The starting point of this study is the observation that many villages in India seem to possess urban characteristics. As compared to definitions of urbanization adopted by other countries, the Indian definition of urban area is actually unique in the world. One of the consequences of a...

Review of Erika Langmuir Imagining Childhood. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. 256 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-300-10131-7.

An evaluation of a program that aims to improve children’s reading skills by providing classes with age‐appropriate reading material and incentivizing children to read through a 31 day read‐athon. [Working paper No. 305]. URL: [http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/305.pdf].

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese; Random House India; 2009, paperback, pp.542, Rs.595.

The paper examines the programs for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) and concludes that DDR is set to remain an important tool, and that it is most effective when used flexibly, appropriately, and with the genuine participation of those it is supposed to benefit.

This paper confirms that for Mexico over the period 1986-2000, the export sector pays higher wages than other sectors, but school drop out increases with the arrival of new export jobs. The workers induced to enter export manufacturing eventually earn less than they would have earned had the...