Urban land governance is one of the central challenges not just for urban but also more broadly for global development in times of rapid urbanisation. This paper advances a fresh perspective to look at urban land by exploring to what extent it could be characterised as a resource curse problem....

Housing policies in Japan after World War II were focused on the quantitative supply of houses with a wide range of targeted groups and public rental houses. The Japan Housing Corporation (now the Urban Renaissance Agency) and the Government Housing Loan Corporation (now the Japan Housing...

The "land question" has invigorated agrarian studies and economic history since Marx and early 20th century writers on agrarian questions. In countries that allow private land ownership, compulsory land acquisition is the right and action of the government to take property not owned by it for...

We use data from Reserve Bank of India to study the impact of India's Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on finance-dependent activity. Loan volumes increase by 20-30% in districts along GQ and are stronger in industries more dependent upon external finance. Loan growth begins with...

Formation of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) using agricultural land to promote industrialization has recently been one of most controversial policy issues in many developing economies including India. This paper critically theoretically evaluates the consequences of this policy in terms of a...

What is Housing Price to Income Ratio (HPIR) in the Indian context?It is the amount that can be spent by an individual or a household on purchase of new property (mainly house/residence) with the annual savings post taxes. For simple calculations it is assumed is that a. 10% of the income goes...

This paper studies the effect of former colonies having inherited British common law vs. civil law on the incidence of slum dwelling in developing countries. While common law favors decentralized markets and stronger property rights, civil law yields more government regulation and weaker...

Several studies have been carried out relating nighttime lights with economic activity. But most studies relating nighttime lights with economic activity have focused on associating higher totals in economic activity with higher sum of lights across regions. The question addressed in this paper...

Delhi became an exemplary city by instituting radical environmental interventions to improve air quality between 2000 and 2002. This included introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) and closure of polluting industries. However, areas outside Delhi (but adjacent to Delhi's border) did not...

Housing is key for well-being and for spatial and social mobility. In India, the housing market is characterised by excess demand for affordable dwellings, a small rental market and an oversupply of high-end housing, especially in urban areas.