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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Green Growth And The Right To Energy In India, Rohit Azad, Shouvik Chakraborty Dec 2018

Green Growth And The Right To Energy In India, Rohit Azad, Shouvik Chakraborty

PERI Working Papers

Can growth in India be simultaneously made equitable and environ- mentally sustainable? The recent pattern of high growth in India has been inequitable even as serious questions have been raised about its ecological sustainability. In contrast to the current growth trajectory, this paper argues that an alternative growth trajectory can be de- veloped which answers the question in the affirmative. We propose an Energy Policy with Equity (EPE), which fundamentally changes the energy mix of the Indian economy towards greener forms of en- ergy as well as guarantees universal access to energy thus generated to the entire population, a feat …


Can Farmers Adapt To Higher Temperatures? Evidence From India, Vis Taraz Dec 2018

Can Farmers Adapt To Higher Temperatures? Evidence From India, Vis Taraz

Economics: Faculty Publications

Projections suggest that the damages from climate change will be substantial for developing countries. Understanding the ability of households in these countries to adapt to climate change is critical in order to determine the magnitude of the potential damages. In this paper, I investigate the ability of farmers in India to adapt to higher temperatures. I use a methodology that exploits short-term weather fluctuations as well as spatial variation in long-run climate. Specifically, I estimate how damaging high temperatures are for districts that experience high temperatures more or less frequently. I find that the losses from high temperatures are lower …


Retesting The Dual Sector Model In India And Brazil, Jiade Xiao Oct 2018

Retesting The Dual Sector Model In India And Brazil, Jiade Xiao

International Review of Business and Economics

India and Brazil are developing countries and emerging markets, enjoying economic development in the recent decades. The development experience of both countries may provide persuasive evidences in supporting or disapproving the economic theories. Arthur Lewis’ structural-change theory focuses on the transition of economic structure with the character from depending heavily on agricultural sector to the character with more contribution from industrial sector occurring in the developing countries. His model of dual sector, as an important part of the structural-change theory, argues that the labor moving from agricultural sector to industrial sector associated with the migration from rural area to urban …


Productivity, Competition, And Empowerment? The Experience Of Pondicherry Fisherwomen In The Context Of Neoliberal Development, Amelia Colliver Oct 2018

Productivity, Competition, And Empowerment? The Experience Of Pondicherry Fisherwomen In The Context Of Neoliberal Development, Amelia Colliver

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The subject of this study is female fisherwomen from the fishing village of Veerampattinam in Tamil Nadu who have experienced impacts of neoliberal economics in India. Neoliberalism is here defined as a political economic movement that determines the viability of both an individual and a government based on its economic productivity. Populations reliant on traditional livelihoods are not as efficient as mechanized sectors of their industry, and therefore they are often separated from easy access to their livelihoods by neoliberal policies. This is especially true for women, who are frequently left behind in neoliberalism because their work is considered less …


Skålén, Fougère & Fellesson, Marketing Discourse: A Critical Perspective (2012), Yuichiro Hidaka Sep 2018

Skålén, Fougère & Fellesson, Marketing Discourse: A Critical Perspective (2012), Yuichiro Hidaka

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of Cleft Lip And Palate Repair Surgery On Cognitive And Academic Outcomes For Teens In India, R Jeremiah Maller Aug 2018

The Impact Of Cleft Lip And Palate Repair Surgery On Cognitive And Academic Outcomes For Teens In India, R Jeremiah Maller

Master's Theses

India has a backlog of nearly one million patients in need of cleft lip and palate repair. Unrepaired cleft results in social stigma and diminished health, psychological wellbeing, and academic functioning. Cleft repair surgery has the potential to restore functioning in these domains. However, the magnitude of the social, educational, and economic impact of cleft repair surgery has not been evaluated using statistically rigorous methods. An estimation of the academic and educational impact of cleft repair has implications for the appropriate allocation of public health resources. We analyze original data gathered from teenagers in West Bengal, India using the difference-in-differences …


Exploring The Technological Frontier To Fuel Future Growth: Charting India’S Trajectory For Coming Decades, Abhith Pallegar Jun 2018

Exploring The Technological Frontier To Fuel Future Growth: Charting India’S Trajectory For Coming Decades, Abhith Pallegar

International Review of Business and Economics

The paper aims to discuss the world of fast-paced technology from a Darwinian standpoint and examines the technological choices made by countries and the impact of such choices on their economic growth. The paper explores how a country’s economic growth is dependent on the strategic technological choices they make. By clubbing together the fate of countries and companies, we intend to simplify the narrative and explore a few key aspects such as the diminishing relevance of competitive behavior and ways of adapting to and adopting new technologies to become an evolutionary driver in a technology-centric world. This review highlights the …


The Causal Impact Of Cleft Lip And Palate Surgery On Psychological Wellbeing, Sam Manning May 2018

The Causal Impact Of Cleft Lip And Palate Surgery On Psychological Wellbeing, Sam Manning

Master's Theses

Cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P) are birth conditions in which a newborn has an opening in the roof of their mouth or a slit in their upper lip. Left untreated, CL/P can lead to speech impediments and an unsightly orofacial deformity. However, a sequence of simple, common surgical procedures can restore function with minimal scarring. To date, the psychological effects of being born with CL/P have been investigated in the literature, but the restorative impact of CL/P surgery on psychological wellbeing has not been rigorously evaluated. This study uses a quasi-experimental approach to estimate the impact of being born …


The Effect Of Parental Death On Children’S Wellbeing, Monil S. Shah May 2018

The Effect Of Parental Death On Children’S Wellbeing, Monil S. Shah

Theses and Dissertations

I study the effect of parental death on a child’s wellbeing, including workforce participation, education, marital status and health. Using propensity score matching, I find that parental death leads to worse outcomes for children who lose a parent compared to those with two parents, with negative effects exacerbated for daughters.


The Environmental Effects Of Economic Growth Of China And India Its Impact On Brazil, Russia, India, China, And South Africa (Brics), Shonjira Chaiwat May 2018

The Environmental Effects Of Economic Growth Of China And India Its Impact On Brazil, Russia, India, China, And South Africa (Brics), Shonjira Chaiwat

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone discusses the environmental effects of economic growth, focusing on China and India and its relations with the BRICS pact. China and India have an impacted increasing population within their borders. With the increase of population and struggles for economic growth, these countries are creating a detrimental environment. In this capstone, I review the theory of ecological civilization as well as the Kuznet Curve Hypothesis. Although within the past few decades the BRICS have used unsustainable practices, they have signed the Paris Climate Agreement in order to combat climate change, which means they will use more sustainable methods for …


Reproductive Work And Female Labor Force Participation In Rural India, Sirisha C. Naidu, Smriti Rao Apr 2018

Reproductive Work And Female Labor Force Participation In Rural India, Sirisha C. Naidu, Smriti Rao

PERI Working Papers

The current debate over female labor force participation in India has failed to sufficiently account for the reproductive work of women. Using NSS data on reproductive labor, we investigate the possibility that a “reproductive squeeze” raises the opportunity costs of labor force participation for women. A variety of multinomial logit regressions reveal a robust positive relationship between the shares of non-discretionary food and non-food expenditure and the likelihood of performing reproductive labor, relative to being in the labor force. We also find that an indicator of greater social provisioning by the state is positively correlated with rural women’s labor force …


Cash Shortages And Black Money: A Look At India's 2016 Demonetization Effect, One Year Later, Amitabh S. Dutta Ph.D., Kishore G. Kulkarni Ph.D. Mar 2018

Cash Shortages And Black Money: A Look At India's 2016 Demonetization Effect, One Year Later, Amitabh S. Dutta Ph.D., Kishore G. Kulkarni Ph.D.

International Review of Business and Economics

The decision of demonetization announcement in November 2016, by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, was surprising to the general public and controversial to the economic thinkers. While the opponents of such a step have gone through actual calculation of the cost of demonetization in terms of potential GDP loss (2% as predicted by the former Prime Minister and Oxford Economist, Manmohan Singh) some supporters have pointed out the big benefits of this step. In recent days a talk of demonetization has become a “hot potato” that very few want to hold on to. Politically this has become …


Microfinance And The Decision To Invest In Children’S Education, P.V. Viswanath Feb 2018

Microfinance And The Decision To Invest In Children’S Education, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers

Although one of the primary objectives of microfinance has been the reduction of poverty through the provision of credit for income-generating purposes, evidence of its impact on poverty has been mixed. Even if there is no direct impact of microfinance, there may be an indirect positive impact through the effect of microcredit availability on families’ decisions to invest in their children’s education. In this paper, I describe a study undertaken to gauge the impact of microcredit availability on education expenditures for children of clients of a South Indian microfinance institution. I first look at some determinants of the demand for …


A Study On Air Pollution And Environmental Challenges In Chennai City, R. Dhanalakshmi Ph.D. Jan 2018

A Study On Air Pollution And Environmental Challenges In Chennai City, R. Dhanalakshmi Ph.D.

International Review of Business and Economics

Environmental pollution is a severe issue in both developed and developing countries. Pollution is defined undesirable state of natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities. There is clear relationship between the growth manmade green house gas emissions and observed environmental climate change are claimed by policymakers. The most important causes of air pollution are human economic activities such as use of vehicles and industrial operations mainly in Chennai city. Air pollution is various types such as noise, water, air. It causes damages that are normally inflicted in society at large rather than on those …


Impact Of Air Pollution In Tamil Nadu, A. Premkumar, V. Vinoth Jan 2018

Impact Of Air Pollution In Tamil Nadu, A. Premkumar, V. Vinoth

International Review of Business and Economics

This paper outlines the impact of air pollution in Tamil Nadu. Air pollution is the any form of solid, liquid and gaseous substance present in the atmosphere that may or tend to be injurious to human beings, other living creatures, plants, property or the environment in general. Air pollution is probably one of the most serious environmental problems confronting our civilization today. Most often, it is caused by human activitiessuch as mining, construction, transportation, industrial work, agriculture, smelting, etc. However, natural processes such as volcanic eruptions and wildfires may also pollute the air, but their occurrence is rare and they …


Migration, Crises And Social Transformation In India Since The 1990s, Smriti Rao, Vamsi Vakulabharanam Jan 2018

Migration, Crises And Social Transformation In India Since The 1990s, Smriti Rao, Vamsi Vakulabharanam

Economics and Global Studies Department Faculty Works

Since liberalization, urban migration in India has increased in quantity, but also changed in quality, with permanent marriage migration and temporary, circular employment migration rising, even as permanent economic migration remains stagnant. We understand internal migration in India to be a re-ordering of productive and reproductive labor that signifies a deep transformation of society. We argue that this transformation is a response to three overlapping crises: an agrarian crisis, an employment crisis, and a crisis of social reproduction. These are not crises for capitalist accumulation, which they enable. Rather, they make it impossible for a majority of Indians to achieve …


Reproductive Work And Female Labor Force Participation In Rural India, Sirisha C. Naidu, Smriti Rao Jan 2018

Reproductive Work And Female Labor Force Participation In Rural India, Sirisha C. Naidu, Smriti Rao

Economics and Global Studies Department Faculty Works

The current debate over female labor force participation in India has failed to sufficiently account for the reproductive work of women. Using NSS data on reproductive labor, we investigate the possibility that a “reproductive squeeze” raises the opportunity costs of labor force participation for women. A variety of multinomial logit regressions reveal a robust positive relationship between the shares of non-discretionary food and non-food expenditure and the likelihood of performing reproductive labor, relative to being in the labor force. We also find that an indicator of greater social provisioning by the state is positively correlated with rural women’s labor force …


The Specter Of Caste, Kabir Raj Khanna Jan 2018

The Specter Of Caste, Kabir Raj Khanna

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.


Voices Of Women: The Impact Of Women's Political Reservations On Female Child Mortality In India, Kohsheen Sharma Jan 2018

Voices Of Women: The Impact Of Women's Political Reservations On Female Child Mortality In India, Kohsheen Sharma

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper uses state-level variation in the implementation of the 73rd amendment in India to observe the relationship between political reservations for women in local government and female child mortality. Nationally, reservations for women are not associated with a statistically significant difference in female child mortality. However, a state by state analysis shows variations in the level of impact of reservations on the topic of female child mortality. This paper examines the constraints on female representatives and their level of effectiveness in executing pro-female policies given the political and social environment. The two case studies on Kerala and Haryana explore …


A Study On Problems Faced By Female Child Labor In Unorganized Sector Of Palladam Taluk In Tirupur District, J.A. Arul Chellikumar, P. Paramasivam Jan 2018

A Study On Problems Faced By Female Child Labor In Unorganized Sector Of Palladam Taluk In Tirupur District, J.A. Arul Chellikumar, P. Paramasivam

International Review of Business and Economics

Child labor in India is to be found in almost every sector of the informal economy. Despite India´s fast economic growth since the 1990s, many challenges remain for youth at risk, particularly the girl child. The Indian Girl Child who faces gender discrimination on various levels. Due to her lower status in the society, a girl child laborer is even more deprived. Child labor is still a prevalent issue in India. Gender is a crucial determinant of whether a child engages in labour. While child labour is an infringement of the rights of all children boys and girls alike girls …


From Well-Heeled To Tip-Toed, Shoe-Shine To Shoe-Lace: Monopolistic Competition And Product Differentiation In Men's Footwear, Vishal Kumar, Satish Y. Deodhar Ph.D. Jan 2018

From Well-Heeled To Tip-Toed, Shoe-Shine To Shoe-Lace: Monopolistic Competition And Product Differentiation In Men's Footwear, Vishal Kumar, Satish Y. Deodhar Ph.D.

International Review of Business and Economics

For many decades, the only branded footwear Indians knew was Bata. After years of economic liberalization; however, one finds many local, national, and international firms jostling for customer attention by producing various types of branded footwear. In fact, India has now emerged as the second largest producer of footwear in the world. The Indian footwear market can be described today as a stylized case of a monopolistically competitive market. In this study, we focus our attention on men’s formal shoes which are differentiated by variations in many attributes such as heel, toes, colour, surface, laces, buckles and brands. Invoking hedonic …


Three Essays On Maternal And Child Health, Mandar V. Bodas Jan 2018

Three Essays On Maternal And Child Health, Mandar V. Bodas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of three separate essays on the health of women and children. In the first essay, I along with my co-authors, analyzed the impact of two large, national-level health policies (the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)) on maternal health outcomes (proportion of institutional deliveries) in India. We used data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) and found that the JSY and the NRHM had a greater impact on institutional deliveries in high-focus states. We also found that the conditions of the public health facilities, did not change after the …


A Lesson In Learning: Improving Learning Outcomes In India Via Pedagogical Innovation, Rhea Handa Jan 2018

A Lesson In Learning: Improving Learning Outcomes In India Via Pedagogical Innovation, Rhea Handa

Scripps Senior Theses

When delivered well, education is key to addressing a host of individual and societal ills, from poverty and disease to crime and poor voter engagement. India has demonstrated considerable progress in improving various aspects of its primary education system, including infrastructure and buildings, teacher-student ratios, and school enrollment. However, student learning outcomes remain consistently low across the country. A review of the literature surrounding learning outcomes has highlighted gaps in school instruction and has shown the dire need for innovations in pedagogy and curriculum to improve student learning. This paper assesses the long-term impact of one such pedagogy, called Teaching …


An Approach To The Problem Of Employment In India, Deepankar Basu Jan 2018

An Approach To The Problem Of Employment In India, Deepankar Basu

Economics Department Working Paper Series

The challenge of employment in the Indian economy, especially after it growth acceleration since the mid-1980s, relates to its quality rather than its quantity. While employment growth has kept pace with the labour force over the long run, what has grown is informal employment. The coexistence of rapid capital accumulation, robust output growth and lack of growth of formal employment can be understood using the well-known Harris-Todaro model of a dual economy. This framework highlights the key role of the wage gap between the modern and traditional sectors as a determinant of urban informal employment. Hence, one of the most …


Reaching The Unreached: The Role Of Information Communication Technologies On Agency Of Women In India, Suvena Yerneni Jan 2018

Reaching The Unreached: The Role Of Information Communication Technologies On Agency Of Women In India, Suvena Yerneni

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, I analyze the impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) on female empowerment in India. In defining female empowerment, I consider the three dimensions of agency: social autonomy, economic autonomy, and mobility. Using nationally-representative data of 2012 from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS), I find that these information communication technologies, measured by ownership and use, have positive and significant impacts on female agency and decision-making abilities. I extend my analysis to two types of media: computers and mobile phones. These results persist even after accounting for the effects of education, income, and age of women.


Migration, Crises And Social Transformation In India Since The 1990s, Smriti Rao, Vamsi Vakulabharanam Jan 2018

Migration, Crises And Social Transformation In India Since The 1990s, Smriti Rao, Vamsi Vakulabharanam

PERI Working Papers

Since liberalization, urban migration in India has increased in quantity, but also changed in quality, with permanent marriage migration and temporary, circular employment migration rising, even as permanent economic migration remains stagnant. We understand internal migration in India to be a re-ordering of productive and reproductive labor that signifies a deep transformation of society. We argue that this transformation is a response to three overlapping crises: an agrarian crisis, an employment crisis, and a crisis of social reproduction. These are not crises for capitalist accumulation, which they enable. Rather, they make it impossible for a majority of Indians to achieve …


Culture And Colonial Legacy: Evidence From Public Goods Games, Latika Chaudhary, Jared Rubin, Sriya Iyer, Anand Shrivastava Jan 2018

Culture And Colonial Legacy: Evidence From Public Goods Games, Latika Chaudhary, Jared Rubin, Sriya Iyer, Anand Shrivastava

ESI Working Papers

We conduct a public goods game in three small towns in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Due to historical military conquest, until 1947 these towns were on (barely) opposite sides of a colonial border separating British India from the Princely States. Our research design offers a treatment comparison between the towns of (British) Kekri and (Princely) Sarwar, and a control comparison between (Princely) Sarwar and (Princely) Shahpura. We find no significant difference in contributions to home town groups, but a significant difference in contributions to mixed town groups. Participants in (British) Kekri are more co-operative (i.e., contribute more) in mixed …


Human Development And Subnationalism: A Disaggregated Analysis Of Indian States: Kerala And Uttar Pradesh, Manika Garg Jan 2018

Human Development And Subnationalism: A Disaggregated Analysis Of Indian States: Kerala And Uttar Pradesh, Manika Garg

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates achievements in human development outcomes on health, education, and poverty indicators across Indian states, in order to discern what factors might influence a state’s better orientation toward social policies. After conducting data analysis, the study explains differences in outcomes, as achieved by Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, by building an argument of subnational solidarity and its impact on determining the state’s policy agendas.