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This paper is concerned with the analysis of growth using cross-country/ state growth regressions. The paper uses the example of state level growth in India and a case study of the growth experience of the state of Kerala in the 1990s. In practise empirical results using cross-country/ state growth regressions remain disappointing. Orthodox analysis tends to stop with the assumption that it is only an empirical problem. This paper goes on to show that there are also theoretical and finally methodological-ideological problems why empirical results are poor. Each successive problem is engaged with by fewer and fewer researchers. In conclusion, this paper makes a case for the greater use of country case studies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some informal institutions increase in prevalence while other informal institutions decline? We study why dowry deaths have increased with economic development in some Indian states but have decreased in others. We argue that when economic development is low, traditional institutions rather than state institutions govern behaviour. But as economic development increases to a high level, modern formal institutions replace traditional informal institutions. Women are increasingly exploited and murdered over dowry as incomes increase from a low level, but fewer deaths occur as incomes increase from a high level. We test this argument using a dataset of dowry deaths in years 2001–2011 for 32 Indian states and territories. Our paper contributes to understanding how exploitation through informal institutions rises and falls with economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective relations between states and business have been increasingly identified as an important institution for sustaining economic development. This paper constructs quantitative indices measuring the quality of state-business relations (SBRs) across Indian states in the 1985-2008 period. It represents the first effort to systematically characterise SBRs across sub-national units within a country without resorting to subjective surveys. We discuss the possible sensitivity of the indices to minor and major definitional changes and examine the evolution of SBRs across Indian states and at the national level through the study of cross-sectional and secular trends in these indices. The results suggest that SBRs have improved over time in all states barring Bihar. Rankings of states in terms of the SBR index show varying time trends-stable and high ranks for states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, stable and low ranks for states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, rapidly improving ranks for states like Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and swift deterioration in ranks for states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the process of convergence and catching-up among major Indian states during 1980/81-2004/05-a period of economic liberalisation and accelerated economic growth, and also analyses the factors that enhance economic growth and lead states towards an identical steady state. In particular, we examine the role of agricultural conditions in this process. Results indicate absolute divergence in income levels across states. However, after controlling for structural characteristics of states there is a strong tendency of convergence among states. Physical infrastructure and human capital are found to enhance economic growth, but alone are not sufficient for convergence. For convergence, the investment in physical infrastructure and human resources should be accompanied by a reduction in employment pressure on agriculture by improving labour market linkages of agriculture with non-agricultural sectors, and by promoting growth-enhancing labour-intensive agricultural technologies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines livelihood conditions and explores policy options for mitigating poverty among tribal communities in Gujarat state, which is experiencing rapid economic growth and widening disparities where tribals are the most poor and deprived. While labour force diversification and migration are important coping mechanisms, these alone may not help lift a large number of the poor out of the poverty trap, which to a large extent is linked to degradation and lack of proper entitlement for managing and using forest resources among these communities. Forest-based livelihood options assume special significance especially in the wake of the emerging policy framework for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, where the main thrust could be on combining regeneration and conservation of forests with right kind of incentives for ensuring sustainable management and use of forest resources within the region. The mechanism of ‘compensated conservation’ proposed by India could prove very useful in this context. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the growth rates of household saving, public saving, corporate saving and economic growth in India using multivariate Granger causality tests. The conventional wisdom suggests that the causality flows from saving to economic growth. We show that the causality goes in the opposite direction for India. Hence, higher saving is the consequence of higher economic growth and not a cause. Such evidence is consistent with models of habit formation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of India's reservation policy to help the small-scale enterprises. Empirical tests showed three main results. Firstly, reservation has increased the number of production units, per item produced. Secondly, the units that produce mainly reserved items have higher levels of installed capacities, than those making mainly unreserved items, but the former do not have higher levels of production, thereby resulting in significantly lower levels of capacity utilisation. Thirdly, reservation has not helped reduce the problem of closures of small units. The empirical results suggest that reservation may have brought little help to production and employment in the small-scale units nor to the consumers of their products, while at the same time it may have restricted production and employment in the large units. Thus reservation may have caused a loss in overall economic welfare. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies the dynamics of chronic poverty in rural India. The article attempts to analyse the factors influencing the incidence and mobility of poverty and the changes in the influence of these factors over time. This article uses the household panel survey data collected by NCAER. It examines whether there has been change in the influence of factors such as village level infrastructure, household size and composition, and economic growth on poverty dynamics in different periods of time. The impact of a number of factors changes over time implying that the strategies for poverty reduction would have to take into account the changing economic environment. The article further presents an analysis of growth rate of per capita expenditure for the same set households to analyse the extent of consumption growth, which is also an indicator of poverty reduction for rural India. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class relationships are amongst the fundamental drivers of development, and it is argued here that over the next 30 years a major influence on the pattern and path of development will be exerted by the rise of the ‘new middle classes’ of Asia. At the same time, in the context of the blocked transition of the present, it seems unlikely that those who are marginalised and excluded will be able adequately to organise resistance, much less change structures of power, but poverty will be managed through welfare interventions like India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]