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This study explores the symmetric and asymmetric effects of the shadow economy on clean energy and air pollution of South Asian countries over the period 1991–2019. The short-run ARDL findings for the clean energy model suggest that shadow economy increases clean energy consumption in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, whereas this effect is negative for India and insignificant for other countries. The long-run results indicate the adverse impact only for India and the effects of tax revenue on clean energy are positively significant in Sri Lanka while negatively signiicant in Nepal and Bangladesh. Institutional quality significantly increases clean energy in Pakistan, India, and Nepal. However, in the case of Pakistan and Nepal, institutional quality deteriorated the environmental quality. The results for the pollution model confer that shadow economy increases emissions in Pakistan, decreases in Bangladesh and Nepal, and has no effect in India and Sri Lanka. The nonlinear ARDL results reveal that the positive components of the shadow economy significantly increase clean energy consumption only in Pakistan; however, the negative components of the shadow economy are negatively significant in all countries except Sri Lanka and Nepal. However, the negative component of the informal sector of the economy reduces CO2 emissions in India and increases CO2 emissions in Bangladesh and Nepal. The results offer important policy implications for achieving clean energy and better environmental quality in South Asian countries.

Theory and economic intuition suggest that domestic institutions influence the employment impact of economic reform, but the evidence base is thin. This paper seeks to address this by examining the extent to which differences in regional labour market flexibility shaped the impact of unanticipated economic reforms on employment in informal (unregistered) manufacturing enterprises in India (1990&ndash, 2001). It employs a difference-in-differences strategy and finds that tariff reductions are not associated with significant employment shifts in informal enterprises, a finding that may be attributable to the fact that these enterprises rarely engage in international trade. However, on average and ceteris paribus, delicensing (FDI reform) is associated with statistically significant increases (increases) in informal employment and informal enterprise numbers in inflexible (flexible) labour markets. There is some evidence that the delicensing effect is attributable to increases in product market competition in delicensed industries. However, the channel underlying the result associated with FDI reform is less clear. In light of the persistent primacy of the informal sector in India and other developing economies, these findings have substantial policy relevance.

The interrelationship between the public and private sectors, and formal and informal healthcare sectors effects market-level service quality, pricing behaviour and referral networks. However, health utilisation analysis of national survey data from many low and middle income countries is constrained by the lack of disaggregated health provider data. This study is concerned with the pattern of repeat outpatient consultations for a single episode of fever from public and private qualified providers and private unqualified providers. Cross-sectional survey data from 1173 adult respondents sampled from three districts within India's most populous state-Uttar Pradesh is analysed. Data was collected during the monsoon season-September to October-in 2012. Regression analysis focuses on the pattern of repeats visits for a single episode of mild-sever fever as the dependent variable. Results show that Women and Muslims in rural north India are more likely to not access healthcare, and if they do, consult with low quality unqualified outpatient healthcare providers. For fever durations of four or more days, men are more likely to access unqualified providers compared to women. Results of the current study supports the literature that women's utilisation of outpatient healthcare for communicable illnesses in LMICs is often less than men. A relative lack of access to household resources explains why fever duration parameter estimates for women and men differ.

South Asia is in the midst of a demographic transition. For the next three decades, the growth of the region’s working age population will far outpace the growth of dependents. Close to one million individuals will enter the workforce every month. This large, economically active population can increase the region’s capacity to save and make crucial investments in physical capital, job training, and technological advancement. But for South Asia to realize these dividends, it must ensure that its working-age population is productively employed. As one of the most prominent labor-intensive industries in developing countries, apparel manufacturing is a prime contender. With around 4.7 million workers in the formal sector and another estimated 20.3 million informally employed (combined with textiles), apparel already constitutes close to 40 percent of manufacturing employment. And given that much of apparel production continues to be labor-intensive, the potential to create more and better jobs is immense. There is a huge window of opportunity now for South Asia, given that China, the dominant producer for the last ten years, has started to cede some ground due to higher wages. But the region faces strong competition from East Asia—with Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam already pulling ahead. Plus the sector suffers from production inefficiencies and policy bottlenecks that have prevented it from achieving its potential. Against this backdrop, this report hopes to inform the debate by measuring the employment gains that the four most populous countries in South Asia—Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (hereafter `SAR countries’)—can expect in this new environment of increased competition and scrutiny. Its main message is that it is important for South Asian economies to remove existing impediments and facilitate growth in apparel to capture more production and create more employment as wages rise in China. The successful manufacturers will be those who can supply a wide range of quality products to buyers rapidly and reliably—not just offer low costs.

Empirical research has shown that households in developing countries are unable to sustain current levels of consumption during and after severe health crises due to substantial increase in medical expenditure and/or loss of income. Health events are also found to have an adverse impact on nutritional status and educational attainment of household members. Thus, in this study, we investigate: who are vulnerable to welfare loss from health shocks, what are the household responses to cope with the economic burden of health shocks and if policy responses like state health insurance schemes are effective in reducing the economic vulnerability. We use self-reported measures of health shocks and coping strategies from the longitudinal survey of the ongoing Young Lives project in India [Andhra Pradesh (AP)] to identify the characteristics of vulnerable groups and perform three-level random intercept logistic regression that takes into account contextual or environmental factors. What emerges is socioeconomic status of household (determined by education, wealth, occupation and caste/religious group) and its demographic characteristics like gender of the household head and proportion of elderly and disabled members matter for outcomes related to health events. Households adopt different strategies to cope with the economic costs of ill-health; borrowing is the most widely used strategy. For credit, majority of households rely on informal sources (moneylenders, friends, relatives, etc.) and have little or no access to formal sources. However, health shock to main breadwinner leads to households adopting costly strategies like reducing consumption or sending children to work. We found no evidence that the state health insurance scheme reduced the household welfare loss from health shocks and their coping strategies. The results suggest that health insurance schemes have to be complemented with access to micro-credit and social security schemes for self-employed persons/workers in informal sector to reduce the economic burden faced by households due to health shocks.

We evaluate empirically the impact of the dramatic 1991 trade liberalization in India on the industry wage structure. The empirical strategy uses variation in industry wage premiums and trade policy across industries and over time. In contrast to earlier studies on developing countries, we find a strong, negative, and robust relationship between changes in trade policy and changes in industry wage premiums over time. The results are consistent with liberalization-induced productivity increases at the firm level, which get passed on to industry wages. Since tariff reductions were proportionately larger in sectors that employ a larger share of unskilled workers, the increase in wage premiums in these sectors implies that unskilled workers experienced an increase in their relative incomes. Thus, our findings suggest that trade liberalization has led to decreased wage inequality in India.

Introduction The World Health Organization recommends replacement of trans fat with polyunsaturated fat to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. Although several high-income countries have been successful in reducing trans fat in the food supply, low- and middle-income countries such as India may face additional contextual challenges such as the large informal sector, lack of consumer awareness, less enforcement capacity and low availability and affordability of healthier unsaturated fats. The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of multisectoral policy options aimed at supporting trans fat reduction and its replacement with polyunsaturated fats in India. Methods Multisectoral policy options examined in this study were identified using food supply chain analysis. Semi-structured interviews (n = 17) were conducted with key informants from agriculture, trade, finance, retail, industry, food standards, non-governmental organizations and the health professions to gain their views on the feasibility and acceptability of the policy options. Purposive sampling was used to identify key informants. Data were coded and organized based on key themes. Results There was support for policies aimed at improving the quality of seeds, supporting farmer co-operatives and developing affordable farming equipment suited to smallholders to improve the production of healthier oils. Increasing the role of the private sector to improve links among producers, processors and retailers may help to streamline the fats supply chain in India. Blending healthier oils with oils high in saturated fat, which are currently readily available, could help to improve the quality of fat in the short term. Improving consumer awareness through mass media campaigns and improved labelling may help increase consumer demand for healthier products. Conclusions Reorienting agricultural policies to support production of healthier oils will help increase their uptake by industry. Policy coherence across sectors will be critical to reduce trans fat intakes and could be improved by increasing engagement among researchers, the private sector and government.

We document the evolution of poverty and inequality across Indian states during the recent period of rapid growth (2004-09), and examine the role of growth and distribution in reducing poverty. Robust economic growth has been a major driver of poverty reduction and inclusiveness in India. We explore the role of economic policies and macrofinancial conditions in explaining inclusive growth and its components, using a new measure of inclusive growth. Social expenditures, spending on education, and educational attainment rates are important for fostering inclusive growth. Macro-financial stability, with particular attention to inflation risks, is also criticial for promoting inclusive growth.

While fiscal conditions remain healthier than in advanced economies, emerging economies continue to be exposed to negative spillovers if global conditions were to become less favorable. This paper finds that domestic bond yields in emerging economies are heavily influenced by two international factors: global risk appetite and global liquidity. Using a novel approach, the analysis goes on to show that the vulnerability of emerging economies to these factors is not uniform but rather depends on country specific characteristics, namely fiscal fundamentals, financial sector openness and the external current account balance.

The dynamics of informal health markets in marginalised regions are relevant to policy discourse in India, but are poorly understood. We examine how informal health markets operate from the viewpoint of informal providers (those without any government-recognised medical degrees, otherwise known as RMPs) by drawing upon data from a household survey in 2002, a provider census in 2004 and ongoing field observations from a research site in Koppal district, Karnataka, India. We find that despite their illegality, RMPs depend on government and private providers for their training and referral networks. Buffeted by unregulated market pressures, RMPs are driven to provide allopathic commodities regardless of need, but can also be circumspect in their practice. Though motivated by profit, their socially embedded practice at community level at times undermines their ability to ensure payment of fees for their services. In addition, RMPs feel that communities can threaten them via violence or malicious rumours, leading them to seek political favour and social protection from village elites and elected representatives. RMPs operate within negotiated quid pro quo bargains that lead to tenuous reciprocity or fragile trust between them and the communities in which they practise. In the context of this ‘unfree’ market, some RMPs reported being more embedded in health systems, more responsive to communities and more vulnerable to unregulated market pressures than others. Understanding the heterogeneity, nuanced motivations and the embedded social relations that mark informal providers in the health systems, markets and communities they work in, is critical for health system reforms.

This paper analyses recent macro employment trends in India. Analysis of recent data shows increasing informalisation and flexibilisation of labour and challenges the notion that casualisation is the only manner in which flexibilisation and informalisation of labour is occurring in India. It argues that the concern with decent work has to be based on analysis of labour conditions in all major forms of employment. The paper also discusses the main strategies proposed for introducing labour standards and decent work in the Indian context. We argue that in the recent post economic crisis period, there is greater acceptability to improving labour standards and income distribution as a way of sustaining long term growth. This has raised the profile of those Indian initiatives which build upon social and economic rights. Although this paper is based on detailed Indian empirical evidence, the trends that it adduces and its policy implications are of much greater general significance.

This article presents a description of the migration and labor force characteristics of a sample of Bombay households in three slum areas. Interviews were conducted among 135 households in 1989. Slum areas were both similar and different from one another. Wadala slum had a large migrant population and a more integrated community structure. Slum dwellers tended to retain assets at their place of origin and were from agricultural areas in south Maharashtra. A greater proportion had close kin living in Wadala. Slum dwellers tended to be better-educated, formal-sector workers. Worli slum was less affluent and less close-knit. Migrants were mostly external migrants from Uttar and Andhra Pradesh. Kurla slum was the oldest slum area and had mixed traits. Kin interaction was voluntary and selective and flexible. The decision to return was unrelated to years spent in Bombay. Survey findings indicate that all areas had roughly equal proportions of internal and external migrants. Villagers migrated to cities due to unemployment in villages and the opportunity for social mobility and better employment. This analysis indicates that community-based politics were more influenced by state concerns than by the attributes of settlers or settlement types. State policies and market forces constrained poor people's housing options. The cost of urban housing and amenities rises as population density increases. The demand in urban areas for public services, housing, and infrastructure increases due to expanding populations, inadequate and deteriorating facilities, and social pressures. Governments are constrained by high debt levels and inadequate revenues. National agencies may be inefficient in the provision of services and infrastructure. There is growing pressure on international donors and developing country governments to reexamine the role of the private sector in financing and providing services and infrastructure.

This paper traces the causes of the rapid growth of India’s public debt, with special reference to internal debt. It then demonstrates that the growth of debt would become unsustainable by the end of the 1990s if the present trends continue. It develops a methodology to iterate the path of growth of debt to discover the sustainable level of the primary deficit. Finally, it suggests concrete measures to bring down the primary deficit.

Remittances to India have been growing rapidly since 1991, making it one of the largest recipients of remittances. This paper analyzes the determinants of remittances to India and finds that their growth over time can be explained by the increase in migration and total earnings of the migrants. Remittances are also affected by the economic environment in source countries, and appear to be countercyclical-that is, higher during periods of low economic growth in India. None of the remaining economic or political variables considered in the paper, including political uncertainty, interest rates, or exchange rate depreciation, are found to affect remittances significantly.