Below is given the Table of Contents of the
Issues listed above:
Volume 56.
No 4. January-March, 2009
ARTICLES
/ 1
Distinctiveness of
Globalisation and
its Implications for Labour Markets
An Analysis of Economic History from
1990-2007 Wilfred I. Ukpere
There are divergent opinions about
globalisation. Some sections believe
that it is purely
capitalism, while others contend
that it is internationalisation.
Still others say that it is a
product of technological explosion,
which has resulted in
deterritorialisation or
supraterritorialisation. However, it
would be gravely erroneous to take
one or two variables mentioned as a
basis for an analysis of
globalisation. Although
globalisation is capitalism,
however, capitalism is not
globalisation; globalisation is
internationalisation, however,
internationalisation is not
globalisation; globalisation is
technological explosion, however,
technological explosion is not
globalisation; globalisation is
deterritorialism, however,
deterritorialism is not
globalisation; and globalisation is
supraterritorialism (transnationalism),
however, supraterritorialism is not
globalisation. Since globalisation
represents all others while all
others do not fully represent
globalisation, its distinctiveness
is delineated. Other major areas in
which current globalization can be
distinct from other prodigies are
within the domains of a rise in the
speculative movement of funds,
astronomic increases in
international trade, explosive
international amalgamations and
acquisitions, transnationalisation
of production, advanced
sophisticated technological
innovations, increasing numbers,
activities and powers of
transnational corporations, global
fragmentation and regionalisation
and, within areas of global
competition. This paper contends
that this distinctiveness of
globalisation has dire consequences
for major labour markets and the
concentration of economic power in a
few hands within a global economy
has led to monopoly capitalist
tendencies and a mismanagement of
the world's resources as the current
economic crises demonstrates.
Wilfred I. Ukpere, Faculty of
Business, Cape Peninsula University
of Technology (CPUT), Bellville Cape
Town, South Africa
Email: ukperew@cput.ac.za;
pastorwilfred@yahoo.co.uk
Investment activity is undoubtedly a
source of economic growth,
well-being and economic stability.
Over the years, various theoretical
frameworks have been put forward in
attempt to effectively explain
variations in investment activity.
The undertaken study by drawing on
the theoretical consideration of
accelerator and neo-classical models
provides empirical evidence on their
theoretical viability. In view of
the evidence yielded both
theoretical frameworks appear to be
rather inconsistent, thus
reinforcing the concern of those who
propose alternative ways to explain
investment activity.
Constantinos Alexiou, Assistant
Professor, Polytechnic School,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Department of Rural-Regional
Planning and Development
Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece,
e-mail:
alexio07@otenet.gr
ARTICLES / 3
Economic
Growth, Globalisation and Human
Capital
Empirical Evidence from India D.K. Nauriyal, Bimal K. Sahoo and
Anil Dixit
This paper examines the contribution
of human and physical forms of
capital on the economic growth of
India. The study was primarily
undertaken not only because research
on this issue has important policy
implications but also because there
are not many studies on India which
conclusively point towards the
relative importance of both forms of
capital in the Indian growth
trajectory. The impact of physical
and human capital on real gross
domestic product (GDP) of India is
estimated with a log-linear model;
where GDP per capita as dependent
and per-labour physical capital (PC)
and per-labour human capital (HC) in
conjunction with the dummy
variables, D and D1 for policy
reform and political instability,
respectively, as independent
variables for the reference period
1975-76 to 2004-05. Further,
switching regression is used to
capture the impact of structural
changes arising out of the
initiation of the policy of openness
and globalisation after 1990. The
results, robust in nature, suggest
that post-liberalisation growth in
India owes more to the human capital
than to physical capital.
D.K. Nauriyal and Bimal K. Sahoo,
Dept. of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Indian Institute of
Technology Roorkee.
Email: dknarfns@iitr.ernet.in and
bimaldns@iitr.ernet.in
Anil Dixit, Dept. of Agricultural
Economics, G.B. Pant University of
Agri. & Tech. Pantnagar.
Email:
anil_disip7@rediffmail.com
ARTICLES
/ 4
Non-Parametric Productivity Growth
of Wheat
in India during Post-Green
Revolution Surya Bhushan
A non-stochastic Malmquist
productivity index is estimated
using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
technique to examine the wheat
productivity growth in Indian states
during the post-Green Revolution
period. The method allows the
decomposition of productivity growth
into two mutually exclusive and
exhaustive parts: technological
change and changes in pure technical
efficiency. The decomposition
provides a natural way to
differentiate innovations from
catching up phenomena in India's
agriculture. Technical progress has
been the most significant factor to
wheat productivity growth and will
remain crucial to productivity
growth in the front-runner states as
well as in the backward states. The
further decomposition into pre- and
post-WTO regime, the TFP growth has
actually declined during the latter
period, which evokes policy
responses regarding the
sustainability of wheat production
in particular and agricultural
growth
in general in India.
Trade and Geography
Economies of Scale, Differentiated
Products
and Transport Costs Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien
This article prepared by the
technical committee of Nobel Prize,
is aimed at giving a brief account
of the seminal contributions of
Prof. Paul Krugman, that have given
to him the recognition for winning
the coveted Nobel Prize in
Economics, for the year 2008-09. It
provides an insight into what has
come to be called as New Economic
Geography and its integration into
the traditional Theories of Trade.
It also provides an account of the
various important contributions of
Paul Krugman, on themes, such as,
trade and geography, Strategic trade
policy, integration of economies of
scale into general equilibrium
models, 'canonical' model for the
analysis of exchange rates, The
core-periphery model and location
theory. This write up has been
included here with the permission of
the relevant authorities, with a
view to generating wider debate on
the innovative issues raised by the
Nobel laureate, Prof. Paul Krugman.
Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien, e-mail:
info@kva.se , Website:
www.kva.se ,
Information Department, Box 50005,
SE-104 05, Stockholm, Sweden.
ARTICLES
/ 6
An Analysis of the Performance of
Manufacturing Industries in
Karnataka State Kaliappa Kalirajan and M.H.
Balasubrahmanya
Karnataka's manufacturing sector has
grown steadily in terms of number of
factories,
employment, fixed capital
investment, gross value added and
value of output, over a period of
time. However, the manufacturing
industry has registered a more
impressive growth in the period of
economic liberalisation during
1993-2003 compared to the period of
protection of 1980-1990. The
question examined in this paper is
what has contributed to this
improved manufacturing sector growth
in Karnataka in the post-liberalisation
period? Is the manufacturing sector
performance input-driven or total
factor productivity growth-driven?
The analysis in this paper indicates
that higher industrial growth need
not be accompanied with higher
industrial efficiency.
Are Shocks to Chinese Economic
Growth Symmetric? Paresh Narayan
The goal of this paper is to examine
the symmetric behaviour of economic
growth for 24
Chinese provinces over the period
1952-2003. To achieve this goal, we
use the entropy-based test for
symmetry suggested by Racine and
Maasoumi (2007a, b). We find
statistically strong evidence of
symmetry of shocks. However, when we
consider symmetry in the post-reform
period, we find that economic growth
for Guangxi, Hebei, Shangdong,
Heilongjiang, Hubei, Hunan and
Yunnan are asymmetric. This finding
has implications for econometric
modelling, particularly those that
are based on "growth models".
Competition Act, 2002
Scope For Research Augustine Peter
Competition Act, 2002 enacted in
January 2003, is all set to replace
the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade
Practices Act (MRTPA), 1969.
Competition Act, 2002 is a modern
law which is economics based and
draws from the experience of
established competition agencies in
both developed and developing
countries. It prohibits
anti-competitive agreements,
including cartels and abuse of
dominant position by enterprises,
and regulates combinations (covering
mergers, amalgamations, acquisitions
and acquisition of control), besides
engaging in competition advocacy. As
part of the advocacy mandate the
Commission is currently outsourcing
market studies/research, related to
competition in specific sectors as
well as conceptual issues related to
competition economics, law and
practice.
The new law is expected to be fully
implemented soon with the relevant
sections related to anti-competitive
agreements and abuse of dominance
likely to be notified in the coming
days. This opens up a large field of
opportunity for economic research.
Competition Act, 2002 is an economic
law and the Commission is an expert
body which is expected to take
decisions based on a number of
factors, most of which are of
economic nature. The decision-making
process, as far as the law is
concerned, would involve
considerable extent of economic
analysis. This paper attempts to put
together the salient features of the
Act, along with the evolution of
competition law and the philosophy
driving it, internationally as well
as nationally. Thus the paper
briefly touches upon the evolution
of the competition law from 'form'
or 'structure' based approach to
'effects' based. The transition from
MRTP Act, 1969 to Competition Act,
2002 is also briefly discussed. And
finally some areas of competition
policy, economics and law related
research already completed are
indicated along with identification
of certain useful areas for future
research in this field.
Exchange Rate Intervention and
Volatility of Exchange Rate in India A. Vadivel
This paper explores the
effectiveness of Reserve Bank of
India's intervention on exchange
rate and its volatility. The
generalised autoregressive
conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH)
specifications of percentage change
in rupee/US$ exchange rate is used
to investigate the issue. In
consistence with the stated
objective of the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI), the empirical evidence
indicates that intervention does not
affect the exchange rate. The
exchange rate significantly
appreciates in response to good news
while bad news does not seem to have
impact exchange rate. Also, good
news increases volatility of
exchange rate while bad news does
not affect volatility. We attribute
these evidences to the existence of
asymmetric control over capital
flows in the sense that capital
outflows are relatively more
restricted through administrative
controls as compared to capital
inflows in India.
A. Vadivel, Research Scholar,
Department of Economics, Pondicherry
University. Email:
arjunavadivel@gmail.com
REVIEW
ARTICLE / 1
Trade and Environment—Issues and
Policies
A Survey of Literature Rupamanjari Sinha Ray
This paper presents a comprehensive
survey of literature on the conflict
between international trade and
environment. It has focused on the
literary works on major issues like
comparative advantage, pollution
haven hypothesis, environmental
regulation and enforcement, and
global warming. Developing countries
are worst affected as compared to
the developed countries. On one hand
these countries face trade obstacles
in terms of several environmental
norms. On the other hand, developed
countries, which are already
approaching towards the path of
economic stability, generated global
environmental problems, making less
developed and developing nations
more vulnerable. The government
policies and the NGOs have to play
the major role for sustainable
development and for capacity
building, and new avenues of debate
and research may
be explored in this context of
tackling threats posed by global
warming. The paper is limited as it
could not incorporate the
contributions of all researchers in
this vast field of knowledge.
New Arrivals,
whose Reviews would appear in the
Subsequent Issues of the Indian
Economic Journal:
Labour Regulation in Indian
Industry (Set of 10 Volumes).
General Editor T.S.
Papola. Published by Bookwell,
New Delhi in Association with
the Institute for Studies In
Industrial Development, New
Delhi.
Poverty and Economic Reforms:
The Social Concerns. Edited by
G.S. Aurora.
Published by Academic
Foundation, New Delhi in
Association with the Institute
For Social and Economic Change (ISEC),
Bangalore.
Footprints of Development and
Change:
Essays in Memory of Professor
V.K.R.V. Rao
Commemorating His Birth
Centenary. Editors N. Jayaram &
R.S. Deshpande.
Published by Academic
Foundation, New Delhi in
Association with the Institute
for Social And Economic Change (ISEC),
Bangalore.
Development Perspectives India:
Contributions of P.R.
Brahmananda to the IEJ
(Volume 1 & 2). Editors Raj
Kumar Sen & Biswajit
Chatterjee.
Published by Deep & Deep
Publications Pvt. Ltd., New
Delhi.
Growth, Distribution and Public
Policy: A Study of West Bengal
by Biswajit Chatterjee.
Published by Deep & Deep
Publications Pvt. Ltd., New
Delhi.
New Dimensions of Women
Empowerment by Ajit Kumar
Sinha.
Published by Deep & Deep
Publications Pvt.Ltd., New Delhi
Monetary Policy in a Globalized
Economy: A Practitioner's View
by Rakesh Mohan.
Published by Oxford University
Press, New Delhi.
Trade and Globalization by
Deepak Nayyar.
Published by Oxford University
Press, New Delhi.
Liberalization and Development
by Deepak Nayyar.
Published by Oxford University
Press, New Delhi.
Infrastructure Development and
the Indian Economy by L.N.
Dash.
Published by Regal Publications,
New Delhi.
