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61. India's Growth in the 2000s: Four Facts

Author:
Arvind Subramanian and Utsav Kumar
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
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 findings are reported. First, consistent with the fact that the 2000s was the best ever decade for Indian macroeconomic performance, growth increased across almost all major states in 2001–09 compared to 1993–2001. Second, nevertheless, there is a continued phenomenon of divergence or rising inequality across states: On average the richer states in 2001 grew faster in 2001–09. Third, during the crisis years of 2008 and 2009, states with the highest growth in 2001–07 suffered the largest deceleration. Since states with the highest growth were also the most open, it seems that openness creates dynamism and vulnerability. Finally, although the demographic dividend—a young population boosting economic dynamism—was evident before 2000, there is little evidence that there was any dividend in the 2000s. Demography alone cannot be counted on for future economic growth.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

62. Multivariate Life Table Methodology for Estimating the Effect of Child Mortality on the Total Fertility Rate and Its Components

Author:
Hassan Eini-Zinab
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
This paper develops, validates, and applies new multivariate methodology to assess the effect of child mortality on both period and cohort measures of fertility. The methodology, which can be applied to period data as well as cohort data, is based on discrete-time survival models of parity progression that enable construction of a multivariate life table of fertility covering all parity transitions. The five dimensions of this life table are woman's age, parity, duration in parity, and two dimensions representing lagged child mortality (number of dead children at the beginning and end of the previous year when the woman was one year younger). Additional socioeconomic predictor variables are also included in the underlying survival models. The life table is multivariate in the sense that it can be specified for values or categories of one socioeconomic predictor variable while holding other socioeconomic predictors constant. The life table yields a number of measures of both the quantum and the tempo of fertility and child mortality. It also yields a replacement rate, which measures the extent to which child deaths are replaced by additional births. Because the life table is multivariate, all measures calculated from it are also multivariate. By way of illustration, the methodology is applied to three Indian National Family Health Surveys conducted in 1992–93 (NFHS -1 ), 1998–99 (NFHS -2 ), and 2005–06 (NFHS -3 ). Major findings are that dead children are incompletely replaced, and that the replacement rate rises as the total fertility rate falls over the three surveys, reflecting women's increasing ability to achieve their wanted number of surviving children.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, Health, and Social Stratification

63. Race, Crime, and Punishment: Breaking the Connection in America

Author:
Keith O. Lawrence (ed)
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
More than 2.3 million people in america are in jail or prison.sixty percent are african american and Latino.Of all the statistics portraying racial inequity in our country, this is the most alarming: it indicates the failure of so many of our society's institutions; it predicts dire consequences for millions of children and families of color who are already at socioeconomic disadvantage; and it challenges the very definition of our democracy.
Topic:
Crime, Race, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
United States and America

64. Social Inclusion in Mumbai: Economics Matters Too

Author:
Robert M. Buckley
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
This paper questions the accuracy and validity of the criticisms made by Ananya Roy on the approach of a Mumbai based NGO, the Society to Promote Area Resource Centers (SPARC) and its partner grassroots federations in Mumbai. This includes the suggestion that the focus on sanitation rather than on land tenure is an appeal to middle-class values about cleanliness and that the support for relocating those who lived right next to the railway tracks made them agents of the state. But SPARC's support for community toilets was in response to what grassroots organizations asked for and these also have high social returns. SPARC's support for resettlement for those living along the railway tracks was for those who were going to be moved and this support allowed those who were to be resettled to have far more influence on where, when and how the resettlement took place. Here too, the social returns from faster, safer trains meant costs saved that were more than the costs of providing good quality accommodation for those who had to move.
Topic:
Development and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
India, Asia, and Mumbai

65. Security of Property Rights for Whom?

Author:
Terra Lawson-Remer
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Although protecting the entitlements of some requires preventing others from claiming and controlling those same resources, much recent research regarding property rights and economic development treats the level of property rights security in a country as homogeneous. Widely used cross-national indices of institutional quality—initially designed to assess the property security of foreign investors—fail to consider marginalized groups. Using a new indicator that measures the property insecurity of ethno-cultural minorities, this article finds significant variation in the risk of expropriation faced by different groups in the same country. Findings also show that although secure property rights for elites ma y be positively related to development, aggregate long-run growth occurs in the presence of significant property insecurity for marginalized minorities.
Topic:
Security, Development, Economics, Human Rights, and Social Stratification

66. Patient Preferences, Concerns, and Satisfaction with Providers before the Chinese Urban Health System Reform: A Social Groups Analysis

Author:
Qunhong Shen and Liyang Tang
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
Many Chinese express dissatisfaction with their healthcare system with the popular phrase Kan bing nan, kan bing gui ("medical treatment is difficult to access and expensive"). Critics have cited inefficiencies in delivery and poor quality of services. Determining the pattern of patient satisfaction with health services in China-and the causes of patient dissatisfaction-may help to improve health care not only in China but in countries in similar predicaments throughout the world.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Social Stratification, and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
China

67. Catastrophic Payments and Impoverishment Due to Out-of-Pocket Health Spending: The Effects of Recent Health Sector Reforms in India

Author:
Soumitra Ghosh
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
Out-of-pocket payments are the principal source of health care finance in most Asian countries, and India is no exception. This fact has important consequences for household living standards. In this paper the author explores significant changes in the 1990s and early 2000s that appear to have occurred as a result of out-of-pocket spending on health care in 16 Indian states. Using data from the National Sample Survey on consumption expenditure undertaken in 1993-94 and 2004-05, the author measures catastrophic payments and impoverishment due to out-of-pocket payments for health care. Considerable data on the magnitude, distribution and economic consequences of out-of-pocket payments in India are provided; when compared over the study period, these indicate that new policies have significantly increased both catastrophic expenditure and impoverishment.
Topic:
Economics, Health, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
India

68. How Did the 2008 Economic Crisis Affect: Social and Political Solidarity in Europe?

Author:
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
One possible outcome of the economic crash of 2008 was that the majority or mainstream members of a society would direct their anger and fear against the minority or marginal members of their society. Commentators on television or the radio would claim, "it's all the fault of the immigrants!" or "if we didn't hand over so much of our tax dollars to the poor, the economy would not have deteriorated so much," or "social benefits to African Americans [or German Turks] have distorted the housing market." Citizens would come to believe these assertions, politicians would echo them – and the upshot would be not only a deteriorating national and international economy but also increased hostility and fear among racial, ethnic, or nationality groups in a country. Social solidarity would decline, perhaps irrevocably.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, Politics, Social Stratification, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, America, Europe, and Germany

69. Something for nothing: Challenging negative attitudes to people living in poverty

Author:
Clare Cochrane
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
People living in poverty in the UK make a vital contribution to the economy and society through unpaid caring and community work. But public attitudes prevail that people on low incomes – and particularly those on benefits – are 'scroungers' who are to blame for their own poverty. These attitudes are exacerbated by a widespread assumption that opportunities to earn a reasonable income are readily available.
Topic:
Poverty, Social Stratification, and Public Opinion
Political Geography:
United Kingdom

70. Group Inequality and Conflict: Some Insights for Peacebuilding

Author:
Michelle Swearingen
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Political, socioeconomic or cultural inequalities among groups could potentially motivate political violence in societies. Research has shown that political inequalities between groups are most likely to motivate leaders, while socioeconomic inequalities motivate followers.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Political Violence, Humanitarian Aid, and Social Stratification