Below is given the Table of Contents of the
Issues listed above:
Volume 55.
No 3. Oct-Dec, 2007
ARTICLES
/ 1
On Freeing Interstate Food
Grain Trade in India P.V. Srinivasan and Shikha Jha
Governments in developing countries
often actively participate in
storage and trading activities to
allay fears of future scarcity and
to control 'collusive practices' and
'speculative activities' of private
operators. Imposition of domestic
trade restrictions is one such
ubiquitous phenomenon. In this
paper, we analyse the impacts of
relaxation of restrictions on
private domestic trade of food
grains in India using a spatial
equilibrium model of interstate
trade. With liberalisation of trade,
arbitrage opportunities determine
interstate movement of grains. Our
findings show that as trade
restrictions are relaxed, prices
stabilise across states and there
are welfare gains to producers and
consumers at the national level.
Market prices in surplus regions
increase with greater opportunities
for trade and decline in previously
high price, deficit regions.
Government costs are lower as there
is a reduced need to procure grains
for price support purposes.
Encouraging investment for better
transport infrastructure can provide
further welfare gains by
reducing costs of private traders.
P.V. Srinivasan, Professor, Indira
Gandhi Institute of Development
Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India.
Email: srini.pv@gmail.com
Shikha Jha, Senior Economist, Asian
Development Bank, Manila,
Philippines.
Email: sjha@adb.org
ARTICLES
/ 2
Volatility Impact of Political and
Economic Events on Stock Prices
Empirical Evidence from Taiwan Song Zan Chiou Wei and Zhen Zhu
This paper provides empirical
evidence regarding the important
impacts of economic and political
events on stock price volatility.
Our study investigates the
volatility dynamics of daily stock
market returns in Taiwan using a
Markov switching autoregressive
conditional heteroscedasticity (SWARCH)
model developed by Hamilton and
Susmel (1994). Our empirical results
show that the SWARCH models provide
a better description of the data for
Taiwan than the conventional ARCH
models. In addition, the volatility
regimes identified by our model
appear to correlate well with major
events.
Song Zan Chiou Wei, Graduate
Institute of Economics, Nan-Hua
University, Taiwan.
E-mail: chiouwei@mail.nhu.edu.tw
Zhen Zhu, Department of Economics
and International Business, College
of Business, University of Central
Oklahoma, Edmond. Email: zzhu@ucok.edu
ARTICLES / 3
Growth and Composition of Rural
Non-farm Employment in India
in the Era of Economic Reforms Sankar Kumar Bhaumik
This paper reviews the development
of the rural non-farm sector in
India during the period 1983 to
2004-05. Specifically, we examine
the incidence and growth of rural
non-farm employment in India and her
15 major states in the pre- and
post-economic reforms periods.
Besides examining the composition of
rural non-farm employment, we
identify the emerging sub-sectors
within the rural non-farm sector in
the post-reforms period. We also
compare the growth rates of farm and
non-farm employment to explain rapid
occupational diversification in
rural India during the period of
economic reforms.
The author is Professor, Department
of Economics, Calcutta University,
Kolkata, India. Email: bhaumiksk@yahoo.co.in
ARTICLES
/ 4
Social Security in the Context of
Extreme
Poverty and Vulnerability in India Aswini Kumar Mishra
Estimate shows that there were 115
million extremely poor or hard core
poor people in India during 2004-05.
This paper gives a profile of these
extremely poor and core vulnerable
groups in India by looking at some
major dimensions of insecurity and
vulnerability of this large chunk of
population and examines how these
dimensions of insecurity are
correlated to the conventional
poverty measures. The paper argues
for social protection from human
rights perspective and suggests that
it is high time to introduce and
enact the much awaited Unorganised
Sector Workers' Social Security Bill
in the Parliament and implement the
recommendations of the Working Group
on Social Protection Policy—National
Social Assistance Programme and
Associated Programmes, especially
meant for the unemployable
destitute, by letter and spirit to
make a dent on extreme poverty and
vulnerability.
The author is ICSSR Doctoral Fellow,
Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for
Development Studies, Bhubaneswar,
Orissa. E-mail: mishra.aswini@gmail.com
ARTICLES
/ 6
Modelling Compositional Economic
Data Terence C. Mills
Compositional data occur in several
areas of economics, such as in
systems of equations that relate
shares to a total. Such systems
should ensure that the shares are
restricted to lie
between zero and one and that the
sum of all shares should be equal to
one, i.e., the shares should lie in
the unit simplex. While the latter
restriction is typically taken into
account by recognising the
singularity of the share equation
system, the simplex restriction has
often been ignored. The analysis of
compositional data has a long
history in statistics but its
application to economic data is
quite limited. This paper surveys
such applications after setting out
the statistical framework of
compositional data sets. Several
examples are then presented to
illustrate the usefulness of this
approach to economic modelling.
Terence C. Mills, Department of
Economics, Loughborough University.
Email: t.c.mills@lboro.ac.uk
ARTICLES
/ 7
Potential Competition in the Indian
Manufacturing Sector* T.A. Bhavani and N.R. Bhanumurthy
In the background of the economic
policy reforms of 1991 that is
expected to have instilled
competitive forces in the Indian
industry, the present study focuses
on one of the important aspects of
competition—potential competition.
This is studied in terms of still
existing policy regulations that
deter competition. In particular,
the paper considers general rules
and regulations that are complex and
make doing business difficult, and
policies relating to trade, foreign
direct investment and labour.
Empirical analysis of the study
suggests that there remain many
policy regulations acting as
barriers to competition. It is
essential to simplify general
business rules, reduce tariff rates,
liberalise restrictive foreign
direct investment policies, and
revamp complex and comprehensive
labour legislation to further
competition.
T.A. Bhavani, Institute of Economic
Growth, University of Delhi, Delhi-
110 007.
E-mail: adi@iegindia.org
N.R. Bhanumurthy, Institute of
Economic Growth, University of
Delhi, Delhi- 110 007. E-mail:
bhanu@iegindia.org
ARTICLES
/ 8
Export-led Growth in South Asia
A Panel Evidence Ranjan Kumar Dash and Rajesh
Kumar
This paper empirically verifies the
Export-led Growth (ELG) hypothesis
for five South Asian countries using
panel data for the period 1991 to
2005. Recently developed tests for
the panel unit root, heterogeneous
panel cointegration, and panel-based
error correction models are employed
to derive reliable result. Strong
support for a long-run relationship
among exports, imports, and real
output were found after allowing for
the heterogeneous country effect.
Causality results indicate one-way
causality running from exports to
GDP, supporting the ELG hypothesis.
Therefore, this study supports the
view that export is the engine of
growth under liberalised trade
regime.
Ranjan Kumar Dash, Research
Consultant (RBI Unit), Institute of
Economic Growth (IEG), Delhi. Email:
rkumardash@yahoo.com
Rajesh Kumar, Research Consultant
(Macro Division), National Council
of Applied Economic Research (NCAER),
New Delhi.
Email: rkumar@ncaer.org , rk_econ@yahoo.com
COMMUNICATION
FOR DEBATE & RESEARCH / 1
The Emerging Poverty Scenario
Alternative Development Paradigm for
Poverty Elimination V.M. Rao
This paper argues that at the
present juncture in India's
development the window of poverty
elimination provides the appropriate
perspective to search for an
alternative development paradigm.
The holistic view of poverty which
is now gaining acceptance in
development economics clearly brings
out the barriers which frustrate
even accelerated growth in reaching
the goals of inclusive growth,
equity and social justice. The
alternative development paradigm
outlined in this paper is based on
the premise that market, planning
and decentralisation need to be
viewed not as substitutes but as
complements in rethinking the
strategy issues in India's
development. The paper seeks to
characterise the present development
status and, in its light, identifies
the precise roles which the three
components need to play in the
emerging development phase.
The author is at the Institute for
Social and Economic Change,
Bangalore.
Email:
vmadiman@hotmail.com
COMMUNICATION FOR DEBATE AND
RESEARCH / 2
Does Cable Competition Really Work?
A Survey of Cable TV Subscribers in
Texas Joseph P. Fuhr Jr. and Stephen
Pociask
In Texas lawmakers passed
legislation intent on streamlining
the cable TV franchising process by
reducing barriers to entry. The
legislation established a new market
entry process, whereby cable TV
providers could receive speedy
approval to serve anywhere in the
state. In contrast, the old market
entry process required approval on a
municipality-to-municipality basis,
a time consuming process where some
formal requests for market entry
were never approved. This paper
explores the following questions—to
what degree did changes in the Texas
cable TV franchising process
encourage entry and competition,
and, if it did, how quickly do
consumer benefits materialise? To
address these questions, this paper
reports on a survey of 883 cable TV
consumers living in three newly
competitive Texas communities. The
results show that cable TV and video
service competition came quickly and
appeared to be quite significant.
The evidence presented in this paper
finds that competition works to
produce lower prices and sizable
consumer benefits. This supports the
notion that the local franchising
process can be
a barrier to entry and that
streamlining this process can lead
to increases in consumer welfare.
This means that similar market
barriers to entry in other countries
can be addressed with similar
positive economic and consumer
benefits.
Joseph P. Fuhr Jr., Professor of
Economics, Widener University,
Chester, PA, USA; Senior Fellow, The
American Consumer Institute Reston,
VA, USA.
Email: jpfuhr@widener.edu
Stephen Pociask, President, The
Amerian Consumer Institute Reston,
VA, USA.
Email:
steve@theamericanonsumer.org
BOOK
REVIEW/1
Gandhian Way: Peace, Non
–Violence and Empowerment
Edited by Anand Sharma
(Academic Foundation, Delhi,
2007,Rs.3000, pp320)
Reviewed by Dr V.R. Panchamukhi,
Former Chairman, Indian Council of
Social Science and Research, Delhi
BOOK
REVIEW/2
The First Ten K.R. Narayanan
Orations:
Essays by Eminent Persons on the
Rapidly Transforming Indian Economy
Edited by Raghbendra Jha
(Published by ANU E Press, The
Australian National University,
Canberra Act 0200, Australia E-mail:
anuepress@anu.edu.au , pp xxi + 209)
Reviewed By Dr Pulin B. Nayak,
Director, Delhi School of Economics,
Delhi University Delhi.
