Search results

This chapter is intended to investigate the ramifications of foreign trade regime on the technological front in relation with the impact of between trade liberalization on the process of skill formation in dual economy setting and thereby, the wage dynamics facing the skilled and unskilled labor. The ideation toward this end is owed to the seminal literature concerning the connection between free trade and economic dualism, general and the implication of such nexus on skilling process, in particular. Hence, based on the above dispensation, it may be possible to analyze the consequence of free trade on knowledge economy (wherein, the knowledge essentially purports to technical skill, proficiency in various aspects of work and perhaps, to some extent, the case of innovation) and additionally, what it impinges on welfare and economic development for less developed countries. The theoretical underpinning of the baseline model is based basically on the dualistic structure of the economy with regional specifications of the factors. In this framework, it has been examined that under the condition liberal trade policy in a less developed country, featured by reduced tariff, how it makes up for the formation of knowledge capital in the presence of technology-intensive export sector employed skilled and, in such process, if wage inequality gets exacerbated or otherwise. This is further drawn to investigating the implicit change in the propensity of rural–urban migration of unskilled labor, consequent upon the escalation openness to foreign trade; in what holds out significantly as regards the persistence of economic dualism, in general and balanced growth phenomenon between urban and rural sectors, in particular.

Several factors have influenced the pattern of regional development in India. Among these factors, the incidents of terrorist activities, and the resultant disturbance in law and order which have caused serious harm to socioeconomic and business environment are supposed to be crucial. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to find out the extent of damage in economic activities as well as in the process of implementation of regional development programmes caused particularly by the “Maoist Movements” in the “Red Corridors” in India. The emergence of the activists of Maoist groups in some of the poorest districts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana has given rise to this Red Corridor. In particular, the study attempts to bring into glare how the proneness to Maoist disturbance can jeopardize the objective in terms of fostering rural development in the backward regions of India through the formation of self-help groups (SHGs). In this study, the sample districts have been chosen from the drought-prone and backward regions of West Bengal. Further, these sample districts have been divided into Maoist-prone and non-Maoist-prone areas. The results show that the growth of SHGs formed particularly by the poor women of these areas under the rural development and self-employment program of the government was severely affected by the terrorist activities, and there is a positive correlation between the incidences of defunct SHGs (DSHGs) and the left-wing extremism in Maoist-prone regions of West Bengal during that period.

This chapter seeks to analyze the development across the length and breadth of the Indian financial system in the post-reform period, based on the “flow of funds” accounts estimates by RBI. Besides, this chapter also analyzes the integration of the Indian capital market with the stock markets of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore using the movements in their stock prices during 1998–2015. Moreover, this chapter is intended for examining the potential implication financial integration, particularly the financial openness of India, on volatility spillover and financial contagion in as much as these two issues have emphatic significance in the determination of the relevant policy roadmap. Our findings broadly confirms the expectations by revealing significantly positive correlations in stock prices, in returns to investments in stock markets, and in mean returns and risk. The integration of the capital markets is also manifested in the cyclical fluctuations of the stock price indices, signifying the underlying sensitivity to random shocks.

This chapter attempts to highlight the economic perspective behind the rising incidence of terrorism across the world that has impinged a serious threat to the sustainability of mankind. Based on the sample of 123 countries all over the world, it has sought to analyze the relationship between the intensity of terrorism faced by a country and the level of its economic development. Moreover, classifying terrorist activities as externally sponsored and internal militancy triggered by extremist outfits, this chapter seeks to identify which type of terrorism is more pronounced in a country and the underlying economic considerations. Besides, in this study, an attempt has been made to examine the extent to which a country’s military expenditure is attributable to the degree of terrorism it is exposed to.

The conflict between economic growth and sustainable development is foregone and there is prodigious literature examining the nature and causes of such trade-off. Keeping with this dispensation, the current chapter examines the dynamics of such trade-off in Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans (R–C–K) optimal growth-theoretic lines. The model developed in the chapter departs from the fundamental feature of R–C–K framework in as much as the capital is considered on a broader spectrum having its marginal productivity being increasing in nature and it considers a centralised economy with the planner maximising discounted utility over per capita consumption (private good) and pollution (public bad) over the infinite horizon of time. The study reveals potential trade-off between consumption and environmental emission quiet emphatically for the developed, developing and less developed countries, in both single equilibrium and multiple equilibrium cases. Besides, the study examines the impact of rise in population growth and fuel price on the steady-state equilibrium with respect to per capita capital, relative intensity of energy usage, emission and consumption using comparative static exercise.