global feminization through flexible labor abstract the emphasis on structural adjustment and labor flexibility in both developing and industrialized economies is rapidly altering the nature of employment women are being substituted for men and many forms of work are being converted into the kinds of jobs traditionally geared to women international data on recent trends in female economic activity reveal that new types of labor data are needed to highlight the mechanisms of control over workers and the actual economic forms of vulnerability to which women are exposed the paper concludes by posing questions that challenge the traditional concerns of donors and policy makers in many developing countries

mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of growth the case of india abstract this paper analyzes whether mass education is more growth enhancing in developing countries than having a minority well educated elite using indian census data as a benchmark and enrollment rates at different levels of education we compute annual attainment levels for a panel of 16 indian states from 1961 to 2001 results indicate that if the reduction in illiteracy stops at the primary level of education it is not worthwhile for growth instead the findings reveal a strong and significant effect on growth of a greater share of population completing tertiary education the economic impact is also found to be large a one percent change in tertiary education has the same effect on growth as a 13 decrease in illiteracy rates a sensitivity analysis shows the results are unlikely to be driven by omitted variables structural breaks reverse causation or atypical observations

women and globalization a study of 180 countries 1975 2000 how do rising levels of international interconnectedness affect social economic and political conditions for women research on gender and international relations frequently offers clear propositions but seldom submits them to broad quan titative testing this article begins to fill that gap we advance the hypothesis that on balance and over time increasing cross national exchange and communication lead to improvements in women s status and equality economic aspects of global ization can bring new opportunities and resources to women but equally important globalization promotes the diffusion of ideas and norms of equality for women in an analysis of 180 countries from 1975 to 2000 employing cross sectional time series regression techniques we examine the impact of several measures of global ization on women s levels of life expectancy literacy and participation in the economy and parliamentary office international trade foreign direct investment membership in the united nations un and world bank and ratification of the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women cedaw are asso ciated with improved conditions for women how do rising levels of international interconnectedness affect the social eco nomic and political conditions for women competing hypotheses are easy to identify indeed research on gender and international relations sometimes offers clear propositions but seldom submits them to broad quantitative testing this article begins to fill that gap we expect to find a considerably mixed picture some women will benefit from globalization and some will be hurt the status of women will improve in some respects but not others nevertheless we advance the hypothesis that on balance and over time increasing cross national exchange

economic development and gender equality is there a gender kuznets curve this research note examines the relationship between economic development and gender equality drawing on the concept of the kuznets curve the authors hypothesize that the relationship between economic development and gender inequality is curvilinear s shaped with three distinct stages in the first stage economic development improves gender equality because it enables greater female labor force participation an independent income stream increases women s intrahousehold bargaining power the opportunity to develop human capital confers greater political and social recognition in the second stage labor force stratification and gender discrimination encourage divergent male female income trajectories which decrease the opportunity costs of female labor force withdrawal and lend traction to social resistance against burgeoning gender norms consequently there is a deceleration in initial equality gains in the final stage gender equality again improves as greater educational participation and technological advancement provide new employment opportunities for women increase the opportunity costs of staying home and encourage the evolution of new social institutions and norms that overcome prior discriminatory practices the authors find support for this argument in statistical tests of the relationship between economic development and gender equality on a panel of 146 developing countries for the period 1980 2005 they employ four indicators that reflect distinct dimensions of women s political social and economic status they find economic development positively influences gender equality when per capita incomes are below 8 000 10 000 these equality gains level off or decline slightly in the second stage from 8 000 10 000 to about 25 000 30 000 beyond this level economic development is again associated with improvements in gender equality the key implication is that the effect of economic development on gender equality is contingent on the level of development policymakers and social activists should develop policy correctives to ensure that economic development confers improvements in gender equality across phases of development

the enigma of india india s high growth over the last fifteen years has inspired several recent books and papers to examine the growth s source and sustainability the two volume study by arvind virmani being a case in point this paper evaluates these recent works it is argued that the cause of the take off does not fit into any easy ideological category as suggested by virmani the current high growth has been achieved in several steps with distinct factors of propulsion behind each step there is reason to expect the growth to be sustainable although destabilizing political tensions will arise from the increasing inequality the paper also evaluates how india s growth relates to the global economy

the effect of trade openness on women s welfare and work life summary this study of 134 countries analyzes whether women are generally the losers or winners of globalization the results show that economic integration does not directly improve women s life expectancies women s access to primary and secondary education may improve slightly although women s welfare does not seem to improve more than that of men on the other hand economic integration does influence women s professional lives in developing countries trade openness increases female labor force participation in industrialized states it decreases the share of working women trade openness in developed countries increases the number of women employed in the service sector while in developing states it increases the number of women working in industrial jobs and in agriculture

neopatrimonialism and the political economy of economic performance in africa critical reflections during the past two decades neopatrimonialism has become the convenient all purpose and ubiquitous moniker for african governance the school of thought behind this research program which the author refers to as the neopatrimonialism school has produced an impressive literature on africa its analysis informs policymakers and its language permeates media reportage on african states while neopatrimonialism has long been a focus of development studies in recent times it has assumed politically and economically exigent status the school identifies causal links between neopatrimonialism and economic performance and makes predictions drawing from what is referred to as the logic of neopatrimonialism neopatrimonialism is said to account for trade policies hyperinflation economic stagnation low investment in infrastructure urban bias andultimately the lack of economic development in africa this article examines the empirical basis of predictions and policy prescriptions it argues that while descriptive of the social practices of the states and individuals that occupy different positions within african societies the concept of neopatrimonialism has little analytical content and no predictive value with respect to economic policy and performance

the v factor distribution timing and correlates of the great indian growth turnaround we analyze a panel of output series for india disaggregated by 15 states and 14 broad industry groups using principal components bai 2004 bai and ng 2004 we find that a single common v factor captures well the significant shift in the cross sectional distribution of state sectoral output growth rates since the 2nd half of the 1980s the timing of the turnaround implied by the v factor is more closely related to the pattern of policy reforms than has been found in previous research regression based analysis also provides some insights into the uneven distribution of the turnaround across indian states

debt deficits and inflation an application to the public finances of india abstract the paper studies the solvency of the indian public sector and the eventual monetization and inflation that would be implied by stabilization of the debt gnp ratio in the absence of changes in the primary deficit the nonstationarity of the discounted public debt suggests that indefinite continuation of the pattern of behavior reflected in the historical time series process is inconsistent with the maintenance of solvency this message is reinforced by the recent behavior of the debt gnp ratio and of the ratio to gnp of the sum of the primary budget surplus and seigniorage our estimates of the base money demand function suggests that even maximal use of the inflation tax would not be sufficient to restore solvency measures to reduce the primary deficit are therefore unavoidable

shifting fortunes the political economy of financial liberalization in nigeria abstract on the recommendation of the world bank nigeria began to liberalize its financial sector in 1986 contrary to the prediction of financial repression theory savings and investment decline in the wake of banking deregulation by 1995 the nigerian financial system was in a state of collapse the paper locates the main failure of nigeria s financial deregulation in the political and institutional setting of reform the institutional mechanisms needed to supervise and regulate banking under the new system were absent while private sector banking capacities were weak moreover financial liberalization was quickly captured by a clientalist state as a means of reallocating rents to strategic constituents an additional precipitating factor was macroeconomic instability the paper points to the importance of incorporating political and institutional variables into any model of financial reform or transformation

economic reforms in india since 1991 has gradualism worked opinions on the causes of india s growth deceleration vary world economic growth was slower in the second half of the 1990s and that would have had some dampening effect but india s dependence on the world economy is not large enough for this to account for the slowdown critics of liberalization have blamed the slowdown on the effect of trade policy reforms on domestic industry however the opposite view is that the slowdown is due not to the effects of reforms but rather to the failure to implement the reforms effectively this in turn is often attributed to india s gradualist approach to reform which has meant a frustratingly slow pace of implementation however even a gradualist pace should be able to achieve significant policy changes over ten years this paper examines india s experience with gradualist reforms from this perspective

trade taxes and tribute market liberalizations and the new importers in west africa this paper examines dynamics of state business relations in the era of trade liberalization in senegal and cote d ivoire it challenges the orthodox view that replacing nontariff barriers such as licenses and quotas with tariffs depoliticizes trade reduces commercial rent seeking activities and creates a level playing field which will encourage underground activities to surface allowing the state to capture more revenue the paper illustrates that liberalization failed to suppress commercial rent seeking helped to encourage the ascendancy of new politically connected merchant groups the mourides in senegal and the lebanese in cote d ivoire and to some degree increased tax evasion leading to the further erosion of state revenue flows the cases show that trade centered rentierism is rooted in structural features of these west african economies

top indian incomes 1922 2000 this article presents data on the evolution of top incomes and wages for 1922 2000 in india using individual tax return data the data show that the shares of the top 0 01 percent 0 1 percent and 1 percent in total income shrank substantially from the 1950s to the early to mid 1980s but then rose again so that today these shares are only slightly below what they were in the 1920s and 1930s this u shaped pattern is broadly consistent with the evolution of economic policy in india from the 1950s to the early to mid 1980s was a period of socialist policies in india whereas the subsequent period starting with the rise of rajiv gandhi saw a gradual shift toward more pro business policies although the initial share of the top income group was small the fact that the rich were getting richer had a nontrivial impact on the overall income distribution although the impact is not large enough to fully explain the gap observed during the 1990s between average consumption growths shown in national sample survey based data and the national accounts based data it is sufficiently large to explain a non negligible part of it

is india s economic growth leaving the poor behind there has been much debate about how much india s poor have shared in the economic growth unleashed by economic reforms in the 1990s the authors argue that india has probably maintained its 1980s rate of poverty reduction in the 1990s however there is considerable diversity in performance across states this holds some important clues for understanding why economic growth has not done more for india s poor india s economic growth in the 1990s has not been occurring in the states where it would have the most impact on poverty nationally if not for the sectoral and geographic imbalance of growth the national rate of growth would have generated a rate of poverty reduction that was double india s historical trend rate states with relatively low levels of initial rural development and human capital development were not well suited to reduce poverty in response to economic growth the study s results are consistent with the view that achieving higher aggregate economic growth is only one element of an effective strategy for poverty reduction in india the sectoral and geographic composition of growth is also important as is the need to redress existing inequalities in human resource development and between rural and urban areas

gender and trade aspects of labour markets we provide a comprehensive up to date review of the large body of theory and evidence on the linkages between trade liberalisation and gender inequality in income as well as two of the latter s key underlying determinants wages and employment on balance the evidence for developing countries points to an overall beneficial impact of trade expansion on female employment both relative to male employment and in absolute terms although largely concentrated in unskilled manufacturing by contrast the bulk of the evidence suggests a widening gender wage gap as a result of freer trade

economic reform and political transition in africa the quest for a politics of development the 1980s were bracketed by crises in africa as protracted economic malaise was succeeded by a wave of political reform analysts have sought to understand the sources of economic decline as well as the political requisites for recovery in the region neoclassical and structuralist analyses have been challenged by state centric views of economic change the latter perspective emphasizes the need for capable developmental states as a basis for long term adjustment but a political theory of economic change is still lacking such a theory must address the institutional foundations of growth as well as the shifting basis of social coalitions in african regimes political liberalization suggests the possibility of a new setting for economic reform though the effects of political reform on institutions and coalitions remain ambiguous and democratization cannot be regarded as a panacea for the region s developmental failure future research must look more closely at the interests and structures in transitional regimes and scholars should adopt a more comparative vantage on africa s challenges of reform

economic liberalization and indian economic growth what s the evidence india s growth and poverty performance over the last three decades has been a subject of great curiosity unlike the east asian countries india s growth spurt is not associated with exceptionally high domestic savings or foreign capital inflows or manufacturing exports so what triggered the change in the growth trajectory did the market liberalization policies of the 1990s help how have the initial conditions shaped the process and how has the indian model impinged on india s central problem of mass poverty this paper surveys the literature and offers its own assessment of the drivers of change jel i32 o13 o14 o15 o21 o47

market reform as a stimulus to particularistic politics we know little about how market reform affects political development especially citizens behavior market reform advocates prescribe that citizens should reduce their reliance on the state turn to nonstate actors for assistance and obtain limited state goods and services through their membership in certain social categories not their particular traits an analysis of three mass surveys and 232 interviews the author conducted in central asia along with additional data from 24 postcommunist countries reveals that market reform can have effects opposite from those prescribed individuals may make particularistic demands of government officials instead of relying on nonstate actors this occurs in countries where state economic intervention was substantial and where reforms reduced the state s economic role but failed to develop market enhancing institutions under these conditions individuals informally seek resources from state officials because nonstate actors do not offer substitute resources and

international integration and national corruption we argue that greater degrees of international integration lead to lower levels of corruption which we define as the misuse of public office for private gain we theorize that international factors affect a country s level of corruption through two principal channels one acts through economic incentives altering for various actors the costs and benefits of engaging in corrupt acts the second mode is norma tive prevailing norms in international society delegitimate and stigmatize corrup tion countries that are more integrated into international society are more exposed to economic and normative pressures against corruption we therefore test the fol lowing hypothesis the more a country is tied into international networks of ex change communication and organization the lower its level of corruption is likely to be the analysis of data from approximately 150 countries strongly confirms our expectation

international capital flows identifying the gender dimension abstract this paper explores the main issues involved in examining the gender impact of international capital flows to developing countries it argues that at the macroeconomic level women lose more than men from slow and or unstable economic growth financial crises and meltdowns and even more so the longer and deeper the economic downturn because without a social security system the family and women have many additional burdens women should formulate an agenda of their own with respect to international monetary reform and some proposals are outlined in this respect including those involving capital controls

food market reform the changing role of the state abstract the liberalization and privatization of food markets has been an important feature of economic reform programmes in many developing countries and donor conditionality has been applied to this end however the agenda needs to move beyond this to the establishment of efficient and equitable marketing systems a major constraint on this has been the weak base of theoretical and empirical knowledge about the characteristics of food markets on which reform programmes have been built three principal areas are identified where further research policy experimentation and sharing of experience are required the role of the state in relation to collective action by market participants the problem of food price instability and the delivery of support to the small scale private sector that has taken over many marketing functions