Convergence Club Empirics: Some Dynamics and Explanations of Unequal Growth across Indian States

This paper documents the convergence of incomes across Indian states over the period 1965 to 1998. It departs from traditional analyses of convergence by tracking the evolution of the entire income distribution, instead of standard regression and time series analyses. The findings reveal twin-peaks dynamics - the existence of two income convergence clubs, one at 50 per cent, another at 125% of the national average income. Income disparities across states seem to have declined over the sixties, only to increase over the following three decades. The observed polarization is strongly explained by the disparate distribution of infrastructure, and that of education, and to an extent by a number of macroeconomic indicators, that of capital expenditure and fiscal deficits.Convergence clubs, conditional convergence, distribution dynamics, infrastructure, capital investment, macroeconomic stability, panel data, India.

A Database for TSSs of Human MicroRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small endogeneous non-coding RNAs of about 22nt length. These short RNAs regulate the expression of mRNAs by hybridizing with their 3'-UTRs or by translational repression. They have been shown to take crucial roles in many biological processes. Many of the current studies are focused over how mature miRNAs regulate mRNAs, even though there is very limited knowledge about their transcriptional loci. Primary miRNAs (pri-miRs) are first transcribed from the DNA, followed by the formation of precursor miRNA (pre-miR) by endonucleases activity, which finally produces mature miRNAs. Unfortunately, the identification of the loci of pri-miRs, and the associated information about transcription start sites (TSSs) and promoters is still in progress. This information, even though limited, may be useful for further study on the regulation of miRNAs. In this paper, we provide a novel database of miRNA TSSs (miRT) that might be a valuable resource for advanced research on miRNA regulation

Redistributive Taxation and PublicExpenditures

We introduce a model of redistributive income taxation and publicexpenditure. Besides redistributing personal income by means of taxesand transfers, the government supplies goods and services. Thegovernment chooses the tax schedule that is found acceptable by thelargest share possible of the population. We show that there is a uniqueincome tax schedule that is universally acceptable. The progressivity ofthe income tax is shown to depend on the composition of the publicexpenditure and on the substitutability between the goods and servicessupplied by the government and the consumption goods privatelyobtained through the market. We test the empirical implications of themodel. Specifically, we use OECD data to observe the relationshipbetween marginal tax rates and the distribution over the taxpayers of thebenefits produced by the specific composition of the governmentexpenditure in the provision of goods and services. We confirm that forlower elasticities of substitution between public and private goods, thereis a negative relationship between marginal tax rates and pro-taxpayerbias,and for higher elasiticities, there is a positive relationship.Government policy, Income Taxation, Public Expenditure

The Reversal of Fortune Thesis Reconsidered

Acemoglu, Johnson, & Robinson (2002) have claimed that the world income distribution underwent a "Reversal of Fortune" from 1500 to the present, whereby formerly rich countries in what is now the developing world became poor while poor ones grew rich. We question their analysis with regard to both of their proxies for pre-modern income, namely urbanization and population density. First, an alternative measure of urbanization with more observations generates a positive (but not significant) correlation between pre-modern and contemporary income. Second, we show that their measure of population density as a proxy is highly flawed inasmuch as it does not properly measure density on arable land, and when corrected with better data the relationship is no longer robust. At best our results demonstrate a Reversal of Fortune only for the four neo-Europes of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States; at worst, we show no Reversal for other former colonies.income distribution, population density, Reversal of Fortune,urbanization.

Redistributive Taxation, Public Expenditure, and Size of Governent

We introduce a model of redistributive income taxation and public expenditure. This joint treatment permits analyzing the interdependencies between the two policies: one cannot be chosen independently of the other. Empirical evidence reveals that partisan confrontation essentially falls on expenditure policies rather than on income taxation. We examine the case in which the expenditure policy (or the size of government) is chosen by majority voting and income taxation is consistently adjusted. This adjustment consists of designing the income tax schedule that, given the expenditure policy, achieves consensus among the population. The model determines the consensus in- come tax schedule, the composition of public expenditure and the size of government. The main results are that inequality is negatively related to the size of government and to the pro-rich bias in public expenditure, and positively or negatively related to the marginal income tax, depending on substitutability between government supplied and market goods. These implications are validated using OECD data.Government policy, Income Taxation, Public Expenditure.

Why is economic growth across Indian states uneven?

Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay finds that India’s GDP growth has been fuelled by isolated sectors of the economy concentrated in a few states

Making sense of the Rajan report’s ranking of Indian states’ development

Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay argues that the recent report offers excellent insight on how to revise funds allocation to better represent Indian states’ socio-economic landscape

Why inequality in India is on the rise

Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay explains how poor fiscal management and inadequate infrastructure drive economic polarisation

Vulnerable Households and Variable Incomes

In this paper we examine the concept of "vulnerability" within the context of incomemobility of the poor. We test for the dynamics of vulnerable households in the UKusing Waves 1 - 12 of the British Household Panel Study and find that, of threedifferent types of risks that we test for, household-specific shocks and economy-wideaggregate shocks have the greatest impact on consumption, in comparison to shocksto the income stream.