James C. Scott. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. 445 pages. Price not given.

The key question addressed in the book is: Why have so many large-scale schemes to improve the human condition failed so badly? And James Scott is the right person to have asked this question. Scott is the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the author of The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (1977), Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (1987), and Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1992). All of the above have given him an excellent understanding of the nature of conflict in societies and the means of survival for the poor. Often the protagonists in the conflict have been people on one side and governments on the other. This is essential background for the book under review

Arun Agrawal. Greener Pastures: Politics, Markets, and Community Among a Migrant Pastoral People. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998. 219 pages. Price not given.

Most literature on political economy, both in Economics and Political Science, has tended to ignore migrant communities. But these communities pose interesting questions for academics. Migrant communities tend to face hostile environments in which they have to survive. Not only do governments “encourage” them to settle down, they also get marginalised in the politics of the regions in which they tend to move (or “settle down”). Arun Agrawal addresses some of these interesting questions in his book. Arun Agrawal is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. This work, which started in 1989 and then formed a part of his doctoral dissertation at Duke University, has taken a decade to come out as a book. Some parts of it have also appeared earlier as journal articles

The State of Pakistan’s Dairy Sector : An Assessment

While there is a plethora of research documenting a multitude of dimensions of the crop sector of Pakistan, there is virtual absence of meaningful economic analysis of the dairy economy that is surprising. No serious attempt has been made in the past to clarify the micro-level potential of this sector in creating an impact on rural economy. This paper is a pioneering attempt to provide an objective assessment of the state of Pakistans dairy and to point out areas of further research. The paper analyzes some core issues and highlights the potentials, and recommends measures that could be adopted.dairy, rural economy, research areas

The State of Pakistan’s Dairy Sector: An Assessment

While there is a plethora of research documenting a multitude of dimensions of the crop sector of Pakistan, the virtual absence of meaningful economic analysis of the dairy economy is surprising. No serious attempt has been made in the past to clarify the microlevel potential of this sector to impact rural economy. This paper is a pioneering attempt to provide an objective assessment of the state of Pakistan’s dairy and to point out areas of further research. The paper analyses some core issues, highlights the potential of this sector, and recommends the measures to be adopted towards such a goal.Dairy Industry, Pakistan

Hydrologic impact of climate change on Murray–Hotham catchment of Western Australia: a projection of rainfall–runoff for future water resources planning

Reduction of rainfall and runoff in recent years across southwest Western Australia (SWWA) has attracted attention to the climate change impact on water resources and water availability in this region. In this paper, the hydrologic impact of climate change on the Murray–Hotham catchment in SWWA has been investigated using a multi-model ensemble approach through projection of rainfall and runoff for the periods mid (2046–2065) and late (2081–2100) this century. The Land Use Change Incorporated Catchment (LUCICAT) model was used for hydrologic modelling. Model calibration was performed using (5 km) grid rainfall data from the Australian Water Availability Project (AWAP). Downscaled and bias-corrected rainfall data from 11 general circulation models (GCMs) for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission scenarios A2 and B1 was used in LUCICAT model to derive rainfall and runoff scenarios for 2046–2065 (mid this century) and 2081–2100 (late this century). The results of the climate scenarios were compared with observed past (1961–1980) climate. The mean annual rainfall averaged over the catchment during recent time (1981–2000) was reduced by 2.3%with respect to the observed past (1961–1980) and the resulting runoff reduction was found to be 14 %. Compared to the past, the mean annual rainfall reductions, averaged over 11 ensembles and over the period for the catchment for A2 scenario are 13.6 and 23.6% for mid and late this century respectively while the corresponding runoff reductions are 36 and 74%. For B1 scenario, the rainfall reductions were 11.9 and 11.6% for mid and late this century and the corresponding runoff reductions were 31 and 38%. Spatial distribution of rainfall and runoff changes showed that the rate of changes were higher in high rainfall areas compared to low rainfall areas.Temporal distribution of rainfall and runoff indicate that high rainfall events in the catchment reduced significantly and further reductions are projected, resulting in significant runoff reductions. A catchment scenario map has been developed by plotting decadal runoff reduction against corresponding rainfall reduction at four gauging stations for the observed and projected periods. This could be useful for planning future water resources in the catchment. Projection of rainfall and runoff made based on the GCMs varied significantly for the time periods and emission scenarios. Hence, the considerable uncertainty involved in this study though ensemble mean was used to explain the findings

Research on Children with Disabilities Influences Education Policy in Pakistan

Children who face multiple disadvantages including those related to disability are among those least likely to be learning. Using large-scale household data together with qualitative data from classrooms in rural Pakistan, researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK and the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS), Pakistan have gained a picture of how many children with disabilities attend school, and what factors affect their learning. This research is shaping key policy debates on education, inclusion and disability.ESRC-DFI

Returns to schooling, ability and cognitive skills in Pakistan

This study investigates the economic outcomes of education for wage earners in Pakistan. This is done by analysing the relationship between schooling, cognitive skills and ability on the one hand, and economic activity, occupation, sectoral choice and earnings, on the other. In Pakistan, an important question remains largely unaddressed: what does the coefficient on 'schooling' in conventional earnings function estimates measure? While human capital theory holds that the economic return to an extra year of schooling measures productivity gains acquired through additional schooling, the credentialist view argues that it represents a return to acquired qualifications and credentials while a third, the signalling hypothesis, suggests that is captures a return to native ability. This paper seeks to adjudicate between these theories using data from a unique purpose-designed survey of more than 1000 households in Pakistan, collected in 2007. The paper also examines the shape of the education-earnings relationship in Pakistan as a way of testing the poverty reducing potential of education in Pakistan

The State of Pakistan’s Dairy Sector: An Assessment

While there is a plethora of research documenting a multitude of dimensions of the crop sector of Pakistan, the virtual absence of meaningful economic analysis of the dairy economy is surprising. No serious attempt has been made in the past to clarify the microlevel potential of this sector to impact rural economy. This paper is a pioneering attempt to provide an objective assessment of the state of Pakistan’s dairy and to point out areas of further research. The paper analyses some core issues, highlights the potential of this sector, and recommends the measures to be adopted towards such a goal