On economic reforms
S. MAHENDRA DEV
|
The book is a fitting tribute to Prof. Bagchi’s contribution to social sciences
|
POST-REFORM DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA — Essays for Amiya Kumar Bagchi: Edited by Manoj Kumar Sanyal, Mandira Sanyal, and Shahina Amin; Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd. 3-6-752, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029. Rs. 695.
Economic reforms have influenced the development strategies in recent decades. There have been some improvements in economic growth and other indicators in the post-reform period.
However, there are concerns regarding poverty reduction, quantity and quality of employment generation, human development, and inequalities in the economy and society — rural-urban, man-woman and so on. It is known that economic growth is only one of the means or instruments for achieving the end — the well-being and freedoms of the people.
A festschrift volume for Prof. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, the book under review deals with post-reform developments in Asia. Bagchi is an eminent economist, a social scientist, and an institution-builder. His research on various development issues is widely known. He interacted with renowned economists and social scientists. As indicated in a ‘tribute’ to him in the volume, he acknowledged “his debt to his teachers Maurice Dobb, R.M. Goodwin and Joan Robinson in particular” at Trinity College. He also records his debt to Amartya Sen and Sukhamoy Chakravorty and recalls his useful interactions with the students of the Presidency College, Calcutta (now Kolkata).
As mentioned in the ‘preface,’ the essays are an “attempt to grapple with the issues often raised in the development debate on whether neo-liberal reforms in developing nations have raised poverty, food insecurity and income inequality, hindered empowerment of women, raised agrarian distress, reallocated resources for private profitability as against social gain and facilitated the rise of multi-national oligopoly.” These issues have been examined on the basis of empirical data drawn from China, India, and Bangladesh. The volume contains 11 essays — six on India, two on China, and one on Bangladesh; the other two papers deal with theoretical issues.
Inequality
The papers on China focus on the inequality across regions and the rural-urban disparities. Inequalities increased in China in spite of rapid economic growth. Those on India have as their themes food insecurity, growth-poverty-employment relationship, gender discrimination in the labour market, agrarian distress caused by withdrawal of state support to small farmers and, policy shift in ‘priority sector lending’ to the detriment of small and marginal farmers and entrepreneurs.
One of the papers refers to the paradox of higher GDP growth, lower poverty, and higher unemployment in the post-reform India and the authors discuss it using the data up to 1999-2000. But if we use the more recent 2004-05 data, the employment growth rate will be high. Although unemployment increased, it is still less than 10 per cent. Apart from unemployment, a basic problem in India is that of “working poor.” People are working but at low wages, in low working conditions, and without any social security. In other words, there is no paradox of low poverty and high unemployment in India.
Child labour
The paper on Bangladesh revisits poverty issues in the context of child labour. It indicates that the determinants of children’s market work and household work will have to be examined in separate models. The last two papers discuss an analytical framework for understanding the issues relating to the recent rise of multi-national firms and the rapid growth of India’s software technology.
One can differ with the methodology used and the analysis made in some of the papers. It may be noted that the impact of economic reforms depends on initial conditions and other factors. In general, the international experience shows that reforms have not succeeded in Latin America and Africa.
On the other hand, the experience of South East Asia and East Asia with economic reforms and poverty reduction has been much better. For example, in China, although inequalities increased, their official data show that the poverty ratio is very low and children suffering malnutrition is eight per cent. This does not mean that everything is good about these regions. Countries here also suffered on account of the financial crisis in the late 1990s. As pointed out in the book, these countries and those in South Asia have to focus more on inequalities, employment, poverty, human development, and other social and economic problems apart from accelerating economic growth.
Moreover, economic reforms have given greater importance to the financial sector as compared to the real sector. The Indian experience with reforms over the past 18 years reveals that there have been achievements on the growth front but inequalities widened and the performance in terms of the quality of employment and progress in social sector is far from satisfactory. For example, malnutrition among children was stubborn at 45 per cent during the period 1998-2006. Fortunately, there is a growing recognition in countries like India that an equitable or inclusive development is imperative since the social and economic disparities are persistently high and worsening, in spite of the higher economic growth. Compared to other countries, India has done well in the present financial crisis because of its cautious approach.
To conclude, this book is a significant addition to the literature on economic reforms and a fitting tribute to Prof. Bagchi’s contribution to social sciences.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
