This paper surveys the status of food security in the South Asian countries, particularly India. Particular attention has been paid to small landholders (those households owning less than 2 hectares of land). Using NSS data from 1993–94 and 2004–05 the paper shows that small landholders are...

The paper focuses on establishing causation in regression analysis in observational settings. Simple static regression analysis cannot establish causality in the absence of a priori theory on possible causal mechanisms or controlled and randomized experiments. However, two regression based...

The concept underpinning the Environmental Kuznets Curve is that economic growth results in reduced pollution in the long run. In this report, an extension of Andreoni and Levinson’s (2001) theoretical model is presented. It demonstrates that an Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship can...

Physics shows that energy is necessary for economic production and, therefore, economic growth but the mainstream theory of economic growth, except for specialized resource economics models, pays no attention to the role of energy. This paper reviews the relevant biophysical theory and...

Using ARIS/REDS data set for 2006 for rural India this paper models household vulnerability as expected utility and its components. We conclude, first, that between the years 1999 and 2006 household vulnerability is most explained by poverty and idiosyncratic components. Second, for risk coping...

The end of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009 generated widespread expectations of a period of sustained economic growth, building on the achievements of the liberalisation reforms sustained over three previous decades. However, recent developments have dampened that optimism, rekindling...

A new set of estimates of policy induced distortions to relative prices is used to examine how they affect economic growth. We find that on impact there is no significant response of relative agricultural price distortions to changes in real GDP per capita growth of Sub-Saharan African...

Age structure and its dynamics are critical in understanding the impact of population growth on a country's growth prospects. Using state-level data from India, we show that the pace of demographic transition varies across states, and that these differences are likely to be exacerbated over the...

Age structure and its dynamics are critical in understanding the impact of population growth on a country's growth prospects. Using state-level data from India, we show that the pace of demographic transition varies across states, and that these differences are likely to be exacerbated over the...