Inter- and intra-state disparities in levels of literacy rates in India are striking, especially for the marginalized groups of women and low caste population. The present paper offers an explanation of this disparate development in terms of elite dominance that discriminates against the...

The present paper examines the effects of ownership structures on capital structure and firm valuation and argues that the effects of separation of control from cash flow rights on capital structure and firm value also depend on the separation of control from management as well as legal rules...

The present paper examines the capital structure adjustment dynamics of listed non-financial corporations in seven East Asian countries during 1994-2002. Compared to firms in the least affected countries, average leverages were much higher among firms in the worst affected countries while the...

The present paper argues that local public infrastructure exerts a significant and positive effect on the presence of private school as well as the quality of schooling in Indian villages. Given historical distribution of land and ethnic composition, villages with more unequal distribution of...

The present paper explores the role of religious and social norms on a community’s access to public infrastructure. Distinguishing between social and physical infrastructure, we argue that investment in social infrastructural goods (e.g., health, education) could contribute to exchange both...

If fertility reflects the choice of households, results of their choice (duration between successive births and health of the children) cannot be considered to be randomly determined. While most existing studies of child health tend to overlook the effects of fertility selection on child health,...

In the absence of any official measures of old age poverty, this paper uses National Sample Survey household-level data to investigate the extent and nature of living standards and incidence of poverty among elderly in sixteen major states in India. We construct both individual and...

The paper argues that the networked firms have an advantage in securing bank finance in countries with weak legal and judicial institutions. An analysis of recent BEEPS data from sixteen CEE transition countries lends some support to this hypothesis. Firms affiliated to business associations are...

In the context of strikingly low literacy rates among Indian women and low caste popultaion, the paper explores whether and how far the interests of the marginalised poor are undermined by the dominant elite consisting mainly of the landed and the capitalists. We distinguish the dominant elite...

Little is known about the living conditions of a growing number of elderly in India who predominantly coreside with their children. Mutual sharing of responsibilities is important in coresidency arrangements involving exchange of financial and other services between the elderly and their...