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South Asian Experience with Growth

The enquiry into the cause of growth is motivated by the recognition that growth is a dominant condition for social and economic development in a country or region. In exploring the possible explanations for growth in South Asia over the second half of the twentieth century, this volume covers some significant dimensions of this process.

It discusses growth in individual countries in the context of performance in other regions through cross-country analyses. The book presents a conventional decomposition of growth into factor accumulation and total factor productivity increase for the five major economies of the region-India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It also highlights the importance of a poverty-focus in economic reform strategies.

The book goes on to describe the political economy of reforms and suggests policies in the context of India and Sri Lanka. It highlights the importance of understanding the political economy of issues in order to build a constituency of growth promoting policies

The role of output and factor markets in shaping the pace and composition of growth in the major South Asian economies is also examined. The essays analyse the functioning of labour markets and factors that influence the flexibility of labour allocation to trace the impact of human capital on growth.

A substantive introduction explores the underlying themes and linkages on the basic premise that the recent economic reforms in South Asia have enhanced growth.

An excellent source of economic information on South Asia, this book will be useful to policy-makers, researchers, and the general reader interested in growth theory and development.

Isher Judge Ahluwalia is Visiting Professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland. Formerly, she was Director and Chief Executive, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, Delhi.

John Williamson is Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC.

Contents:

1.	Introduction Isher Judge Ahluwalia · John Williamson
2.	Sources of Growth in South Asian Countries Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis · Faisal Bari
3.	Political Economy of Growth and Reforms in South Asia Saman Kelegama · Kirit S. Parikh
4.	Markets and Long-term Economic Growth in South Asia 1950–97 Suresh D. Tendulkar · Binayak Sen

List of Contributors:

1.	Faisal Bari Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore
2.	Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki
3.	Saman Kelegama Institute of Policy Studies, Colombo
4.	Kirit S. Parikh Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai
5.	Binayak Sen Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka
6.	Suresh D. Tendulkar Delhi School of Economics, Delhi

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