Female labor force participation in India
A quite repetitive piece in The Wall Street Journal, What’s Holding Back India’s Economic Ambitions? Just 24% of women in India are working or looking for work. In the American upper-middle-class women not working is a sign of affluence a conscious choice to focus on investing in child-rearing rather than consumption. But this section jumped … Continue reading Female labor force participation in India
Indian futures
Over at his Substack, Noah Smith has a pretty bullish take on India, Here…comes…INDIA!!!: The United Nations estimates that India has now surpassed China as the world’s most populous country — or, as we colloquially say, the world’s “largest” country. Obviously, crossing this threshold doesn’t mean much in practical terms. Being a tiny bit bigger … Continue reading Indian futures
Hindenburg vs. Adnani
Don’t know much about this, but I noticed it hit WSJ today, India’s Adani Group Fails to Halt Short-Seller Driven Decline: A giant Indian conglomerate couldn’t stop the freefall in its shares and bonds set off by an American short seller in what has grown into a bitter fight over the empire created by one … Continue reading Hindenburg vs. Adnani
Noah Smith on the Sri Lankan crisis
A textbook currency crisis, triggered by a bunch of policy mistakes.
Roland Fryer is back!
Harvard economist Roland Fryer has an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, How to Make Up the Covid Learning Loss: Paying students for attendance, behavior and homework can boost achievement. […]
The end for Dan Ariely
In the late 2000s Dan Ariely was huge. This was the era of the post-2008 financial crisis when heterodox and behavioral economics came into vogue. I really enjoyed reading Predictably […]
White privilege, and how to get it
The figure above shows that Indian American women make $1.21 for every $1.00 that a white man makes. I knew this data, but the infographic was brought to my attention to illustrate that not all South Asians are privileged. Pakistani women make $0.84 and Bangladeshi women $0.69. Here’s the “problem” – 84% of “South Asians” …
Pivoting to the future
2020 and2021 are clearly going to be lost years. Delhi Reopens a Crack Amid Gloomy Economic Forecast for India: The Indian capital, which just weeks ago suffered the devastating force of the coronavirus, with tens of thousands of new infections daily and funeral pyres that burned day and night, is taking its first steps back …
Climate change is a development problem
In the comments below there is some mention of the problems that Bangladesh will face due to increases in global sea level. The hypothesis is that there will be a mass migration to India as Bangladeshis flee low-level zones which are going to be inundated. I don’t think this is capturing the real issue: if …
Beyond the Bangladeshi basket-case
Coronavirus has been an economic disaster all across South Asia. But, beyond that, there are changes that have occurred before the pandemic and will continue after. For example, Bangladesh’s per capita GDP now higher than eastern and northeastern India: Bangladesh’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is now higher than most Indian states in eastern …
Economic data on South Asia
So what are the reasons for various differences statistically?
Brown privilege in the American executive suite
Why East Asians but not South Asians are underrepresented in leadership positions in the United States: Whereas extensive research has examined the “glass ceiling” faced by women, little research has examined the “bamboo ceiling,” whereby Asians appear disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions in the United States. To investigate the mechanisms and scope of this problem, …
Continue reading “Brown privilege in the American executive suite”
A tale of two Pakistans
– Bangladesh to clock highest growth in Asia this year. – Pakistan’s growth to be lowest in South Asia in current fiscal. 8% vs. 3%. From a geopolitical perspective at current rates of relative stagnation India’s Pakistani problem will “solve” itself as the Islamic Republic is turning into a macroeconomic midget. All of the geopolitical …
The ubiquity of the rentier state
Angus Maddison’s Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History is one of my favorite books (though if you are looking for economic history, Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium is underrated/underread). Maddison’s work is cited in this piece, No, Mughals didn’t loot India. They …
The Chinese eradication of extreme poverty in one generation
There have been write-ups in the media of the decline of extreme poverty due to a World Bank data release in the past few days. This is kind of a pretty big deal, and one of the reasons that books like Enlightenment Now are still worth writing: much of the American public is unaware of the “good […]
Upward nobility in India by geography
The above figure is from Intergenerational Mobility in India: Estimates from New Methods and Administrative Data. Since everyone is talking about the caste results, I wanted to highlight geography.
East Bengal/Pakistan catches up to West Bengal/Pakistan
Today I was looking on the internet to get some more information on the Pakistan election. Honestly, I don’t have a strong opinion…. But by chance, I ended up stumbling on articles like this, When East overtakes West: …a recent article, “East overtakes West,” in The Economist has thrown a spanner in the works. … Continue reading “East Bengal/Pakistan catches up to West Bengal/Pakistan”
The decline in South Asian poverty
It has long been asserted that South Asia may make average strides economically, but it is still in absolute terms the locus of most of the world’s grinding poverty. This may not be true much longer. In particular, some estimates now suggest that India is no longer the world’s “leader” in extreme poverty in absolute … Continue reading “The decline in South Asian poverty”
The decline in South Asian poverty
It has long been asserted that South Asia may make average strides economically, but it is still in absolute terms the locus of most of the world’s grinding poverty. This may not be true much longer. In particular, some estimates now suggest that India is no longer the world’s “leader” in extreme poverty in absolute … Continue reading “The decline in South Asian poverty”
The bourgeoisie baby blues
There are those instances when you see a plot that resonates with your experience so much that you don’t need to say anything. You just share it. Those who know, know. Those who don’t know, won’t know until they are in a position to know. Median household income in the United States today is $59,000. […]