Wednesday, May 25, 2011

31 May 2011: A Chronicle of Corruption and Transparency in Brazil

Eduardo Graeff

Date: May 31, 2011
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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30 May 2011: Veterans and Ethnic Cleansing in the Partition of India

Steven Wilkinson
Yale University

Abstract:
This paper analyses the pattern of ethnic cleansing during and after
the partition of India, using new all-India data on both the
precipitants of violence and the scale of ethnic cleansing. The paper
shows that the pattern of cleansing is in fact much more varied than
many accounts suggest. Our main finding is that the levels of
cleansing are associated with larger numbers of frontline veterans in
a district; ethnic cleansing requires not just the motivation for
violence, or the existence of a security crisis, but also military
skills and organization. While the link between veterans and violence
has been asserted before, especially for Punjab, this is the first
paper to demonstrate the relationship empirically, and to show that
frontline experience, rather than military training per se, is the
crucial factor.

The relationship between veterans and political mobilization arguably
has implications for other post-1947 developments in India, such as
the Punjab movement, and also perhaps shifts in patterns of central
spending in some states.

Date: May 30, 2011
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

31 May 2011: Robust Plans, Contingent Plans and Complementary Plans: A Framework for Resilient Urban Development

Arnab Chakraborty
University of Illinois

Abstract:
The practice of planning for urban development is often too focused on developing a single plan for a single desirable future and fails to adequately consider uncertainties and possible alternative futures. Uncertainties often arise from forces beyond the control of a single planning agency, for example, changes in projected trends in global oil prices, shift in central government priorities, or private sector dynamics. Uncertainties may greatly affect the efficacy of plans. Using the case of Washington DC, Arnab will demonstrate how to systematically incorporate uncertainties in the plan making process and use this framework to identify robust, contingent, and complimentary decisions and plans in an intergovernmental and strategic planning context such as the NCR. He argues that while a single future driven plan may be tempting to make and enforce; the institutional complexity of modern cities and metropolitan regions make a desirable future largely unavailable to planners. Instead planners should think systematically about uncertainty to improve the efficacy of plans and resiliency of cities.

Date: May 31, 2011
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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26 May 2011: Political Leadership and Economic Reforms :The Brazilian Experience in the Context of Latin America

Eduardo Graeff

Abstract:
The attached paper,Political Leadership and Economic Reforms, commissioned by the Growth Commission will be discussed at the BBL .The discussion will bear on Brazil as a case study of the role and limitations of political leadership for economic reforms.

Date: May 26, 2011
Time: 12:30 P.M.

Venue:
Second Floor Conference Room
The World Bank,
70 Lodi Estate,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Monday, May 23, 2011

25 May 2011: India in the Global Economy: The Next 15 Years

Arvind Panagariya
Columbia University

Abstract:
India will be the world’s third largest economy in the next 15 years with a GDP of some US$ 7 trillion. It will also be the provider of a very large, globally mobile work-force. But India also faces major challenges in the next 15 years, with a key one being the absorption of a currently underemployed workforce in agriculture into productive employment in manufacturing and services, and preparing India’s youth for the role they will play as global workers. How Indian policymakers design and implement policies today that will affect these challenges will have a large bearing on India’s role in the global economy of the future.

Date: May 25, 2011
Time: 03:30 P.M.

Venue:
Committee Room
National Council of Applied Economic Research
Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi-110002(INDIA)

Location:
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Friday, May 20, 2011

24 May 2011: Urban Growth and Rural Poverty in India: Evidence from National Sample Survey and Poverty Map Data

Peter Lanjouw and Rinku Murgai
World Bank

Date: May 24, 2011
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

18 May 2011: Child Sex Ratios in India, China and South Korea: Causes, Trends and Consequences

Monica Das Gupta
World Bank

Date: May 18, 2011
Time: 03:30 P.M.

Venue:
Committee Room
National Council of Applied Economic Research
Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi-110002(INDIA)

Location:
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19 May 2011: Who speaks for the poor in Karnataka?

Jeffrey Hammer
Princeton University

Abstract:
Who is more aware of peoples' preferences: elected Grama Panchayat members or Grama Panchayat Secretaries -the state's representatives at local level? Using a baseline survey for a study of grants to GP's in the poorer areas of Karnataka, we find that members' preferences over how to spend public money are much closer to those of villagers, especially of poorer villagers, than are those of the state representatives. The paper develops measures of preferences, their similarity between people and explanations for this similarity. Implications for the degree of discretion that is implied in the 73rd amendment is discussed.

Date: May 19, 2011
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Committee Room
National Council of Applied Economic Research
Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi-110002(INDIA)

Location:

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Monday, May 16, 2011

16 May 2011: Capital Goods Trade and Economic Development

Piyusha Mutreja
Syracuse University

Abstract:
We embed a multi-sector, multi-country Ricardian model of trade into a
neoclassical growth framework. We argue that international trade in
capital goods is crucial to understand cross-country di?erences in
capital formation and in income per worker. In our sample of 86
countries in 2005, over 80 percent of capital goods production in the
world is concentrated in 9 countries; poor countries import most of
their capital goods. Barriers to capital goods trade result in a
misallocation of factors both within and across countries. We
calibrate the model to bilateral trade ?ows. Our model accounts for 82
percent of the observed log variance in capital stock per worker, 53
percent in income per worker and 84 percent in the relative price of
capital goods. Furthermore, the elasticity of the relative price of
capital goods with respect to income per worker is -0.51 in the model
and -0.47 in the data, while the elasticity of the price of
consumption is 0.42 in the model and 0.51 in the data. Shutting down
trade in capital goods forces poor countries to allocate productive
resources away from the sector of their comparative advantage, thereby
reducing capital stock formation as well as TFP. The welfare cost of
such a shut down is 25 percent for countries in the bottom decile of
the income distribution.

Date: May 16, 2011
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room 2,
Indian Statistical Institute Delhi Centre,
7, S. J. S. Sansanwal Marg,
New Delhi-110016 (INDIA)

Location:

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16 May 2011: Decentralization, Local Governance, and Social Wellbeing in India: Do Local Governments Matter?

Rani D. Mullen
College of William & Mary in Virginia, USA

Abstract:
Over the past three decades, decentralization has been seen as the
means for allowing local governments to become more accountable, and
for encouraging the deepening of democracy and the building of village
communities. By drawing on original village-level case studies of six
villages in three different Indian states, this book presents a
systematic analysis of the impact of decentralization on the delivery
of social services at the local level within India.

Supplementing national and state-level data and analyzing the
different historical legacies in each state, the book argues that
decentralization is not simply a function of the structure of the
decentralization program or of the relationship between higher-tiered
and local government. Rather, the possibility of decentralization
affecting social outcomes depends on several interacting factors,
including the distribution of power among local elites, the dynamics
of political competition, and the level of civil society mobilization.
By examining constitutionally-mandated political decentralization
across India, this book identifies the circumstances under which local
government structures can lead to improved social services and
societal wellbeing, as well as presenting a major contribution to
studies on South Asian Politics and Local Government.

Date: May 16, 2011
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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18 May 2011: Sri Lanka's Public Health Inspectors: Lessons for Low-Income Countries

Monica Das Gupta
World Bank

Abstract:
Sri Lanka has a low-cost and low-tech approach to reducing exposure to communicable diseases. This hinges on the use of Public Health Inspectors charged with inter alia assuring environmental sanitation, vector control, water safety and food safety, outbreak control, school health, and disease-specific programs. This seminar will focus on the strengths of this system, which has lessons for other low-income countries. It will also highlight organizational changes that would help these grassroots health staff function more effectively in Sri Lanka.

Date: May 18, 2011
Time: 12:30 P.M.

Venue:
Second Floor Conference Room
The World Bank,
70 Lodi Estate,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Note:
Please confirm attendance by mail to Jyoti Sriram at jsriram@worldbank.org by May 16

Location:

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Thursday, May 5, 2011

9 May 2011: Workfare in Low Income Countries: An Effective Way to Fight Poverty? The Case of India's NREGS

Shamika Ravi
ISB, Hyderabad and Microfinance Management Institute of the Open Society Institute, Washington

Abstract:
The paper analyses the impact of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on rural households. In particular, it looks at the impact of the program on food security, savings and health outcomes using an initial baseline survey data of 1066 households and a subsequent panel data of 320 households from Andhra Pradesh. The panel consists of data from June 2007 to December 2008. The authors have calculated estimates based on propensity score matching, double difference and triple difference estimates to account for non-random attrition. The main results indicate that the NREGS improves food security, increases probability of holding savings and reduces anxiety level among low income households. They have looked at various sub-categories of monthly per capita consumption expenditure, and find that NREGS significantly increases monthly p.c. expenditure on food by 40 percent (Rs. 96.6) and increase p.c. expenditure on non-food consumables by 69 percent (Rs. 16.3). The program improves probability of holding savings by 9 percent and reduces incidence of depression and stress by 8 percent. The impact on food security is stronger for the poorest group.

Date: May 9, 2011
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall,
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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