan Woetzel | On 30 Sep 2015

Food Security, Productivity, and Gender Inequality

This paper examines the relationship between gender inequality and food security, with a particular focus on women as food producers, consumers, and family food managers. The discussion is set against...

by Bina Agarwal | On 29 Sep 2015

Impact of Climate Change on Yield of Major Food Crops in Tamil Nadu, India

This study uses panel data for 39 years and 13 districts to estimate the yield sensitivity of major food crops to climate change in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It first estimated the margina...

by V. Saravanakumar | On 25 Sep 2015

Climate Sensitivity of Groundwater Systems Critical for Agricultural Incomes in South India

This study examines the implications of variations in climate variables on ground water sources of irrigation and agricultural income in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Our findings, based on a panel...

by Balasubramanian R | On 24 Sep 2015

Contesting Consensus. Disputing Inequality: Agonistic Subjectivities in Rural Bihar

This paper discusses the manner in which the rural poor in one of India’s most impoverished regions engage with and in politics by analyzing the way in which a landless Yadav couple tries to forestall...

by Indrajit Roy | On 24 Sep 2015

Disadvantage and Discrimination in Self-Employment: Caste Gaps in Earnings in Indian Small Businesses

Using the 2004-05 India Human Development Survey data, The paper aims to estimate and decompose the earnings of household businesses owned by historically marginalized social groups known as Scheduled...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 24 Sep 2015

What is Preventing Women from Inheriting Land? A Study of the Implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 in Three States in India

The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005, an inheritance law that covers 83.6% of the population of India, corrected some of fundamental inequalities in the law bringing the women in equal status to...

by Sohini Pal | On 23 Sep 2015

The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003

The Challenge of Slums presents the first global assessment of slums, emphasizing their problems and prospects. It presents estimates of the numbers of urban slum dwellers and examines the factors tha...

by United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN-Habitat | On 23 Sep 2015

‘Working from Home is Better than Going out to the Factories’ (?): Spatial Embeddedness, Agency and Labour-Market Decisions of Women in the City of Delhi

This paper explores the spatiality and temporality of women’s decisions to navigate particular forms of paid work, through means of a comparative analysis of three different sites and forms of work—at...

by Sonal Sharma | On 21 Sep 2015

The Elephant in the Dark: Finding Ways to End India’s Hunger and Malnutrition

This paper tries to map some of the major debates exploring the 'elephant‘ of India‘s failure to end hunger and malnutrition. The authors identify five main hurdles towards addressing the issue of hun...

by | On 17 Sep 2015

Developing Regional Value Chains in South Asian Leather Clusters: Issues, Options and an Indian Case

The possibility of developing regional production networks in specific sectors between nations of South Asia has been explored in this paper. The case of the leather and leather goods cluster in T...

by Keshab Das | On 11 Sep 2015

The Human Capital Report 2015

The Human Capital Index released by the World Economic Forum measures countries’ ability to maximize and leverage their human capital endowment. The index assesses Learning and Employment outcomes ac...

by | On 11 Sep 2015

The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2015

The World Economic Forum releases the first edition of "The Inclusive Growth and Development Report" in the WEF forum in Dalian. Around the world, no bigger policy challenge preoccupies political lea...

by | On 10 Sep 2015

The Role of Establishments and the Concentration of Occupations in Wage Inequality

This paper uses the microdata of the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey to assess the contribution of occupational concentration to wage inequality between establishments and its growth o...

by | On 09 Sep 2015

Adult and Youth Literacy: National, Regional and Global Trends, 1985-2015

This document presents data by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) on adult and youth literacy in 151 countries and territories from eight regions: Arab States, Central Asia, Central and Eastern...

by | On 08 Sep 2015

Civil Society Briefs: Myanmar

This brief provides an overview of civil society in Myanmar. With a view to strengthening ADB cooperation with civil society organizations, the NGO and Civil Society Center periodically prepares repor...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 07 Sep 2015

Interrelation Between Growth and Inequality

The paper highlights the importance of “broad-based growth” as a framework to support economic growth and inclusiveness at the same time. Different countries show different dynamics between economic g...

by Jong Woo Kang | On 07 Sep 2015

Why do Migrants do Better Than Non-Migrants at Destination? Migration, Class and Inequality Dynamics in India

This paper explores why migrants at their destination fare better than nonmigrants, across different socio-economic classes in India, while the general perception of migrants is that they are less end...

by Vamsi Vakulabharanam | On 03 Sep 2015

Income Inequality, Poverty and Labor Migration in Thailand

This paper explores the dynamics of economic growth, poverty, inequality and migration in Thailand, and evaluates the relevance of Lewis model to Thailand’s long-term development. Thai economy seems t...

by Somchai Jitsuchon | On 03 Sep 2015

Globalization, Liberalization and Income Inequality: The Case of China

This paper studies the mutual effects of globalization, liberalization and income inequality using a case study of China. Comparing the trends of economic growth and income distribution, it found that...

by Jinjun Xue | On 03 Sep 2015

Gender, Poverty, and Inequality: A Brief History of Feminist Contributions in the Field of International Development

This paper provides a brief history of feminist contributions to the analysis of gender, poverty, and inequality in the field of international development. It draws out the continuous threads running...

by Naila Kabeer | On 01 Sep 2015

Global, Regional, and National Disability-Adjusted Life Years (Dalys) For 306 Diseases and Injuries and Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE) For 188 Countries, 1990–2013: Quantifying the Epidemiological Transition

The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) aims to bring together all available epidemiological data using a coherent measurement framework, standardised estimation methods, and transparent da...

by | On 29 Aug 2015

Global Wage Report 2014/15: Wages and Income Inequality

The Global Wage Report 2014/15 presents both the latest trends in average wages and an analysis of the role of wages in income inequality. The first part of the report shows that global wage growth in...

by International Labour Organisation ILO | On 26 Aug 2015

Employment and Inequality Outcomes in India

The report takes into account present scenario of urban poverty in India. Incidence of urban poverty can be attributed to lack of development as also to the nature and pattern of development. Importa...

by | On 25 Aug 2015

The New ‘MASVAW Men’: Strategies, Dynamics and Deepening Engagements. A Case Study of a Networked Approach to Challenging Patriarchy Across Institutions in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is ranked second among Indian states in ‘crimes against women’, which includes rape, abduction, dowry-related deaths, mental and physical torture and sexual harassment (Government of Utt...

by Jerker Edström | On 25 Aug 2015

The Experience with Regional Economic Cooperation Organizations: Lessons for Central Asia

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has witnessed repeated efforts to strengthen regional integration through cooperation with the establishment of a number of regional organizations...

by Johannes F. Linn | On 25 Aug 2015

Inequalities and Their Measurement

This paper is a review of the recent advances in the measurement of inequality. Inequality can have several dimensions. Economists are mostly concerned with the income and consumption dimensions of in...

by Almas Heshmati | On 24 Aug 2015

On Reckoning Level Differentials in the Measurement of Progress: An Illustration in the Context of Deliveries Assisted by Skilled Health Personnel

The paper highlights that performance assessments should account for non-linear dynamics of progress, whereby an improvement at a higher level represents greater achievement than an equal improvement...

by William Joe | On 21 Aug 2015

China: Case study on Human Development Progress towards the Millennium Developmental Goals at the Sub-National Level

This paper analyses an overview of china human development in Time and Space. The paper covers themes like regional inequality in China Since 1952 and Urban-Rural Inequality, 1980-2000. The paper is a...

by | On 21 Aug 2015

How Migration into Urban Construction Work Impacts on Rural Households in Nepal

The research draws on interviews with rural-urban migrant construction workers in Kathmandu as well as with families of construction workers, other migrant labourers and non-migrants in two contrastin...

by | On 21 Aug 2015

Poverty Reduction in China and India: Policy Implications of Recent Trends

This paper compares the experience of poverty reduction in China and India. It finds that more than economic growth per se, what has mattered crucially is the nature of the growth: whether it is assoc...

by Jayati Ghosh | On 21 Aug 2015

Recent Developments in Myanmar and New Opportunities for Sub-Regional Cooperation: A Bangladesh Perspective

The paper analyses the potential opportunities between Bangladesh and Myanmar stemming from sub-regional cooperation. The paper examines Myanmar’s integration into the regional and global economy toge...

by Debapriya Bhattacharya | On 18 Aug 2015

The changing nature of jobs - World Employment and Social Outlook 2015

The International Labour Organization reports on the increasingly insecure nature of job tenures worldwide. The World Employment and Social Outlook 2015 finds that, among countries with available data...

by | On 17 Aug 2015

Economic Growth, Financial Development and Income Inequality

The central objective of the paper is to empirically examine the relationship between financial development and income inequality. Theoretically, there are grounds for both a positive and negative re...

by Donghyun Park | On 12 Aug 2015

The Politics of Sustaining Inclusive Growth and Social Inclusion

This working paper records the findings of the project and discusses the key principles that underpin the Danish and Finnish welfare states. The paper reflects on the critical issues that must be cons...

by Valerie Koh | On 11 Aug 2015

Trade and Transport Facilitation in Bangladesh: An Audit of the State of Play

This working paper embodies the results of trade and transport facilitation audit which was carried out in the Bangladesh context, as part of a South Asian regional study.The study documents the major...

by Naimul Saif | On 11 Aug 2015

Prevention of Loss or Decline of Vernacular and Indigenous Languages in the Indian Sub-Continent

Asian Societies with linguistic diversity have faced serious problems of loss or decline of vernacular and indigenous languages in modern times. Globalisation and urbanisation have brought a sea chang...

by P. Ishwara Bhat | On 10 Aug 2015

Myanmar: Unlocking the Potential - A Strategy for High, Sustained, and Inclusive Growth

Recognizing the need to formulate policy strategies for the changes it faces, Myanmar started a multifaceted reform process in 2011. But speeding up development requires a multipronged but more cohere...

by | On 04 Aug 2015

Wealth Inequality: China and India

This paper examines wealth distribution in China and India. As China and India have witnessed significant growth rates between 1980 and 2000s, how this growth has been distributed amongst its citizens...

by | On 30 Jul 2015

Long-Run Trends in the Distribution of Income and Wealth

This paper reviews the long run developments in the distribution of personal income and wealth. It also discusses suggested explanations for the observed patterns. It tries to answer questions such as...

by | On 30 Jul 2015

Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work

Th is paper reassesses national income inequalities in this era of globalization. Th e main conclusion is that two opposite forces are at work: one ‘centrifugal’ at the two extremes of the distributio...

by | On 30 Jul 2015

The Cost of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All

In this Briefing paper the focus has been exclusively on one half of the inequality equation - ending extreme poverty. Inequality and the extreme wealth that contributes to it were seen as either not ...

by Oxfam International | On 30 Jul 2015

Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective

The discussion above suggests that a variety of inter-related factors can impact inequality and have potentially differential effects across countries and income groups. In this section, using a simpl...

by | On 30 Jul 2015

Liberalizing Trade of Environmental Goods and Services: How to Address the Free-Rider Problem

This paper aims to provide APEC members with evidence-based guidance on the implementation of the APEC mandate. Theoretically, this approach addresses the free-rider problem. Free riders are countries...

by | On 28 Jul 2015

Race and Equality: A Study of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong’s Education System

This report analyzes the key education-related issues raised in these interviews as well as available studies on the needs of ethnic minority communities, press reports, government reports and educati...

by Kelley Loper | On 24 Jul 2015

Health Policy, Inequity and Convergence in India

The objective of this study is to put to test the development paradigm that this inequity will converge and adjustment period will be lowered for equitable outcomes in health provided a fine tuning o...

by Brijesh C. Purohit | On 21 Jul 2015

Inflation Targeting in India: Select Issues

The adoption of inflation targeting in India has been a much debated topic which also becomes a challenge for the emerging economy. Though inflation targeting has already been adopted in many emerging...

by Charan Singh | On 17 Jul 2015

Toward Regional Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the East Asian Seas

In an era where development issues concerning human security, health, and the environment transcend national boundaries, international cooperation has become more crucial than ever. This issue of the...

by Atty. Raphael Lotilla | On 10 Jul 2015

Is Imperialism a Relevant Concept in Today’s World?

This paper explores some aspects of the imperialism/empire/new imperialism debate and looks at whether imperialism remains to be a valid theoretical category in analyzing contemporary economics and po...

by Subhanil Chowdhury | On 02 Jul 2015

Understanding Northeast India Through a ‘Spatial’ Lens

Applying ‘spatial’ lens to Northeast India (NEI) is merely not for hermeneutic purposes but for a nuanced understanding of the flux accompanying the region. Spatial analysis helps us to move beyond th...

by Gorky Chakraborty | On 01 Jul 2015

Does Higher Economic Growth Reduce Poverty and Increase Inequality? Evidence from Urban India

This paper calculates select urban inequality and poverty indices and finds out their policy linkages. In addition, the determinants of urban poverty and inequality are estimated by using data of 52 l...

by | On 22 Jun 2015

Inter-State Disparities in Economic Growth in India: Some Policy Implications for Laggard States

Faster economic growth of some of the backward states like Bihar, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh in the post 2004-05 compels us to think if it is any indicative of convergence among states of India. How...

by Anjali Masarguppi | On 10 Jun 2015

Inequality, income Distribution and Growth in Maharashtra in the 2000s

The paper analyses the inter-district inequality of per capita incomes in Maharashtra for the period 2001-2009 and finds that inter-district inequality rose for the period 2001-05 and subsequently dec...

by Neeraj Hatekar | On 10 Jun 2015

Stereotypical Occupational Segregation & Gender Inequality: An Experimental Study

This paper attempts to distinguish ‘trust in cooperation’ from ‘trust in ability’ with respect to gender through an experimental trust game. ‘Trust in ability’ is explored in the context of hands-on m...

by Savita Kulkarni | On 10 Jun 2015

The Economics of Peace: A Nepalese Perspective

Understanding the importance of peace has been accorded high priority in many religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. In recent years, many economists have realized the monetary va...

by Hari Bansh Jha | On 05 Jun 2015

Nepal's Continuing Quest for Federalism and Peace

Nepal is currently experiencing perhaps one of the most turbulent phases in its contemporary political history. In 2008, the 240-year-old institution of monarchy—for long seen as a symbol of unity, in...

by Akanshya Shah | On 05 Jun 2015

Analysis of Trends in India’s Agricultural Growth

The present study discusses the trends and patterns in agricultural growth at the national and sub-national levels in India. Data on important variables like area, production, input use and value of o...

by Elumalai Kannan | On 04 Jun 2015

An Advocates' Tool for Monitoring Rights-Based Provision of Contraceptive Information and Services in India

This Advocates’ Guide has been developed based on the ecommendations made in the World Health Organization’s “Ensuring human rights in the provision of contraceptive information and services: Guidance...

by Renu Khanna | On 01 Jun 2015

Digital Technologies and Gender Justice in India

Two decades after the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Platform for Action, the question of gender justice remains as urgent as ever, to the women's movement. While revisiting the ques...

by | On 29 May 2015

Internal Displacement in Myanmar: Stakeholder Report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) to the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism

This report draws on IDMC’s report on internal displacement in Myanmar published in July 2014 and also uses information collected since then. It is based on documents published by international organi...

by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre | On 27 May 2015

Born Equal - how Reducing Inequality Could Give Our Children a Better Future

This report looks at how, despite major strides made towards poverty reduction and towards achieving the MDGs, increasing inequality in many countries in the last two decades has hampered greater prog...

by | On 14 May 2015

ASEAN and Conflict Management: The Need for a High Council

This year the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will formally establish the ASEAN Community, which is set to enhance regional community building among its member states. Ramses Amer makes...

by | On 13 May 2015

Instability and Regional Variation in Indian Agriculture

This study has taken up two seemingly different but connected aspects of Indian agriculture, the first part dealing with the analysis of agricultural instability at the national and state levels and t...

by Ramesh Chand | On 13 May 2015

Odisha State Youth Policy: Framework-2013

The Odisha State Youth Policy 2013 aims to give a strategic direction and make timely interventions to enable the youth to get the best out of the changing scenario in the state and the country due to...

by Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute | On 12 May 2015

Promoting Human Development in India: Costs of Inequality

Policy emphasis in Indian economic development planning has always been on ‘economic growth with income redistribution’. Such a strategy seeks to exploit the potential of development programmes for po...

by Suryanarayana M H | On 11 May 2015

Assamese Language, Narrative and the Making of the North East Frontier of India: Beyond Regional Indian Literary Studies

This paper is divided into two broad sections. The first section deals with the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam (north east India) and its transformation into a frontier in the nineteenth century. The sec...

by Manjeet Baruah | On 05 May 2015

Thailand: The Evolving Conflict in the South

After a decade of separatist violence in Thailand’s Malay/Muslim-majority southern provinces, insurgent capabilities are outpacing state counter-measures that are mired in complacency and political co...

by International Crisis Group | On 30 Apr 2015

World Malaria Report 2014

The World Malaria Report 2014 summarizes information received from malaria-endemic countries and other sources, and updates the analyses presented in the 2013 report. It assesses global and regional m...

by World Health Organisation (WHO) | On 24 Apr 2015

Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality in Developing Asia

Understanding the link between financial inclusion, poverty, and income inequality at the country level will help policymakers design and implement programs that will broaden access to financial serv...

by | On 27 Mar 2015

Inter-Regional Disparities in Industrial Growth and Structure

The present study examines the issues and propositions outlined above by analyzing the growth and structure of manufacturing industry in different states of India, in a comparative framework. It attem...

by T.S. Papola | On 19 Mar 2015

India: Development Effectiveness Brief

The publication captures the core of ADB's operations in India and showcases select ADB interventions that are helping the government achieve its development goals. ADB supports the Government of I...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 17 Mar 2015

Regional Disparities in Growth and Human Development in India

This paper argues that that per capita income in all states in India increased in the past four decades but in fact no sign of convergence could be visible as it was expected in the context of liberal...

by | On 13 Mar 2015

Death Sentences and Executions 2012

This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2012. Amnesty International records figures on the use of the death penalty based on the best available info...

by Amnesty International AI, | On 13 Mar 2015

Hunger, Undernutrition and Food Security in India

In spite of an increase in the number of government schemes to address the problem of undernutrition, the situation has improved only marginally. A number of factors such as spaces, ethnicities, incom...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 25 Feb 2015

Determinants of Regional Patterns of Manufacturing Exports: Indian Firms since the Mid-1990s

A preliminary analysis of the spatial determinants of firms’ export activities by Indian states has been undertaken in this study. Thus, the present study attempts to fill the gap by focusing on issue...

by Jaya Prakash Pradhan | On 06 Feb 2015

Urban Water Crisis in Delhi: Stakeholders Responses and Potential Scenarios of Evolution

This paper proposes to question this conventional diagnosis with a case study of the capital city of India, Delhi. Based on this case study, the paper shows that the scenario of convergence towards un...

by | On 06 Feb 2015

Addressing Inequality in Southeast Asia through Regional Economic Integration

The paper mainly discusses the issues and policies relating to inequality in Southeast Asia. Policies to reduce inequality include more efficient fiscal policies, improve infrastructure and generating...

by Josef Yap | On 29 Jan 2015

Redistributive Policies for Sustainable Development: Looking at the Role of Assets and Equity

The paper distinguishes between the stock of income generating assets such as human capital and wealth and deriving income flows in order to clarify the differences between growth-equity trade off deb...

by Pierre Kohler | On 28 Jan 2015

World Employment and Social Outlook - Trends 2015

Formerly entitled Global Employment Trends, the World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2015 includes a forecast of global unemployment levels and explains the factors behind this trend, includin...

by International Labour Organisation ILO | On 22 Jan 2015

Global Economic Prospects

The report argues the recent setback in global economy and ways to strengthen the growth in developing countries. with a view to undertake growth and recovery in high-income countries, there is need t...

by World Bank | On 14 Jan 2015

Changing Norms about Gender Inequality in Education: Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper examines norms about gender equality of the education of children and adults in Bangladesh using a recent household survey for two cohorts of married women. Education norms are found to dif...

by Niels-Hugo Blunch | On 29 Dec 2014

Regionalization of Labour Reform Process: The Fabian strategy

The President of India signed a revised set of labour laws from Rajasthan into state law. The Rajasthan government has revised the Factories Act, the Industrial Disputes Act and the Contract Labour Ac...

by K.R. Shyam Sundar | On 02 Dec 2014

Consequences of Unequal Urbanization on Development

Historically, urbanization has been a great force of economic transformation, modernization and social change in the developed world. On the flip side, migration has been blamed for the woes of modern...

by Ram Bhagat | On 21 Nov 2014

Agrarian Poverty, Nutrition and Economic Class – A Study of Gujarat, India

This paper analyses poverty and calorific undernourishment in the Indian state of Gujarat, where high and market-led industrial growth has resulted in rapid economic improvement. The study is carried...

by Mely Caballero Anthony | On 21 Nov 2014

Socio-Economic Status of the Notified Minority Communities

The report provides a detailed quantitative account of the four notified minority communities – Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis using all available information. The study takes into account th...

by Institute Human Development | On 11 Nov 2014

A Report on Health Inequities in Maharashtra

This study project was undertaken by SATHI and CEHAT to make a small contribution in this emerging field of study of health inequities in India, and with the objective of strengthening advocacy on hea...

by Srijit Mishra | On 11 Nov 2014

Social Exclusion and (RSBY) Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Maharashtra

Out-of-pocket payments make up a large proportion of total health expenditure leading to inequity amongst the poorer sections. Recently government of India has instigated various demand side financing...

by Harshad Thakur | On 11 Nov 2014

Issues and Concerns of Deserted Women in Maharashtra

Two studies done at different times in two different parts of Maharashtra on women who have been forced out of the marital home or chose to walk out due to violence, show that women’s expectatio...

by Seema Kulkarni | On 11 Nov 2014

Too Little, Too Late: Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Maharashtra

While the union government announced its plan to extend the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to the unorganised working class poor. The Government of Maharashtra has decided to scrap RSBY and replace it...

by Sujata Gothoskar | On 11 Nov 2014

A Spatial Integration Analysis of the Regional Fertilizer Markets in the Philippines

Fertilizer, which is an important production input, holds a significant share in total cost of production for some crops. Based on the available fertilizer price data, it can be observed that pr...

by Ivory Myka R. Galang | On 30 Oct 2014

The Evolution of Institutions in India and its Relationship with Economic Growth

The tepid-to-torrid transformation in India’s economic growth since the early 1980s is one of the big stories of recent times. Whereas “Midnight’s children” saw their standard of living double ove...

by Arvind Subramanian | On 22 Oct 2014

Four Facts on India’s Growth in the 2000's

This paper marks the first attempt at examining the growth performance across Indian states for the 2000s, a period also marked by the global financial crisis. Four key finding emerge from the paper...

by Arvind Subramanian | On 21 Oct 2014

Global Hunger Index 2014: The Challenge of Hidden Hunger

A staggering 2 billion people get so little essential vitamins and minerals from the foods they eat that they remain undernourished, according to the 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI) being released toda...

by International Food Policy Research Institute | On 14 Oct 2014

Deforestation in the Himalayas: Myths and Reality

Deforestation in developing and middle income countries is an urgent global problem, affecting climate change, soil erosion, major river basins, and livelihoods of poor households living near the fore...

by Jean Marie Baland | On 24 Sep 2014

Political Economy of Transition from Manmohanomics to Modinomics

The inaugural budget of the NDA led government has been a cause of some surprise and disappointment amongst those who were eagerly expecting a new radical dose of neo-liberal reforms. It appeared that...

by Surajit Mazumdar | On 22 Sep 2014

Spatial Convergence and Growth in Indian Agriculture: 1967-2010

Inter-state diversity has been a perennial feature of Indian agriculture. The study probes if per capita income in Indian agriculture has converged across states in the last four and a half decades. I...

by Tirtha Chaterjee | On 06 Sep 2014

The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries

Is the high degree of gender inequality in developing countries in education, personal autonomy, and more explained by underdevelopment itself? Or do the societies that are poor today hold certain cu...

by Seema Jayachandran | On 11 Aug 2014

The Memories of a Spark: Reconstructing the 1965 riots in Madurai against the imposition of Hindi

The paper aims to capture the synthesis and popular reconstruction of one of independent India’s earliest instances of large-scale violence over the emotive issue of language, i.e. the January 1965 Ma...

by Sriram Mohan | On 24 Jul 2014

Gender Equality Must Become A Lived Reality: Gender Budgeting, Our First Step Towards It

The term gender budgeting has become a catch phrase to describe various government initiatives that seek to address gender issues in the domain of public expenditure and policy. In India, the strategi...

by Rituparna Dutta | On 14 Jul 2014

Three Decades of Human Development across Indian States: Inclusive Growth or Perpetual Disparity?

The importance of strengthening the human development (HD) achievements in a country to augment its growth potential is well known in development literature. Several initiatives to enhance the HD leve...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 24 Jun 2014

Inter-Regional Report on Labour Migration and Social Protection

Since the 1970s in particular, the countries of Western Asia and those of the Asia-Pacific region have been closely linked to each other through highly extensive movements of people. Opportunities cre...

by United Nations Economic and Social Commission (UNESCAP) | On 17 Jun 2014

Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013: A Generation at Risk

This issue of Global Employment Trends for Youth provides an update on youth labour markets around the world, focusing both on the continuing labour market crisis and on structural issues in youth lab...

by International Labour Organisation ILO | On 30 May 2014

Urbanization and Spatial Patterns of Internal Migration in India

With an urbanization level of 31.16 percent in 2011, India is the least urbanized country among the top 10 economies of the world. In addition, unlike other countries, the transition of workforce out...

by Ajay Sharma | On 26 May 2014

Growth of the Urban Shadow, Spatial Distribution of Economic Activities and Commuting by Workers in Rural and Urban India

Unlike migration, scant attention has been paid to the phenomenon of commuting by workers in developing countries. This paper fills this gap by using a nationally representative data set from India t...

by Ajay Sharma | On 20 May 2014

World Youth Report 2007 Young People’s Transition to Adulthood: Progress and Challenges

The Report highlights the unique aspects of youth development in various regions but emphasizes that young people the world over are ultimately constrained in their efforts to contribute to their own...

by United Nations UN | On 16 May 2014

Barnaparichay – a mall in progress, a street in transition

This paper examines the politics of the changing spatial order in Indian cities, post-liberalisation, with particular reference to College Street. The spatial reconstruction of College Street is large...

by Anurag Mazumdar | On 13 May 2014

Eating Spaces, Resisting Creation: A Study of Creation and Consumption of Travel-based Food Shows on Regional and National Television

The dynamics of the market post liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s have permeated both, the urban middle class and rural households, setting a trend of negotiation with the ‘exotic fore...

by Shweta Ghosh | On 13 May 2014

The Real Wealth of Nations:Pathways to Human Development

This Report surveys critical aspects of human development, from political freedoms and empowerment to sustainability and human security, and outlines a broader agenda for research and policies to resp...

by Jeni Klugman | On 06 May 2014

The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World

The 2013 Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World looks at the evolving geopolitics of our times, examining emerging issues and trends and also the new actors...

by Khalid Malik | On 06 May 2014

Humanity Divided: Confronting Inequality in Developing Countries

This report demonstrates that inequality in society is an old and fatal phenomenon. If left unchecked, it can undermine the very foundations of development and social and domestic peace. This Report r...

by United Nations Development Programme UNDP | On 18 Apr 2014

Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition

This report highlights the way in which poverty and a?uence intersect with age-old divisions of regional inequalities, gender, caste, and religion that have long structured human development in India....

by Sonalde Desai | On 17 Apr 2014

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2013

With the deadline for the MDGs on the horizon, progress can be reported in most areas, despite the impact of the global economic and financial crisis. The analysis in this report, based on a wide rang...

by United Nations UN | On 04 Apr 2014

Does Income Inequality Cause Health And Social Problems?

This report provides an independent review of the evidence about the impact of inequality. The report examines whether or not there is a link between income inequality and health and social problems;...

by Karen Rowlingson | On 14 Mar 2014

Informal Manufacturing Sector in India: Pre and Post Reform Growth Dynamics

The informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India has been a major part of the economy. Whether its growth is due to entry of people in distress, or whether it is a vibrant and growth oriented sector i...

by Dipa Mukherjee | On 10 Mar 2014

Making it in India: Examining Social Mobility in Three Walks of Life

Inequality is rising in India alongside rapid economic growth, reinforcing the need to investigate social mobility. Are children from less well-off sections also able to rise to higher-paying position...

by Anirudh Krishna | On 04 Mar 2014

Are Women’s Issues Synonymous with Gender in India? Looking Across Geographic Space

This paper attempts to shift the focus from ‘women’ to the significance of the gender equation by assessing the intensity of gender disparity across geographic space, and enquiring into the reasons...

by Nira Ramachandran | On 04 Feb 2014

Determinants of Clusters in Indian Manufacturing: The Role of Infrastructure, Governance, Education, and Industrial Policy

This paper investigates the determinants of spatial concentration and entry within manufacturing across states in India. Using an unbalanced panel of 180 industries spread across 16 major Indian sta...

by Ana M. Fernandes | On 30 Jan 2014

On the Spatial Concentration of Employment in India

This paper seeks to understand what kind of economic activities are concentrated in which regions of India. Spatial concentration of jobs is measured by calculating the location quotient using inform...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 22 Jan 2014

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Operational Plan, 2013–2020

Gender equity is one of the five drivers of change in the Asian Development Bank(ADB) Strategy 2020. ADB recognizes that without harnessing the talents, human capital and economics potential of women,...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 20 Jan 2014

Maritime Territorial Disputes in East Asia: A Comparative Analysis of the South China Sea and the East China Sea

This article systematically compares maritime territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. It draws on the bargaining model of war and hegemonic stability theory to track the record of confl...

by Andy Yee | On 02 Jan 2014

Migrants' Private Giving and Development: Diasporic Influences on Development in Central Gujarat, India

The paper addresses the migration-development debate by developing a framework for understanding who are the migrants, what they are sending back, and how these transfers are being utilised in the lo...

by Puja Guha | On 28 Nov 2013

Remoteness and Unbalanced Growth: Understanding Divergence Across Indian Districts

The existing literature on Indian growth finds no evidence of convergence across states. This represents a puzzle given the relatively free flows of capital, labor and commodities across state borde...

by Samarjit Das | On 27 Nov 2013

A Review of Internal and Regional Migration Policy in Southeast Asia

This working paper provides an overview of migration policy analysis in academic and policy (‘grey’) literature for Southeast Asia, as well as a brief outline of the current migration policy environme...

by Maureen Hickey | On 27 Nov 2013

Justice and State-Building in Afghanistan: State vs. Society vs. Taliban: Reflections on a Survey of the Afghan People

In Afghanistan, the process of creating a state judiciary has developed slowly, first through the gradual assertion of state control over sharia courts starting from the reign of Abdur Rahman (1880-19...

by Antonio Giustozzi | On 22 Nov 2013

Regional Cooperation on the Ganga Basin: Yet a mirage?

Ganges is one of the important rivers of South Asia. It is a trans-boundary river between India and Bangladesh. Some rivers, originating in the Tibetan Autonomous region of the People's Republic of Ch...

by Dwarika Dhungel | On 15 Nov 2013

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Reform Challenges and Key Tasks for the Philippines

The paper calls the attention of policymakers to address critical constraints affecting the effective utilization of free trade agreements, growth, trade facilitation and customs administration, servi...

by Gilberto M. Llanto | On 15 Nov 2013

Southeast Asia’s Food Security Challenge: More than ‘Stock’ Solution Needed

Countries in Southeast Asia face a fresh challenge to their food security as food consumption patterns change, and reliance on imports increases to meet such shifts. Consequently, they may be left wit...

by Belinda Chng | On 01 Nov 2013

Global Hunger Index 2013 - The Challenge of Hunger: Building Resilience to Achieve Food and Nutrition Security

The 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI), which reflects data from the period 2008–2012, shows that global hunger has improved since 1990, falling by one-third. Despite the progress made the level of hunger...

by International Food Policy Research Institute | On 16 Oct 2013

Human Development in India: Cost of Inequality

The article shows how it is possible to achieve economic growth and equitable income distribution using human development approach through empirical evidence from the state of Kerala.

by Ankush Agrawal | On 14 Oct 2013

Identity Politics and Statehood Movements in India

The paper has explored into the reasons behind political mobilization of minority ethnic groups in support of smaller states. In accordance with the above hypothesis, the paper has tried to arrive at...

by Rajat Ganguly | On 11 Oct 2013

National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy-2012 (NDSAP-2012)

The National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) is designed so as to apply to all sharable non-sensitive data available either in digital or analog forms but generated using public funds by...

by Ministry of Science and Technology GOI | On 30 Jul 2013

Why Is Mobility in India So Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth

This paper examines the hypothesis that the persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India, despite increased growth rates and rising inequality in recent years, is due to the existenc...

by Kaivan Munshi | On 22 Jul 2013

Refining State Level Comparisons in India

The performance of Indian States are analyzed across three critical sectors – health, education and infrastructure are analyzed. An index is constructed for each using the Principal Component Analys...

by Pranjul Bhandari | On 10 Jun 2013

Circular Migration in India

This brief explores circular migration in India and the policy response, and impact of this policy response, on the welfare of migrants and more broadly, on regional inequality. [ODI Policy Brief No....

by Kate Bird | On 24 Apr 2013

Promoting Democracy in Myanmar: Political Party Capacity Building

The importance of the political parties in Myanmar and their role as the creators of the future of the country. The course of the present developments relies on the ability of the political parties....

by Aung Aung (IR) | On 09 Apr 2013

The Gender Differences in School Enrolment and Returns to Education in Pakistan

In this study attempt has been made to link the gender differences in parental resource allocation in demand for education at primary, secondary and tertiary level of education to gender differences i...

by Madeeha Gohar Qureshi | On 24 Jan 2013

The Buoyant Billions: How “Middle Class” Are the New Middle Classes in Developing Countries? (And Why Does It Matter?)

Middle-income countries (MICs) are now home to most of the world’s extreme poor—the billion people living on less than $1.25 a day and a further billion people living on between $1.25 and $2. At the s...

by Andy Sumner | On 05 Nov 2012

Renewable Resource Shocks and Conflict in India’s Maoist Belt

A rigorous econometric analysis of a civil conflict is conducted that the Indian Prime Minister has called the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by his country, the so-called Mao...

by Davesh Kapur | On 13 Oct 2012

The New Age of Food Marketing: How Companies are Targeting and Luring our Kids — and What Advocates can do About it

Why should health advocates be concerned about the new marketing paradigm? Because young people's choices about what to eat and when are largely shaped by food and beverage marketing -- and these indu...

by Berkeley Media Studies Group BMSG | On 13 Jul 2012

How Close Does the Apple Fall to the Tree? Some Evidence on Intergenerational Occupational Mobility from India

Using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005, intergenerational occupational mobility in India is examined, an issue on which very few systematic and rigorous studies exist. Individ...

by Sripad Motiram | On 12 Jul 2012

Engaging Small and Medium Enterprises in Production Networks: Firm-level Analysis of Five ASEAN Economies

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are under scrutiny for their engagement in production networks following recent emphasis on increasing intra-reg...

by Ganeshan Wignaraja | On 06 Jul 2012

Nagaland's Demographic Somersault

This study examines the reliability of the Census of Nagaland between 1981 and 2011 by testing the internal consistency of Census population estimates. It also tries to validate the Census estimates...

by Ankush Agrawal | On 06 Jul 2012

Cultural Proximity and Loan Outcomes

Evidence is presented to show that shared codes, religious beliefs, ethnicity - cultural proximity - between lenders and borrowers improves the efficiency of credit allocation. In-group preferential t...

by Raymond Fisman | On 05 Jul 2012

Income Related Inequality in Financial Inclusion and Role of Banks: Evidence on Financial Exclusion in India

This paper analyzes income related inequality in financial inclusion in India using a representative household level survey data, linked to State-level factors. This paper also provides estimates of...

by Rama Pal | On 27 Jun 2012

Human Capital, Economic Growth, and Inequality in China

The paper examines the Chinese Economy on the basis of four factors namely, human development, education, growth and inequality. [IZA DP No. 6550] URL: [http://ftp.iza.org/dp6550.pdf]

by James J Heckman | On 01 Jun 2012

The Impact of Infrastructure on Agricultural Productivity

This paper provides an empirical basis for the perceived link between rural infrastructure and agricultural productivity. It validates the hypothesis that deficiencies in rural infrastructure e.g.,...

by Gilberto M Llanto | On 24 May 2012

Narrowing the Gaps through Regional Cooperation Institutions and Governance Systems

Regional governance systems and national frameworks to address climate change and accelerate green growth in Asia are reviewed and tools to address climate change are outlined. Options for regional le...

by Heinrich-Wilhelm Wyes | On 11 May 2012

Inter-Party Competition and Electoral Campaigning in Rural Malaysia: The Pendang and Anak Bukit By-Elections of 2002

The Pendang parliamentary and Anak Bukit by-elections for the Kedah state legislative assembly were among the most contentious of by-elections in recent Malaysian politics. Held simultaneously on 18...

by K Ramanathan | On 10 May 2012

Brides for Sale: Cross-Border Marriages and Female Immigration

Every year, a large number of women immigrate as brides from developing countries to developed countries in East Asia. This phenomenon virtually did not exist in the early 1990s, but foreign brides...

by Daiji Kawaguchi | On 16 Apr 2012

Myanmar’s Ethnic Insurgents: UWSA, KNU and KIO

Since the elections of 2010, Myanmar’s political landscape has changed significantly; the old military junta has officially been dissolved and a new civilian government, led by President Thein Sein,...

by Christopher O’Hara | On 27 Mar 2012

Services-led Growth, Employment and Job Quality: A Study of Manufacturing and Service-sector in Urban India

This is a study of employment growth, structure, and job quality outcomes in manufacturing and service-sector in urban India spanning the period 1999-2000 to 2009-10. The context is that of dynamic...

by K.V. Ramaswamy | On 12 Mar 2012

Budget of Nepal 2011-12

Budget speech by Nepal Finance Minister. URL:[http://www.mof.gov.np/publication/speech/2011/pdf/budgetspeech_english.pdf].

by Ministry of Finance, Government of Nepal | On 06 Mar 2012

On the Road: Access to Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Growth in China

This paper estimates the effect of access to transportation networks on regional economic outcomes in China over a twenty-period of rapid income growth. It addresses the problem of the endogenous pl...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 02 Mar 2012

Saving Mumbai

What Mumbai needs as a starting point is a city administration that is accountable to the city's residents, and a directly elected mayor, as in all great cities of the world. [BS Weekend Ruminations]....

by T.N. Ninan | On 22 Feb 2012

Regional and Global Monetary Cooperation

The increasing occurrence of national, regional, and global financial crises, together with their rising costs and complexity, have increased calls for greater regional and global monetary cooperation...

by Mario Lamberte | On 21 Feb 2012

Foundations of Collective Action in Asia: Theory and Practice of Regional Cooperation

This paper argues that the collective action in Asia by its regional organizations has historically suffered from a “capability–legitimacy gap”: a disjuncture between the capability (in terms of mat...

by Amitav Acharya | On 17 Feb 2012

Whither Human Capital? The Woeful Tale of Transition to Tertiary Education in India

In this paper the issue of high dropout rates in India is examined which has adverse implications for human capital formation, and hence for the country’s long term growth potential. Using the 2004-0...

by Manisha Chakrabarty | On 14 Feb 2012

Estimating the Middle Class in Pakistan

Using the Pakistan Social and Living Measurement Survey (PSLM), conducted in 2007-08, the paper measures the magnitude of the middle class (definition given by Thurow (1987); Birdsall, Graham and Pe...

by Durr-e- Nayab | On 06 Feb 2012

Who is the Identifiable Victim?: Caste Interacts with Sympathy in India

Earlier studies have documented an “identifiable victim effect”: people donate more to help individual people than to groups. Evidence suggests that this is in part due to an emotional reaction to the...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 03 Feb 2012

The Complexity of Immigrant Generations: Implications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Integration of Hispanics and Asians

Much of the socioeconomic mobility achieved by U.S. immigrant families takes place across rather than within generations. When assessing the long-term integration of immigrants, it is therefore impo...

by Brian Duncan | On 31 Jan 2012

Energy in the Development Strategy of Indian Households-The Missing Half

The present paper explores the nexus between gender-energy-poverty, highlights areas of gender concern, and suggests actions. It is analyzed how women from rural areas and low income households are...

by B. Sudhakara Reddy | On 19 Jan 2012

Economic Dynamics and Forest Clearing: A Spatial Econometric Analysis for Indonesia

This paper uses a large panel database to investigate the determinants of forest clearing in Indonesian kabupatens since 2005. The study incorporates short-run changes in prices and demand for palm...

by David Wheeler | On 28 Dec 2011

Union Power November 2011

The three year journey of the G-20 Heads of Government Summit from Washington in 2008 to Paris this November is signified by two markers of the depth of the global capitalist crisis. First, that the c...

by Louise Ross | On 14 Dec 2011

Where is the Virtue in the Middle Class?

It is widely agreed by economists and political scientists that the middle class is vital to progress because of its many virtues. But it is difficult to define a middle class by income in a manner t...

by Charles Kenny | On 16 Nov 2011

The G20: Engine of Asian Regionalism?

The paper scrutinizes the functioning of the G20 and its role in increasing coordination. and cooperation between Asian countries. It highlights divergent agendas amongst the A6 as regards the future...

by Hugo Dobson | On 09 Nov 2011

Gender, Governance and Women’s Rights in South Asia

This study focuses on gender equality and democratic governance in the five largest states of the South Asian region, namely, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Beginning with a general...

by Seema Kazi | On 20 Oct 2011

Estimating Urban and Rural Incomes in Gujarat: 1993-94 to 2004-05

Income originating within geographical boundaries of urban and rural areas of Gujarat is estimated for three benchmark years – 1993-94, 1999-00 and 2004-05 - at current prices following the broad me...

by Ravindra H Dholakia | On 26 Sep 2011

Gender Inclusion in Climate Change Adaptation

A review of the various issues related to gender and poverty and examine the relationships between gender and various indices, including the human development index (HDI), the gender inequality index...

by Midori Aoyagi | On 22 Sep 2011

Opening India’s Garments Sector to South Asia

This paper examines the competitiveness of the Indian garments industry vis-à-vis the other South Asian countries Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Under the SAFTA agreement, many of the garment i...

by Saon Ray | On 16 Sep 2011

Achieving Progress for Development Effectiveness in Busan: An Overview of CSO Evidence

The global Reality of Aid Network has been working in preparation for Busan alongside CSO colleagues from women’s rights organizations, trade unions, farmers’ organizations, faith-based organizations...

by Brian Tomlinson | On 30 Aug 2011

Infrastructure Investment and Regional Economic Growth: A Case Study of Maharashtra

The study initially reviews the infrastructure facilities for the 33 districts of Maharashtra for one year i.e.1999-2000. Using this, the extent of disparities between these regions is found. Further...

by A M Swaminathan | On 29 Aug 2011

The Costs of Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through Adopting Organic Agriculture

This paper provides estimates of the costs of organic agriculture (OA) programs, and sets them in the context of the costs of attaining the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It anal...

by Anil Markandya | On 19 Aug 2011

Poverty Estimates in India: Old and New Methods, 2004-05

This paper provides estimates of poverty and inequality across states as also for different sub-groups of population for 2004-05 by using the old and new methods of the Planning Commission. The new m...

by Durgesh C Pathak | On 17 Aug 2011

World Trade Report 2011- The WTO and Preferential Trade Agreements: From Co-existence to Coherence

The ever-growing number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) is a prominent feature of international trade. The World Trade Report 2011 describes the historical development of PTAs and the current...

by World Trade Organisation WTO | On 22 Jul 2011

The Effect of Exchange Rate Changes on Trade in East Asia

This paper considers how exchange rates affect East Asian trade. The evidence indicates that exports produced within regional production networks depend on exchange rates throughout the region while l...

by Willem Thorbecke | On 01 Jul 2011

Poverty and Inequality in Uttar Pradesh during 1993-94 to 2004-05: A Decomposition Analysis

This paper attempts a decomposition analysis of Poverty scenario in UP during 1993-94 and 2004-05. It was found that poverty has decreased but inequality has increased between these years. The main ...

by Durgesh Chandra Pathak | On 01 Jul 2011

Spatial Inequality in Rural India: Do Initial Conditions Matter?

Disparities in income and living standards across countries and between regions within countries (spatial inequality) have been the subject of much debate and research in recent years. Spatial inequal...

by Hari Nagarajan | On 01 Jul 2011

A De Facto Asian-Currency Unit Bloc in East Asia: It Has Been There but We Did Not Look for It

Pegging in a coordinated way to a regional basket currency is considered by many as optimal for east-Asian countries. By contrast, according to existing empirical studies, these countries have most of...

by Eric Girardin | On 29 Jun 2011

Poverty Reduction in China: Is High Growth Enough?

The slowdown and in some years reversal of poverty reduction in China forcefully demonstrates that growth is not sufficient for combating poverty even if that growth is of unprecedented magnitude. Pol...

by Guanghua Wan | On 16 Jun 2011

Rising Spatial Disparities and Development

The UNU-WIDER project on 'Spatial Disparities in Human Development' has collected and analysed evidence on the extent of spatial inequalities within developing countries. The studies find that spatial...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 15 Jun 2011

Polarization, Inequality and Growth: The Indian Experience

Polarization in India is analysed roughly in the past two and half decades using consumption expenditure data. It is seen that polarization has increased sharply since the 1990s, reversing the earlie...

by Sripad Motiram | On 13 Jun 2011

Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction: India Case Study

India, located in South Asia is a large country that ranks second in the world in terms of population and seventh in terms of geographical area. Its civilization is very old dating back to at least...

by Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research | On 09 Jun 2011

Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967-2004

This paper uses data from a household survey to estimate changes in land distribution in rural West Bengal between 1967-2004 and decompose these into contributions of different factors. There was a...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 09 Jun 2011

Inequality, Growth and Poverty in the Era of Liberalization and Globalization

This policy brief reports the main findings of the study on changes in within-country income inequality over the last two decades and on the links between poverty, inequality, and growth. It focuses o...

by Giovanni Andrea Cornia | On 08 Jun 2011

Club-Convergence and Polarisation of States A Nonparametric Analysis of Post-Reform India

The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of the distribution of regional per capita income of Indian states in the post reform period, in order to identify trends towards convergence-c...

by Sabyasachi Kar | On 20 May 2011

Enhancing Intra-SAARC Trade: Pruning India’s Sensitive List under SAFTA

The study suggests an approach to reduce India’s sensitive list under SAFTA. The concept of Revealed Comparative Advantage has been used to pair the RCAs for products on India’s sensitive list with th...

by Nisha Taneja | On 29 Apr 2011

Report of the Task Force on Credit Related Issues of Farmers

The Task Force visited 45 villages across 17 states and held state and regional level consultations to understand from women and men farmers, bankers, civil society, academicians, planners, activists,...

by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Devt NABARD | On 27 Apr 2011

Race and Equality: A Study of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong’s Education System

This report analyzes the key education-related issues raised in these interviews as well as available studies on the needs of ethnic minority communities, press reports, government reports and edu...

by Kelley Loper | On 01 Apr 2011

Social and Economic Policies to Prevent Complex Humanitarian Emergencies Lessons from Experience

In simple language and with numerous concrete examples, this policy brief analyses the impact - among others - of key ex-ante factors such as acute 'horizontal inequality' between social groups in the...

by Jeni Klugman | On 22 Mar 2011

Ethnic Fertility Differentials in Vietnam and their Proximate Determinants

Southeast Asia‘s rapid economic growth and demographic change have brought divergent fertility behaviors, particularly those of socially excluded groups, into sharper focus. In Vietnam, while the ma...

by Sajeda Amin | On 15 Mar 2011

Health and Human Rights in Chin State, Western Burma: A Population-Based Assessment Using Multistaged Household Cluster Sampling

The Chin State of Burma (also known as Myanmar) is an isolated ethnic minority area with poor health outcomes and reports of food insecurity and human rights violations. A report on a population-base...

by Richard Sollom | On 09 Mar 2011

Measuring Human Well-being: Key Findings and Policy Lessons

This Policy Brief is an outcome of the UNU-WIDER research project 'Social Development Indicators'. The overall aim of the project was to provide insights into how human well-being might be better conc...

by David Clark | On 18 Feb 2011

South Asian Integration Prospects and Lessons from East Asia

In the context of the low levels of regional cooperation among South Asian countries when compared with the successful results from cooperation in East Asia (consisting of South East and East Asian...

by Ramesh Chandra | On 18 Feb 2011

Some Aspects of Inter District Disparities in Tamil Nadu

The study analyzes the inter-district variations in levels of income and human development in Tamal Nadu in recent years. It also tries to analyze the causes of the relatively low levels of income of...

by R. J. Chelliah | On 15 Feb 2011

National Programme for the Health Care of the Elderly-Better Late than Never

While there are many path-breaking elements in the Programme document, the stress is on a top down programme that leaves little room for accommodating regional needs. Nor is there much emphasis on enc...

by Syam Prasad | On 15 Feb 2011

On the Economics of Regional Powers: Comparing China, India, Brazil, and South Africa

As the conception of and debates on regional powers have been led by political science, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion from an economics perspective. Based on the discussion of differ...

by Robert KAppel | On 28 Jan 2011

Poverty Eradication / Alleviation in North East India : An Approach

The NEC Shillong has assigned the National Institute of Rural Development, North Eastern Regional Centre (NIRD-NERC), Guwahati to prepare a report on “Poverty Eradication in the North Eastern Region...

by Ministry for Development of the North East (DONER) | On 28 Jan 2011

Growth, Inequality, and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries: Recent Global Evidence

The study presents recent global evidence on the transformation of economic growth to poverty reduction in developing countries, with emphasis on the role of income inequality. The focus is on the p...

by Augustin Kwasi Fosu | On 25 Jan 2011

Poverty Measurement and Theories of Beneficence

This note points to certain similarities of orientation and outcome between Derek Parfit’s quest for a theory of beneficence and Amartya Sen’s quest for a suitable real- valued representation of p...

by Subramanian S | On 19 Jan 2011

Fifty Years of Regional Inequality in China: A Journey through Central Planning, Reform, and Openness

This paper constructs and analyses a long-run time-series for regional inequality in China from the Communist Revolution to the present. There have been three peaks of inequality in the last fifty...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 17 Jan 2011

Retrieving LAI of Different Forest Species from Landsat TM/ETM+ Imaginary

Information on vegetation is important for the planning of regional natural resources management carbon cycling studies, terrestrial primary productivity modeling of hydrology, energy and climate. In...

by Nepal C. Dey | On 17 Jan 2011

Globalization and the Urban Poor

The focus of this paper is the effect of contemporary globalization on poverty and inequality in cities of the ‘global south’. Specifically it addresses the impact of globalization on marginalize...

by Janice E. Perlman | On 13 Jan 2011

Ethnic Minority Poverty in Vietnam

The paper examines various aspects of development of minority in Vietnam.

by Bob Baulch | On 07 Jan 2011

Income Distribution and Labour Movement in China after WTO Membership: A CGE Analysis

Using a CGE model, PRCGEM, with an updated 2002 I/O table, this paper explores how earnings will be affected in each of 40 separate industries across 31 regions (or 8 regional blocks) of China for...

by Jiao Wang | On 05 Jan 2011

Estimating the Level and Distribution of Global Household Wealth

In this paper they provide the first estimate of the level and distribution of global household wealth. Mean assets and debts within countries are measured, partly or wholly, for 38 countries using...

by James B. Davies | On 03 Jan 2011

Changes in the Distribution of Wealth in China, 1995-2002

This paper investigates some major changes in the wealth distribution in China using the data from two national household surveys conducted in 1995 and 2002. The surveys collected rich informatio...

by Shi Li | On 27 Dec 2010

Poverty and the Welfare Costs of Risk Associated with Globalization

‘Globalization’ implies change, and uncertainty over future change may affect household welfare. They use data on Lorenz curves over the last fifty years for a sample of 53 (mostly developing) cou...

by Ethan Ligon | On 24 Dec 2010

Some Speculation on Growth, Disparity and Capital Reorganisation in the Indian Economy

This paper is all about speculations on growth, disparity and Capital reorganisation in Indian Economy. [Working Paper No. 124]

by Sudipto Mundle | On 06 Dec 2010

Looking Beyond Averages in the Trade and Poverty Debate

There has been much debate about how much poor people in developing countries gain from trade openness, as one aspect of ‘globalization’. The paper views the issue through both ‘macro’ and ‘micro’...

by Martin Ravallion | On 02 Dec 2010

Inequality, Corruption, and Competition in the Presence of Market Imperfections

In this paper they analyze the relation between inequality, corruption and competition in a developing economy context where markets are imperfect. They consider an economy where different types o...

by Indranil Dutta | On 02 Dec 2010

Does Inequality lead to Conflict?

This paper presents a simple model to show how distributional concerns can engender social conflict. They have a two period model, where the cost of conflict is endogenous in the sense that partie...

by Indranil Dutta | On 01 Dec 2010

The Relationship between Income Inequality, Poverty, and Globalization

This paper introduces two composite indices of globalization. The first is based on the Kearney/Foreign Policy magazine and the second is obtained from principal component analysis. They indicate...

by Almas Heshmati | On 30 Nov 2010

World Programme of Action for Youth

This is a ready reference for organizations, youth policy practitioners and young people to the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY), its 15 priority areas and their corresponding proposals for...

by United Nations UN | On 29 Nov 2010

Globalization, Poverty and Inequality: What Is the Relationship? What Can Be Done?

The paper studies the relation between globalization, inequality and marginalization, within and across nations. It reviews the existing evidence on globalization and global inequality and argues,...

by Kaushik Basu | On 29 Nov 2010

Channels and Policy Debate in the Globalization-Inequality-Poverty Nexus

The paper offers a critical literature review of the debate surrounding the globalization- poverty nexus, focusing on channels and linkages through which globalization affects the poor. After intro...

by Machiko Nissanke | On 26 Nov 2010

The World Distribution of Household Wealth

There has been much recent research on the world distribution of income, but also growing recognition of the importance of other contributions to well-being, including those of household wealth. W...

by James B. Davies | On 25 Nov 2010

The Effect of Information Technology on Wage Inequality: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Sector

A persistent widening of skill based wage inequality in the Indian Organised Manufacturing sector has been reported by many researchers. Two main hypotheses had been tested in developed economies to...

by Vinoj Abraham | On 17 Nov 2010

Globalization and Regional Income Inequality: Evidence from within China

China’s recent accession to the WTO is expected to accelerate its integration into the world economy, which aggravates concerns over the impact of globalization on the already rising inter-region in...

by Guanghua Wan | On 16 Nov 2010

Measurement and Explanation of Inequality in Health and Health Care in Low-Income Settings

This paper describes approaches to the measurement and explanation of income-related inequality and inequity in health care financing, health care utilization and health and considers the applicab...

by Eddy van Doorslaer | On 16 Nov 2010

Balance of Trade, Remittance and Net Capital Flows: An Analysis of Economic Development in Kerala since independence

A major drawback of the plethora of regional studies in India is that most of them tend to treat regional development as an autonomous process of regional productive forces and relations of production...

by T.M. Thomas Issac | On 15 Nov 2010

How Responsive is Poverty to Growth? A Regional Analysis of Poverty, Inequality, and Growth in Indonesia, 1984-99

This paper uses six nationally representative household consumption surveys to develop successive poverty profiles for Indonesia over a fifteen-year period of sustained high growth followed by rapi...

by Jed Friedman | On 11 Nov 2010

The Internationalization of Small and Medium Enterprises in Regional and Global Value Chains

Production networks and the regional division of labor have been established in East Asia resulting in massive vertical intra-industry trade in parts and components within the region. This phenomenon...

by Hank Lim | On 02 Nov 2010

Socioeconomic Impacts of Cross-Border Transport Infrastructure Development in South Asia

Although the overall economic performance of economies in South Asia in recent years has been impressive, there is concern that an aging and increasingly inadequate infrastructure may limit the potent...

by John Gilbert | On 01 Nov 2010

Regional Cooperation, Infrastructure, and Trade Costs in Asia

International trade has played an essential role in Asia’s remarkable growth, development, and integration in recent decades. Infrastructure, both hard and soft, has played an integral part in facil...

by Douglas H. Brooks | On 28 Oct 2010

Going Beyond Gender as Usual: Why and How Global HIV/AIDS Donors Can Do More for Women and Girls

This brief shows how three of the biggest donors to global HIV/AIDS programs can go beyond their stated commitments to address gender inequality and more effectively combat HIV and AIDS.

by Christina Droggitis | On 20 Oct 2010

Are Inequality and Trade Liberalization Influences on Growth and Poverty?

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the relationship between income inequality and growth, manifested in a number of important publications. In parallel with this, concern with the imp...

by Jennifer Mbabazi | On 19 Oct 2010

Imperatives of Regional Economic Integration in Asia in the Context of Developmental Asymmetries: Some Policy Suggestions

Regional economic integration agreements are considered to be important policy mechanisms to address regional developmental asymmetries. The Asian reality is characterized by developmental asymmetri...

by Ram Upendra Das | On 15 Oct 2010

Social Identity and Inequality: The Impact of China's Hokou System

They conduct an experimental study to investigate the causal impact of social identity on individuals' response to economic incentives. They focus on China‟s decades old household registration...

by Farzana Afridi | On 08 Oct 2010

The Concept and Measurement of Group Inequality

The economist’s conceptualisation of inequality in terms of interpersonal distribution of income or wealth, and the tradition of measurement of inequality that follows from this conceptualisation ha...

by Achin Chakraborty | On 05 Oct 2010

Fiscal Policy Coordination in Asia: East Asian Infrastructure Investment Fund

East Asian countries were seriously affected by the 2008 global crisis through a steep fall in exports. This experience exposed the vulnerability of the East Asian growth model and emphasized the impo...

by Mahani Zainal Abidin | On 05 Oct 2010

Emergence of Rating Agencies: Implications for Establishing a Regional Rating Agency in Asia

The present analysis sheds light on the setting up a regional rating agency in Asia in the wake of recent financial crisis. We investigate the policy facing a financial regulator while evaluat...

by Ying Yi Tsai | On 30 Sep 2010

Quantifying Spatial Mislocation in Centrally Provided Public Goods

In this paper they show how an optimization algorithm can be used to approximately quantify the costs to users of spatial misallocation in centrally provided public goods. This method can be employed...

by Siva Athreya | On 23 Sep 2010

Ayodhya: Masjid-Mandir Dispute: Towards Peaceful Solution

The present article examines the Babri Mazjid-Ram Janambhumi dispute. It analyzes background of the dispute, its perceptions and the path to peace and reconciliation in the future.

by Ram Puniyani | On 15 Sep 2010

Feeding Southeast Asia: Mekong River Fisheries and Regional Food Security

This paper reviews the available literature that links regional food security to the Mekong River’s wild capture fisheries, and argues for recognition of the existing contribution that the fisheries...

by Brooke Peterson | On 08 Sep 2010

The Evolution of Singapore Business: A Case Study Approach

This volume contains summaries of 12 case studies for three categories of business organisations defined by ownership, i.e. foreign, state and (local) private. The case studies explore the history a...

by Anisha Sabhlok | On 06 Sep 2010

Earnings Instability and Earnings Inequality in Urban China: 1989–2006

This paper investigates the evolution of earnings inequality in urban China from 1989 to 2006. After decomposing the variance of log of earnings into transitory and permanent two parts, we find that...

by Zhong Zhao | On 23 Aug 2010

Experience of the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme: are there lessons for NREGS?

This paper notes that while the NREGS has potential to reduce the intensity of poverty for the large mass of rural poor, the number of days of work provided and the level of the wage rate remain criti...

by Amita Shah | On 17 Aug 2010

Testing for the Option Value of Migration

Using uncertainty about the future returns to migration, the option value theory of migration can explain low migration rates in spite of huge wage differences. This paper presents the theory in a...

by Lilo Locher | On 12 Aug 2010

Informal Trade in the SAARC region

This paper explores issues relating to informal trade in the SAARC region. It spells out the reasons underpinning illegal trade in the South Asian region. Further it focuses on the estimated size an...

by Nisha Taneja | On 10 Aug 2010

Asian Economic Integration ASEAN+3+1 or ASEAN+1s?

In this paper an attempt is made to evaluate the most efficient approach to regional economic integration in Asia. Given that ASEAN is an existing regional bloc in Asia, alternative approaches to the...

by Amita Batra | On 04 Aug 2010

Regional Economic Integration and FDI in South Asia : Prospects and Problems

The slow progress and modest achievements of regional integration in South Asia have generated a huge amount of skepticism about its role as an effective strategy of growth. The present study, howev...

by Aradhna Aggarwal | On 22 Jul 2010

Implications Of The Economic Rise Of The PRC For Asean and India: Trade and Foreign Direct Investment

An important and vigorous policy debate ongoing in Asia concerns the impact of the economic rise of the PRC on the rest of the region. This paper examines the relative performances of the PRC, selec...

by Sadhana Srivastava | On 20 Jul 2010

A Decomposition of Poverty Tre across Regions: The Role of Variation in the Income and Inequality Elasticities of Poverty

The impact of globalization on global and local inequality is hotly debated in the recent literature. This study considers the separate issue of the impact of globalization on poverty through quan...

by Adriaan Kalwij | On 28 Jun 2010

Provoking Thought, Changing Talk: Discussing Inequality

This occasional publication series is part of the Social Equity and Opportunity Forum in the Dean’s Office of the College of Urban and Public Affairs. Directed by Janet Hammer, Ph.D., the Forum emph...

by Joseph Grady | On 10 Jun 2010

Spatial Inequality in Social Progress in Bangladesh

The paper tracks spatial inequality in social progress in Bangladesh as evidenced from the district level data. It uses a multivariate framework to explore the differential pace of social progress at...

by Binayak Sen | On 04 Jun 2010

School Educational Attainment in Kerela: Trends and Differentials

This paper examines the trends and differentials in school educational attainment in Kerala, the State that ranks right on top in terms of human development in India. The trend analysis is based on...

by T.R. Dilip | On 02 Jun 2010

Education Impact Study: The Global Recession and the Capacity of Colleges and Universities to Serve Vulnerable Populations in Asia

This paper reviews the capacity of colleges and universities to serve poor and vulnerable populations during past and present economic shocks. The main argument is that the environment of the global r...

by Gerard Postiglione | On 27 May 2010

Can Social Security Boost Domestic Consumption in the People’s Republic of China?

This paper reviews the development of the social security system and trends in the urban labor market in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Despite its remarkable economic achievement, the PRC face...

by Wang Dewen | On 20 May 2010

The Shape of Temptation: Implications for the Economic Lives of the Poor

This paper argues that the relation between temptations and the level of consumption plays a key role in explaining the observed behaviors of the poor. Temptation goods are defined to be the set of...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 13 May 2010

Book Review: Of Space and 'Spatialities'

Review of Spatialising Politics: Culture and Geography in Postcolonial Sri Lanka. Catherine Brun and Tariq Jazeel (Editors). Sage Publications, New Delhi; 2009, 260 pp, Rs. 695.

by Anandi Dantas | On 04 May 2010

North East: Fallen off the Media Map?

Report from the 11th Media Dialogue ’North East: Fallen off the Media Map? or Why Does the Media Give so Lettle Space to this Vast Region?

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 07 Apr 2010

Determinants of the Choice of Migration Destination

This paper examines migrants choice of destination conditional on migration. To this end, an empirical strategy is designed which remedies both migration selection and unobserved heterogeneity probl...

by Marcel Fafchamps | On 18 Mar 2010

Climate Change and the Future Impacts of Storm-Surge Disasters in Developing Countries

The implications of sea-level rise and storm surges for 84 developing countries and 577 of their cyclone-vulnerable coastal cities with populations greater than 100,000 are explored. Combining the mos...

by Susmita Dasgupta | On 25 Feb 2010

Globalisation Lived Locally: New Forms of Control, Conflict and Response Among Labour in Kerala, Examined Through a Labour Geography Lens

With the support of the labour geography framework, this study tries to analyse how the economic geography of capitalism is shaped by the spatial practices of labour. The model that is taken up is n...

by Neethi P | On 22 Feb 2010

Climate Sensitivity of Indian Agriculture Do Spatial Effects Matter?

Climate change impact studies on agriculture can be broadly divided into those that employ agro-economic approaches and those that employ the Ricardian approach. This study uses the Ricardian approa...

by K S Kavi Kumar | On 05 Feb 2010

Pro-Poor Growth: Illusions of Marriage and Divorce?

This note seeks to show that the debate on ‘Pro-Poor Growth’ is sterile and largely academic with few policy insights.

by Suryanarayana M H | On 15 Jan 2010

The Unequal World of Health Data

Health data, poverty, and inequality exist in a complex global co-dependency, therefore making meaningful comparisons of health across widely different settings challenging. Less data exist on the hea...

by Peter Byass | On 24 Nov 2009

VIllage Economics and the Structure of Extended Family Networks

This paper documents how the structure of extended family networks in rural Mexico relates to the poverty and inequality of the village of residence. Using the Hispanic naming convention, within-villa...

by Manuela Angelucci | On 23 Nov 2009

Combining Data, Enhancing Explanation

In this paper the author analyzes the pros and cons of combining data from different sources to revisit some explanatory problems. The problems discussed have risen from a theoretical and analytic g...

by Sarah Irwin | On 18 Nov 2009

Track Record of Financial Institutions in Assisting the Poor in Asia

A variety of institutional forms of microfinance are being introduced in Asia including by the ADB-and financial institutions pursue different objectives, so it is difficult to assess how well micro...

by Richard L Meyer | On 13 Nov 2009

Chronic Poverty and Development Policy in Sri Lanka: Overview Study

The present study attempts to capture chronic poverty in Sri Lanka by examining general information on poverty and drawing conclusions on those who are likely to be among the chronic poor. Certain p...

by Indra Tudawe | On 17 Sep 2009

Morbidity Patterns In Kerala: Levels and Determinants

This paper examines the levels, patterns, and determinants of morbidity in Kerala. This study is based on a community survey conducted in 2004, in three districts of the state namely Thiruvananthap...

by Navaneetham K | On 14 Aug 2009

Restoring the Asian Silk Route: Toward an Integrated Asia

Lack of full regional connectivity is one of the major constraints hindering regional growth and integration in Asia, as well as with the rest of the world. One of the conclusions of this paper is tha...

by Biswa N Bhattacharyay | On 11 Aug 2009

Human Development Index for Andhra Pradesh

The method used to measure Human Development are reviewed in order to measure Human Development Index for rural AP by considering indicators such as economic attainment, longevity and education. The e...

by Jatinder S Bedi | On 07 Jul 2009

Racial Inequality and Segregation Measures: Some Evidence from the 2000 Census

This paper examines the extent to which income differences across the racial groups can account for observed residential segregation. The authors adopt an approach to the decomposition of segregation...

by Rajiv Sethi | On 27 Jun 2009

Sources of FDI Flows to Developing Asia: The Roles of Distance and Time Zones

This paper investigates sources and determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing Asia using bilateral FDI flows for the period 1990-2005. With regard to the determinants of FDI...

by Rabin Hattari | On 27 Jun 2009

Subnational Taxes in Developing Countries: The Way Forward

It is critical to emphasize that intergovernmental fiscal relations must be thought of as a system and that all the pieces in the system must fit together if decentralization is to work properly. Vari...

by Richard.M. Bird | On 16 Jun 2009

Estimates of BPL-households in Rural Gujarat: Measurement, Spatial Pattern and Policy Imperatives

The poverty scenario in Gujarat is marked by three features: (1) low incidence of poverty (2) spatial concentration and (3) adoption of targeted policy for poverty reduction. One of the important high...

by Amita Shah | On 16 Jun 2009

Role of Science & Technology, Higher Education and Research in Regional Socio-Economic Development

This paper is an attempt to focus on the role of Science and Technology (S&T) on regional development of India by considering 21 Indian states. The Index approach using the Principal Component techniq...

by Rajesh Shukla | On 12 Jun 2009

A Distributional Analysis of Social Group Inequality in Rural India

This paper examines the differences in welfare, as measured by per capita expenditure (PCE), between social groups in rural India across the entire welfare distribution. The paper establishes that the...

by Mehtabul Azam | On 11 Jun 2009

Can Ethical Trade Certification Contribute to the Attainment of the Millennium Development Goals? A Review of Organic and Fair-trade Certification

The growth of ethical consumerism in developed countries has led to increased imports of environmentally and socially certified products produced by the poor in developing countries, which could poten...

by Sununtar Setboonsarng | On 13 May 2009

The Asian “Noodle Bowl”:Is It Serious for Business?

A lively debate is taking place over the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) on East Asia's business between those who view the agreements as a harmful Asian "noodle bowl"—i.e., overlapping regiona...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 13 May 2009

Gender and Innovation in South Asia

To understand how gender, women’s rights and citizenship intersect with innovation in SouthAsia, one must begin by considering some of the main features of life for South Asian women, about a half of...

by Sujata Byravan | On 06 May 2009

You Can Get There From Here..

This inaugural piece addresses a fundamental problem of communication – how to effectively talk about an issue. It’s not as simple as it seems. Its always known that people did not always “hear” what...

by Joseph Grady | On 05 May 2009

Nutritional Deprivation Among Indian Pre-School Children: Does Rural-Urban Disparity Matter ?

The rural-urban disparities are a reality in developing countries like India. Post reform, there are lot of empirical studies which has focused on this aspect of development experience in India. The v...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 01 May 2009

Performance of Indian Cement Industry: The Competitive Landscape

The competitiveness among the firms in Indian cement industry has also been evaluated. For the year 2006-07, out of the sample of seventeen firms (90.21% of the total market share), about 47% have re...

by G Burange | On 19 Nov 2008

Changes in Poverty Profile in China

This study presents a comprehensive picture of poverty chnages in China in the period of 1978-95. Using two micro data sets from Household Income Surverys of 1988 and 1995, the author examines poverty...

by Li Shi | On 18 Nov 2008

Gender-based Indicators in Human Development: Correcting for ‘Missing Women’

Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure are two gender-based indicators provided by the United Nations Development Program. Population share of the genders enter the formulation of t...

by Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan | On 18 Nov 2008

Persistent Inequality: An Explanation Based on Limited Parental Altruism

This paper provides an explanation for the observed persistence in income inequality across households in terms limited parental altruism. It is postulated that the degree of parental altruism is ‘lim...

by Mausumi Das | On 24 Sep 2008

Girl Child and Education

The formal school is seen as the only means of withdrawing all children from work. Furthermore, in the case of girls, formal school prevents them from getting into child marriage. Schooling is recogn...

by Martine Kruijtbosch | On 04 Sep 2008

An Investigation of Incongruency and Distraction Hypotheses: The Context of Dubbed TV Commercials

The current study seeks to understand the effectiveness of commercials that are basically nation-wide commercials dubbed in the regional languages, while not changing any part of the visual: thus they...

by Venkatesh P | On 16 Aug 2008

Banking Sector Reforms and Equity a Sub-Regional Analysis in Andhra Pradesh

In this study an attempt is made to examine the equity aspect due to reforms in the banking sector at sub-regional level in the state of Andhra Pradesh covering the period 1985 to 2004. [CESS WP 68]...

by K S Reddy | On 04 Aug 2008

Constitutionalising Panchayats: The Response of State Legislatures

This article is an attempt to look at debates in the light of the Assemblies' tryst with panchayats. It should be noted that it is not an evaluation of what transpired in the state Assemblies. In view...

by Girish Kumar | On 03 Jul 2008

Inclusive Growth in Andhra Pradesh: Challenges in Agriculture, Poverty, Social Sector and Regional Disparities

The important elements of inclusive growth are: agricultural growth, employment generation and poverty reduction, social sector (health and education) and reduction in regional and other disparities...

by S.Mahendra Dev | On 31 May 2008

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four state update from IRIS India

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 09 Apr 2008

Women’s Economic Empowerment as the “Magic Potion” of Development?

Boosting women’s relative control of income and other economic resources has so many consequences that positively enhance both gender equality and development that female economic empowerment may be c...

by Rae Lesser Blumberg | On 20 Feb 2008

Critical Issues Facing China’s Rubber Industry in the Era of Market Integration: An Analysis in Retrospect and Prospect

This paper discusses the emerging contradictions that may have serious implications for the sustainable growth and performance of China’s rubber industry in the era of internal restructuring and globa...

by Viswanathan P K | On 30 Jan 2008

Newsletter on Regional Economy A bi-monthly four-state update from IRIS

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 11 Jan 2008

WCD Thematic Review V.5 Participation, Negotiation and Conflict Management in Large Dams Projects

This thematic review focuses on the siting, construction and operation of large dam facilities (or their alternatives) as sources of significant conflict, and as opportunities to involve many interest...

by RESOLVE Inc et al | On 26 Dec 2007

Girls, Educational Equity and Mother Tongue-based Teaching

One of the principal mechanisms through which inequality is reproduced is language, specifically the language used as the medium of instruction. The learner’s mother tongue holds the key to making sc...

by Carol Benson | On 21 Dec 2007

Why Don’t Small and Medium Enterprises Innovate More : Creating a Cooperative Learning Environment at Individual, Firm and Regional Level

In a globalising economy, regional or national benchmarks do not suffice any more. Be it technology or business method or practices, Indian small scale entrepreneurs will have to benchmark their curre...

by Anil K Gupta | On 10 Oct 2007

Multilateralising Regionalism: Sphagetti Bowls as building Blocs on the Path to Global Free Trade

This paper addresses the final steps to global free trade -- the political economy forces that might drive them, and the role the WTO might play in guiding them. Two facts form the departure point: 1)...

by Richard Baldwin | On 05 Oct 2007

What Can Economists Explain by Taking into Account People’s Perceptions of Fairness: Punishing Cheats, Bargaining Impasse, and Self-Perpetuating Inequalities

Evidence abounds that individuals have preferences for being fairly treated and treating others fairly. These preferences do not affect economic outcomes in competitive markets with standardized prod...

by Karla Hoff | On 03 Oct 2007

Defining Human Differences in Biomedicine

An extensive literature reflects millennia of concern over what we humans call ourselves and others. All life sciences are now grappling further with how to categorize and study the nearly infinite po...

by Maggie Brown | On 26 Sep 2007

Post-Autistic Economics Review: Issue No.43, September 15, 2007

Growing inequality in the neo-liberal heartland George Irvin ................................................................................. 2 - Science, ideology and development: Is there a ‘Sust...

by PAER Post Autistic Economic Review | On 16 Sep 2007

Potential for Sharing Nuclear Power Infrastructure Between Countries

The introduction or expansion of a nuclear power programme in a country and its successful execution is largely dependent on the network of national infrastructure, covering a wide range of activities...

by International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA | On 21 Aug 2007

Social Science Research Methods and Knowledge-Claims

This paper explores three important but interrelated issues: The power of example; the fragment as evidence; and finally, the field experience and the possibility of generalisation. These issues are...

by Paramjit S Judge | On 03 Aug 2007

Development Disparity in Education Sector: An Inter District Temporal Analysis in Kerala

This study aims to identify the trend and disparity in development in the education sector at the district level; examine the factors that led to this inter district variation in education sector deve...

by V. Nagarajan Naidu | On 03 Aug 2007

Parochial Politics: Ethnic Preferences and Politician Corruption

Increased voter ethnicization, defined as a greater preference for the party representing one's ethnic group, affects politician quality. If politics is characterized by incomplete policy commitment,...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 19 Jul 2007

Conceptualizing Economic Marginalization

What exactly is 'economic marginalization'? How should one conceptualize it, and what are the implications of such conceptualization? Economic marginalization can be conceptualized as outcome or as p...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 05 Jul 2007

APEC 2007: How Strong is India’s Case for Membership?

The September 2007 annual summit of APEC to be hosted by Australia will witness the ending of the decade long moratorium on membership. A major anomaly of the APEC is that while the three largest econ...

by Mukul Asher | On 26 Jun 2007

IBSAC (INDIA, BRAZIL, SOUTH AFRICA, CHINA): A Potential Developing Country Coalition in WTO Negotiations

This paper argues that IBSA( India, Brazil, South Africa) as opposed to IBSAC (with China) is a far more coherent group when it comes to WTO negotiations as its interests coincide given the agenda tha...

by Debashis Chakraborty | On 25 Apr 2007

Utilization Of Maternal Health Care In South India

This study examines the patterns and determinants of maternal health care use across different social setting in south India: in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Data source for...

by Navaneetham K | On 10 Apr 2007

Agricultural Development In Maharashtra: Highlights Of Growth Patterns And Policy Implications

The growth performance of agriculture in Maharashtra was highly impressive is the early part of the green revolution period but deteriorated after 1980-81. the severe set back to growth in yield per h...

by Sawant S D | On 22 Mar 2007

Child health inequities in developing countries: differences across urban and rural areas

The urban advantage in health masks enormous disparities between the poor and the non-poor in urban areas of Sub Saharan Africa. Specific policies geared at preferentially improving the health and nu...

by Jean-Christophe Fotso | On 23 Feb 2007

Ethnic Disparities in Health: The Public’s Role in Working for Equality

The overarching goals should be to increase the quality of life and years of healthy life for all Americans and to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. This has been an ambitious undertaki...

by David Satcher | On 02 Jan 2007

Social Cleavages, Multiculturalism and Emerging Space for State in India under Globalisation Regime

This paper focuses on social cleavages based on class , caste,religion and ethnicity in India. It examines the political salience of caste and class conflicts and addresses the translation of social c...

by Sarojini Mishra | On 29 Dec 2006

Global Patterns of Income and Health: Facts, Interpretations, and Policies

People in poor countries live shorter lives than people in rich countries so that, if we scale income by some index of health, there is more inequality in the world than if we consider income alone. S...

by Angus S. Deaton | On 28 Dec 2006

Impact of Reservations of Panchayat Pradhans on Targeting in West Bengal

The effect of randomized reservations of Pradhan (chief executive) positions in West Bengal local governments (panchayats) for women and members of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) following t...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 27 Dec 2006

Telecommunications privatisation in Taiwan: A beautiful mistake?

This paper examines the changing role of the government and market in regulating the telecommunications sector since 1996 in Taiwan. It also explores changes in the institutional framework for regula...

by Kuo-Tai Cheng | On 22 Dec 2006

India’s Rising Role in Asia

This paper strongly suggests that India has been far more intricately integrated with the rest of Asia than has commonly been perceived or acknowledged. This is particularly the case if overall value...

by Mukul Asher | On 12 Dec 2006

Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa

The effect of globalization on knowledge exchange, which is mediated very largely through scientific journals being published in English, and having their origins in Europe and North America, has resu...

by Academy of South Africa | On 27 Nov 2006

New Trends in Marathi Theatre: Relationship with Multicultural Indian Identity

The Indian society has been multicultural for many centuries. But the texture of this 'multicultural Indian identity' has changed drastically in the last decade or so. Earlier, when two cultures came...

by Makarand Sathe | On 20 Nov 2006

Monetary Regionalism in Asia Revisited

Given the divergence in economic and institutional structures in the region, any attempt to create a common currency absent macroeconomic policy coordination and mechanism for automatic intra-regional...

by Ramkishen S. Rajan | On 30 Oct 2006

Monetary Regionalism in Asia Revisited

Given the divergence in economic and institutional structures in the region, any attempt to create a common currency absent macroeconomic policy coordination and mechanism for automatic intra-regional...

by Ramkishen S. Rajan | On 30 Oct 2006

Mumbai/Shanghai: Prospects/Problems--Imitating Global, Failing Local

Do we aspire to be a ‘global’ city like Shanghai, with all the spit and polish to attract foreign investors by the drove? Or can we aim to be a city with a sustainable plan for its development – one t...

by Kalpana Sharma | On 13 Jul 2006

The Wealth of Cities: Towards an Assets-based Development of Newly Urbanizing Regions

The argument in this paper is in four parts: First, the author suggests that we can no longer treat cities apart from the regions surrounding them with which they are intensively entwined. Second, t...

by John Freidman | On 13 Jul 2006

SEPHIS e-journal, Volume 2:3, May 2006

Editorial: Samita Sen, Shamil Jeppie, Carlos Degregori Articles: Hlonipha Mokoena: The Making of a Kholwa Intellec- tual: Introducing Magema Magwaza Fuze. Iman Kumar Mitra:The Economics of Sex in...

by SEPHIS | On 23 May 2006

Sociology in the Context of Globalisation: Issues and Challenges in India

Any exercise in mapping the current status of any social science discipline is a mammoth task, as it involves the normative concerns as well as the personal perceptions of the sociologist who treads t...

by Paramjit S Judge | On 16 May 2006

Three Observations on the Challenges of Growth and Poverty Reduction in Asia

While Asia’s success in growth and poverty reduction is to be greatly welcomed, and should be analysed for the lessons it has for other countries, the policy discourse should take on board three key p...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 21 Apr 2006

Regional Diffferences in FDI Inflows: China – India Comparison

An analysis of regional differences in the flow of FDI in China and India is important as in both these countries a few regions account for the bulk of FDI inflows. There are very few studies on regi...

by N.S. Siddharthan | On 23 Mar 2006

Does a Rising Tide Lift All Boats Evenly?Health Investments and Gender Inequality in India

Gender inequality in South Asia is an important policy issue; gender imbalances in mortality have been of particular concern. Policy makers often argue that increasing the level of development and ac...

by Emily Oster | On 21 Mar 2006

Objectivity and Bias in Sociological Studies: A Rejoinder to 'Social Science Knowledge and Its Evaluation'

Does a social scientist need to renounce his ethnicity in order to be objective and unbiased? The issue of how and why scholars choose their subjects and approaches has been debated for almost a centu...

by Darshan Tatla | On 15 Mar 2006

The Budget, Outlays, and Inequality

Growth, or more accurately, the quality of growth, is intricately linked to inequality and so the Finance Minister and the government need to do more by addressing problems of governance as well. htt...

by Errol D'souza | On 06 Mar 2006

The Budget, Outlays, and Inequality

Growth, or more accurately, the quality of growth, is intricately linked to inequality and so the Finance Minister and the government need to do more by addressing problems of governance as well.

by Errol D'souza | On 06 Mar 2006

Financial Integration in East Asia: How Far? How Much Further to Go?

Despite numerous empirical studies examining various facets of the topic, the degree of intraregional financial integration in East Asia remains a matter of vigorous debate. This paper offers a select...

by Tony Cavoli | On 07 Feb 2006

Social Capital, Diversity and (Economic) DEvelopment: Evidence from Indian IT Industry, Bangalore

This paper addresses two sets of questions related to IT development and lessons to be drawn for other regions both in and outside India. Firstly, based on original fieldwork an additional argument t...

by Florian A. Taube | On 19 Jan 2006

ICT sector and regional economic development:Evidence from Karnataka State

This paper distinguishes the contribution of information and communication technology (ICT) sector to economic development by manufacturing and service activities in Karnataka State. Using the availab...

by M.R. Narayana | On 19 Jan 2006

Taking Stock of Monetary and Financial Regionalism in Asia

Lecture at RIS, New Delhi December 2005

by Ramkishen S. Rajan | On 12 Jan 2006

Agrarian Reform for a Liberal Pattern of Society? Karnataka's Land Policy and the New Dispensation

It is puzzling how much the discourse of development has backed away from the seemingly central question of rural poverty: land. Elaborate rules concerning its distribution, rights, regulation, prot...

by Ronald Herring | On 12 Jan 2006

Choosing not to Participate--Evidence from Drought-Prone Area Programme in Chitradurg, Karnataka

This paper examines the evidence on the constraints that farmers face in participating in a programme evolved by 'somebody else' viz, ‘the government’, . The paper begins with a discussion on the typ...

by G.Ananda Vadivelu | On 09 Jan 2006

Corruption and Local Governance: Evidence from Karnataka

The paper examines corruption in the institutions of local government in Karnataka, using a Logit model. One of the arguments in favour of decentralisation in developing countries is that it provide...

by V. Vijayalakshmi | On 09 Jan 2006

Ideological Elements in Political Instability in Karnataka: Janata Dal in the 1990s

There are strenuous difficulties in managing competing social groups, segments and regions in the political landscape of Karnataka. These difficulties have been accentuated by touchy issues of status...

by Pamela Price | On 09 Jan 2006

Political Leadership and Economic Development in Karnataka

How has the political leadership in Karnataka contributed to the state's economic developmet? In order to assess the role that the political leadership has played, the author examines the role of the...

by Gujjarappa Thimmaiah | On 09 Jan 2006

Change in Karnataka over the Last Generation: Villages and the Wider Context

This paper examines changes that have (and have not) occurred – at the village level in Karnataka where most or the state’s residents live, and at higher levels when they impinge upon villages – sin...

by James Manor | On 09 Jan 2006

East Asian Community: Prospects and Challenges

There is a growing need to a more institutionalized economic arrangement in East Asia. East Asia Economic Community might be an ideal form of such institution. However, the road is still long and...

by A Damuri | On 23 Nov 2005

Opportunities and Challenges in Building an East Asian Community

Inherenet weaknesses in AFTA and AEC and the need to counter regionalism in other parets of the world are some of the important reasons for evolving an East Asian Community. However, there are severa...

by Joseph Yap | On 23 Nov 2005

The Quest of Economic community in East Asia: Thailand's Perspective

To make the Customs Union in East Asia happen, what is needed the most now are political will and concerted efforts. FTAs should not be the end of economic cooperation in Asia. Instead, the onsolidati...

by Nipon Poapongsakorn | On 22 Nov 2005

Riots in Mau: Report on an Investigation

On October 13-14, 2005 Mau in Uttar Pradesh, India experienced widespread violence and communal tension. Mau has a long history of communal tensions. It is largely rural district with a minority of...

by Rooprekha Verma | On 16 Nov 2005

Envisioning an East Asian Community--the Eu's Perspective and Role

EU's response to the East Asian community has to take account of several dimensions including Issues and dynamics of East Asian regional cooperation and integration; Scenarios of regional Community-bu...

by Willem vd Geest | On 08 Nov 2005

Trade Liberalization, Poverty And Inequality: Evidence From Indian Districts

Although it is commonly believed that trade liberalization results in higher GDP, little is known about its effects on poverty and inequality. This paper uses the sharp trade liberalization in India i...

by Petia Topalova | On 29 Sep 2005

Spatial Inequality and Development: Overview of UNU-WIDER Project

Spatial inequality is a dimension of overall inequality, but it has added significance when spatial and regional divisions align with political and ethnic tensions to undermine social and political st...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 17 Sep 2005

Child Mortality: Beyond Pattrns And Detrminants To Politics And Institutions

Comments on Deolikar's paper: Deolalikar’s paper provides the empirical basis for policy makers to trust their knowledge and provide additional resources (mot merely in monetary terms) to the most v...

by Maitreyi Bordia Das | On 26 Aug 2005

SAARC - Twelfth Summit Declaration 2004

12th SAARC Summit Declaration Islamabad January 2004

by Anonymous | On 13 Aug 2005

SAARC Regional Convention On Suppression O Terrorism

An Additional Protocol to the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, has been prepared recognizing the importance of updating the Convention, in order to meet the obligations devolving...

by Anonymous | On 13 Aug 2005

Agreement On South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)

Motivated by the commitment to strengthen intra-SAARC economic cooperation to maximise the realization of the region's potential for trade and development for the benefit of their people, in a spirit...

by Anonymous | On 13 Aug 2005

SAARC Social Charter

Re-affirms that the principal goal of SAARC is to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia, to improve their quality of life, to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural deve...

by Anonymous | On 13 Aug 2005

SAARC and India: Policy Issues hinge on Security and Democracy

The entire project of SAARC is dependent on India’s capacity to bind the neighbouring states in multiple networks of ties to promote regional cooperation. India not only shares frontiers with all the...

by Rajen Harshe | On 13 Aug 2005