This paper estimates the effect of access to transportation networks on regional economic outcomes in China over a twenty-period of rapid income growth. It addresses the problem of the endogenous placement of networks by exploiting the fact that these networks tend to connect historical...

Household surveys from 13 developing countries are used to describe consumption choices, health and education investments, employment patterns and other features of the of the economic lives of the “middle classes†defined as those whose daily consumption per capita is between $2 and...

This paper analyze the colonial institutions set up by the British to collect land revenue in India, and show that differences in historical property rights institutions lead to sustained differences in economic outcomes. Areas in which proprietary rights in land were historically given to...

This paper investigates the institutional causes of China's Great Famine. It presents two empirical findings: 1) in 1959, when the famine began, food production was almost three times more than population subsistence needs; and 2) regions with higher per capita food production that year suffered...

I first document that the introduction of the One Child Policy dramatically increased sex selection in certain regions, and that the Chinese government responded to this by allowing parents who had a daughter as their first child to try for a second child. Next, I show that the increase in...

This paper examines changes that have (and have not) occurred – at the village level in Karnataka where most or the state’s residents live, and at higher levels when they impinge upon villages – since 1972. Substantial changes have occurred on many (though certainly not all)...

The gives an idea about the North-eastern region (NER) by giving area, population and desnity of population. The paper speaks about how important is the primary sector, dependency ratio, shifting cultivation, irrigation intensity, High Yielding Varities. It also says about the paddy cultivation,...

The Overseas Development Institute in the UK recently carried out a study on ICT for rural livelihoods, commissioned by InfoDev. The study included a literature and donor review in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies, and country studies carried out with partners in...

If one were to look at the process of economic development as one where individuals experience improvements in the scope of the choices that they can meaningfully exercise and are reasonably free to develop their latent abilities, without suffering from limitations of birth, sex, caste, creed,...

The States, relative to the Centre, have taken the centre-stage in the reform process since the areas of highest national priority now fall essentially within the purview of the States. The unique and productive partnership between the RBI and the State Governments in securing the progress of...