Economics
High Food Prices: An Opportunity for the WFP
Current high food prices illustrate deep-rooted problems all along the agricultural supply chain, rather than simply demand-supply imbalances. Given its inefficiencies, it is best to bypass that system and the WFP is in the enviable position of being able to do so.
A Dynamic Welfare State?
Is it possible to have both a welfare state and a dynamic economy? Sweden offers hope that it is. Ironically, however, the countries best placed to establish sustainable welfare systems might be the ones most skeptical of them.
Subprime Loans and Race Inequality
The NYTimes finds a clear link between subprime lending and race inequality in America, suggesting even in developing countries the availability of credit, by itself, is no solution to poverty.
Inequality, Globalization, and Economic Growth
YaleGlobal’s Bardhan suggests China and India’s poverty reduction miracle may have less to do with economic growth and globalization than previously thought.
The Economist on Private Sector Quotas
For over a year controversy has raged in India over government plans to extend quotas - India’s version of affirmative action for the lower castes - to the private sector. The plans raised the hackles of many, and for the first time led to questioning the real effectiveness of quotas. Now, the Economist has weighed […]
Inequality in the US: India’s Choice
I have written a lot recently on inequality - in India and in Asia. The basic point has been the same - that inequality is bad from a social and moral point, but (as the ADB argues in its report on Asia) also from an economic point of view. In the same vien I pulled […]
Income Inequality in Asia Growing
The ADB has just released a report titled “Key Indicators 2007: Inequality in Asia” (covered in IHT and BBC). The report concludes that the gini index, a measure of relative inequality had grown in all 15 countries studied, since the 1990s. More alarmingly, absolute inequality had grown even more. The bank identified the trend as […]
World Bank Offers $600 million to India
BBC News is reporting the World Bank has approved a USD 600 million loan to India, aimed at “helping millions of poor farmers across India” (original report at Reuters). The money will go to supplement a government sponsored program, worth USD 3.32 billion, to refinance India’s cooperative banks, which would then offer cheaper loans to farmers. […]
