Thursday, January 31, 2013

5 February 2013: How Much International Variation in Child Height Can Sanitation Explain?

Dean Spears
Princeton University

Abstract:
Physical height is an important economic variable reflecting health and human capital. Puzzlingly, however, differences in average height across developing countries are not well explained by differences in wealth. In particular, children in India are shorter, on average, than children in Africa who are poorer, on average, a paradox called "the Asian enigma" which has received much attention from economists. This paper provides the first documentation of a quantitatively important gradient between child height and sanitation that can statistically explain a large fraction of international height differences. This association between sanitation and human capital is robustly stable, even after accounting for other heterogeneity, such as in GDP. I apply three complementary empirical strategies to identify the association between sanitation and child height: country-level regressions across 140 country-years in 65 developing countries; within-country analysis of differences over time within Indian districts; and econometric decomposition of the India-Africa height difference in child-level data. Open defecation, which is exceptionally widespread in India, can account for much or all of the excess stunting in India.

Date: February 5, 2013
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room (First Floor)
Department of Economics,
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

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14 February 2013: Timing to the Statement: Understanding Fluctuations in Consumer Credit Use

Sumit Agarwal
National University of Singapore

Abstract:
We show that consumers spend 15% more per day on their credit cards in the ten days following the receipt of a credit card statement than in the days prior to the statement. We test several mechanisms for this effect including mental accounting, optimization of the free float, and liquidity constraints. We show the spending response to the credit card statement date across heterogeneous consumer types. Our results support mental accounting theories but not optimization of the free float or liquidity constraint explanations. Placebo tests show spending does not respond to credit card payment dates or randomized statement dates.

Date: February 14, 2013
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room (First Floor)
Department of Economics,
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

5 February 2013: Normalizing India-Pakistan Trade Relations

Ishrat Husain
Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan

Date: February 5, 2013
Time: 04:00 P.M.

Venue:
Gulmohar Hall,
India Habitat Centre,
Lodhi Road,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

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Friday, January 18, 2013

23 January 2013: Affirmative Action 60 Years On

Marc Galanter
University of Wisconsin-Madison and London School of Economics and Political Science

Date: January 23, 2013
Time: 02:30 P.M.

Venue:
Vivekananda Hall
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

22 January 2013: Taxation of Inherited Wealth and Bequests: An Empirical Investigation

Stanley L. Winer
Carleton University

Date: January 22, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
NIPFP Auditorium
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

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18 January 2013: Incentives and Competition in Micro-finance

Kaniska Dam
Center for Research and Teaching in Economics(CIDE), Mexico City

Abstract:
We analyze a model where micro-finance institutions (MFIs) offer repayment-based incentive contracts to the credit agents whose principal task is to gather information regarding a borrower by exerting costly monitoring efforts. Monitoring by one agent benefits the other, and hence there is externality across contractual relationships. The agents may collude with the borrower by taking bribes, and hide information. We show that, under competition, collusion possibility increases, individual monitoring efforts are lower. Competition may lead to more high-powered incentives relative to a situation where there is a single MFI. We further show that when the monitoring technology is submodular (log-supermodular) in the individual monitoring efforts, optimal monitoring efforts and incentives are strategic substitutes (complements).

Date: January 18, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

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

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

15 January 2013: Europe and India between America and China

Timothy Garton Ash
University of Oxford

Abstract:
It is increasingly clear that the geopolitics of our time will be shaped by the emerging superpower rivalry between China and the United States. What role in this new world (dis)order should be played by the European Union, the world's largest confederation of prosperous Western democracies, andby India, the world's largest democracy? Oxford's Professor of European Studies, who is also a leading commentator on international affairs, will speak about Europe's current travails and likely role in the world – and ask a few questions about the part that might be played by India.

Date: January 15, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

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

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14 January 2013: Stochastic Convergence of Real Wages in Indian Manufacturing- Time Series Evidence with two structural breaks

Homagni Choudhury
Aberystwyth University

Abstract:
The study examines time series data on real wages per worker for production workers for 51 industries from the organized manufacturing sector in India for the period 1973-2003 to determine if inter-industry wages are stochastically converging.  The study uses  a minimum Lagrange Multiplier (LM) unit root test developed by Lee & Strazicich (2003, 2004) that endogenously determines two/one structural breaks in intercept and slope. The findings provide evidence to support that real wages per worker are stochastically converging between industries in India. Given the heterogeneous characteristics of industries, “stochastic convergence” implies real wages between industries converge to an industry-specific “compensating differential” i.e. “stochastic convergence” is consistent with “conditional convergence”. The one/two breaks in relative real wages identified for each industry coincide with India’s two distinct phases of reforms- 1980s weak reforms and 1990s strong reforms. To our knowledge, this is one of the first attempts to use a “stochastic convergence” framework to address inter-industry wage structure. Our findings provide new evidence from India and show that efficiency wages due to rent-sharing is potentially an important explanation for inter-industry wage differences in India, whose role seems to have declined over the reforms period.

Date: January 14, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
ICRIER Conference Room,
Core 6A, 4th Floor,
India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road,
New Delhi – 110 003(INDIA)

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Monday, January 7, 2013

14 January 2013: Public and Social Innovation: New Approaches to Old Problems

Peter Shergold
University of Western Sydney, Australia

Date: January 14, 2012
Time: 11:30 A.M.

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

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Thursday, January 3, 2013

4 January 2013: CD DESHMUKH MEMORIAL LECTURE - Grassroots Welfare Schemes and Macroeconomic Choices: India’s Dilemmas

Kaushik Basu
World Bank

Abstract:
This lecture series has been instituted by NCAER in memory of one of India’s most eminent economists and a founding father of NCAER.  Sir Chintaman Dwarakanath Deshmukh was the first Indian to be appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1943 and was part of the official Indian delegation to the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. He subsequently served as the Union Finance Minister from 1950 to 1956 under Nehru and was a leading member of NCAER’s first Governing Body. He was honoured by the President of India with the Padma Vibhushan in 1975.

Date: January 4, 2013
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Gulmohar Hall,
India Habitat Centre,
Lodhi Road,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

RSVP
Ms Sudesh Bala on +91-11-2337-9861 to 63 or on sbala@ncaer.org
Registration required

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