Tuesday, October 16, 2012

19 October 2012: On the colonial origins of agricultural development in India: A re-examination of Banerjee and Iyer,'History, institutions and economic performance'

Vegard Iversen
Jindal School of Public Policy and University
of Manchester

Abstract:
Banerjee and Iyer (henceforth, BI) (American Economic Review, 2005)
find that districts which the British assigned to landlord revenue
systems systematically underperform districts with non-landlord based
revenue systems, especially in agricultural investment and
productivity and mainly after the onset of the Green Revolution in the
mid-1960s. On this basis, BI claim there were long-lasting effects of
the institutions established in British India on a variety of
development outcomes after independence. We correct a miscoding of the
land revenue system in Central Provinces, which BI characterise as
mostly landlord based, when reliable historical evidence suggest that
this region should have been attributed to a mixed
landlord/non-landlord based revenue system. Using a more appropriate
classification of the land revenue system of the Central Provinces
constructed from documented archival research, we find no evidence
that agricultural performance of Indian districts in the
post-independence period was adversely affected by the colonial
landlord land revenue system. Our results demonstrate that the key BI
argument that the more ‘oppressive’ landlord-based colonial land
revenue systems mattered for post-independent agricultural development
in India rests on fragile historical and statistical foundations.

Date: October 19, 2012
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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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

18 October 2012: Randomized Controlled Trials and Economic Development

Angus Deaton
Princeton University

Date: October 18, 2012
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Lecture Theatre
Department of Economics,
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

Location:

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Monday, October 1, 2012

15 October 2012: The Future of International Development

Mark Lowcock
DFID

Date: October 15, 2012
Time: 06:30 P.M.

Venue:
British Council Auditorium,
British High Commission
17, Kasturba Gandhi Marg,
Connaught Place
New Delhi-110001(INDIA)

Location:

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3 October 2012: Systemic Outflow of Capital from Emerging Economies and Enabled International Credit Lines

Gurbachan Singh
Independent Economist

Abstract:
Commercial banks in developed countries routinely extend credit lines to firms. However, they hardly extend any credit lines to banks in emerging economies to take care of possible sudden outflow of funds from their economies. This is puzzling as the reserve-backing of credit lines in the latter case is small, given that an outflow from emerging economies is an inflow into developed economies. This paper explores the role of ‘international agency costs’ to resolve the puzzle. The paper suggests that the first-best policy solution is an enabling international government. The second-best solution is international mediators (like the IMF and central banks). The third-best solution is a Pigouvian subsidy on credit lines, if the externality is large enough. The paper also discusses possible extensions of the model.

Date: October 3, 2012
Time: 03:30 P.M.

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

Location:

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Note:
Please join us for tea and snacks after the seminar. For queries, please contact Ms Sudesh Bala at sbala@ncaer.org or on 011-2345-2669.