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This paper responds to the recent advocacy of subjective wellbeing in policy evaluation with an investigation of food security in rural Chhattisgarh, India, in 2010-2013. Conceptually, it suggests the need to move beyond a primary focus on happiness to consider a broader-based investigation into people's subjective perceptions. In particular, it introduces a multi-domain model with some affinities to the capability approach, which asks what people think and feel themselves able to be and do. Methodologically, it suggests that the primary reliance on quantitative measures should be complemented by more qualitative approaches to give a more rounded appreciation of how people view their lives. Three approaches are presented: qualitative analysis of interview text; statistical analysis comparing a single measure of happiness with a broader, domain-based approach; and mixed qualitative and quantitative data generated from an individual case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advance of the human development perspective has seen education being established not just as a means of development but as an end in itself. This has created a case for focusing on mass education, even if it implies lower growth rates in the initial years. Such an approach is bound to influence the very pattern of development over the long run. For one, a sustained emphasis on mass education within a framework that assures adequate social security could increase the well-being of workers to a point where it affects the choices they make. In this paper a combination of a simple mathematical model and the experience of the south Indian state of Kerala is used to suggest some patterns of development over the long term that this approach throws up. It argues that the effects of this approach could be wide-ranging, including contributing to the creation of non-agrarian villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to examine the role of technological efforts and firm size in determining the export behaviour of firms belonging to the basic chemical industry in India. The basic chemical industry is an important industry that provides intermediate chemicals to firms operating in diverse industries in both India and abroad. In this study technological efforts have been considered in terms of in-house R&D, import of embodied technology, and import of disembodied technology. Three different econometric models, namely, the Tobit, the two-part (Probit + Truncation) and the sample selection (Heckman), have been used for estimation and the results have been compared. The authors find evidence in support of the view that export behaviour of the firm can be modelled in a more appropriate manner using a two-part or a sample selection model rather than the popular Tobit model. The results of the econometric exercise confirm that technological efforts, firm size and other firm-specific characteristics are important in explaining the export behaviour of the firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]