British Colonial Institutions and Economic Development in India

Kapur, Shilpi; Kim, Sukkoo

doi:10.3386/w12613

Cited by 39 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…The findings in the present study also relate to the broader literature on spatial inequality and comparative economic development dating back to Williamson (1965) and more recently to Lessmann (2014) and Lessmann and Seidel (2016). The present paper also speaks to a nuanced literature that has shown several economic and political forces driving spatial inequality across countries; examples include international trade (Lessmann, 2013;Krugman and Elizondo, 1996;Puga and Venables, 1999), technological innovations (Barrios and Strobl, 2009), natural resources endowment (Venables, 2005), and differences in institutional structures -both economic and political - (Gennaioli et al, 2014;Lessmann, 2012;Kim, 2008;Kapur and Kim, 2006;Banerjee and Iyer, 2005;Henderson, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Measuring and Explaining Patterns of Spatial Income Inequality from Outer Space: Evidence from Africa

Mveyange¹

2018

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The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Measuring and Explaining Patterns of Spatial Income Inequality from Outer Space: Evidence from Africa

Mveyange¹

2018

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“…Because rainfall is likely to be correlated with rice production and with food grain production more generally (Kapur and Kim 2006), the regression suggests that sex ratios in 1901 may have Notes: Muslim is the omitted religion category; artisan is the omitted caste group; Bengal is the omitted province. All regressions are weighted with weights equal to the square root of population in caste i, religion r, and district j.…”

Section: Empirical Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinship institutions and sex ratios in India

Chakraborty

Kim

2010

Demography

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This article explores the relationship between kinship institutions and sex ratios inver since Sen (1990) proclaimed that more than 100 million women are missing around the world, referring to the abysmally low fraction of women in the total population, the case of "missing women" has generated considerable interest. In contrast to Europe and North America, where the male-to-female sex ratio is 0.95 (favoring the presence of females), the ratio in many Asian countries -such as India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea-is as high as 1.06, signifi cantly favoring the presence of males. 1 Moreover, in many of these countries, the male-to-female sex ratio seems to have risen over the second half of the twentieth century with economic development, declining family size, and the advent of technologies that facilitate self-selective abortion or sexselection (Park and Cho 1995).In India, and possibly elsewhere in Asia, however, the case of missing women has deep historical roots (Dyson and Moore 1983). Although identifying when the problem of missing women fi rst arose in India is diffi cult, British offi cials were well aware of the problem in North India during the mid-nineteenth century. 2 More reliable evidence from the British India censuses conducted during the late nineteenth century shows that this problem was clearly a northern rather than a southern or an eastern problem. The male-to-female sex ratio was highest in northern regions, such as Punjab; relatively equal in eastern regions, such as Bengal; but relatively low and favored women in southern regions, such as colonial Madras (Dyson and Moore 1983;Visaria 1961). 3 Although the regional difference in sex ratios narrowed between the northern and southern regions during the twentieth century, the narrowing is largely due to the convergence of southern sex ratios toward the northern fi gures. For all of India, the overall sex ratio increased from 1.03 to 1.07 between 1901 and 2001. During this period, however, the sex ratio in the historically most-masculine Punjab region in the North, ranging from *Tanika Chakraborty, DIW-Berlin, Mohrenstrasse 58, Berlin 10117; e-mail: tchakraborty@diw.de. Sukkoo Kim, Washington University and National Bureau of Economic Research. We gratefully acknowledge Bob Pollak and three anonymous referees for providing us with extremely valuable comments. We thank Karen Norberg, David Rudner, and seminar participants at the Work, Family and Public Policy workshop at Washington University and also at the 2008 annual meeting of the Population Association of America for helpful comments and discussions. We also thank Lauren Matsunaga and Michael Scarpati for research assistance and Cassie Adcock and the staff of the South Asia Library at the University of Chicago for their generous assistance in data collection. We are also grateful to the Weidenbaum Center and Washington University (Faculty Research Grant) for research support and to CRES at Olin School of Business for their generous conference funding. All errors are ours.1. B...

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“…than the landlord areas, because the landlords were content earning the land revenue and were not motivated to improve the land or invest in public goods (A. . In terms of agricultural productivity, both the Zamindari and Ryotwari were similar in the early 1900s but the productivity in the former improved in comparison to the latter in 1930s (Kapur and Kim 2006).…”

Section: Land Tenure Systemmentioning

confidence: 95%

Historical Institutions and Electoral Outcomes: The Case of India after Decolonization

Saha

2019

SSRN Journal

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There is now ample evidence that historical colonial institutions impact contemporary economic outcomes and some suggest that these links might be mediated by the influence of colonial institutions on electoral processes and outcomes. This paper examines this under-researched link in the context of India, focusing on two colonial institutions that potentially influence electoral outcomes-the type of rule, i.e. whether a territory was under direct British rule or whether it was under native rule-and the type of land tenure installed by the British. I measure electoral outcomes by three variables: voter turnout (VT), margin of victory (MV) and electoral competition (EC) and ask: Do historical colonial institutions impact contemporary electoral outcomes and if yes, in what ways? Do such impacts persist in the longer term? I focus specifically on the elections at the cusp of decolonization (1951) and those in 1970s, to assess short and longer-terms impacts. Results indicate a 4% higher VT in native ruled areas in the long run and 5% higher VT in the non-landlord areas in the short run. The latter dissipates in the longer term because of tenancy reforms. I find EC consistently higher in British and landlord areas but no robust impact on MV is noted. These results are consistent with the role played by landlords and erstwhile princes of native states after decolonization. The paper provides evidence on the potentially important mediating role of electoral outcomes in link between historical institutions and economic outcomes and suggests that research on elections should not overlook the role of historical institutions and those exploring the historical origins of economic outcomes should not overlook the role of elections.

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British Colonial Institutions and Economic Development in India

Cited by 39 publications

References 63 publications

Measuring and Explaining Patterns of Spatial Income Inequality from Outer Space: Evidence from Africa

Measuring and Explaining Patterns of Spatial Income Inequality from Outer Space: Evidence from Africa

Kinship institutions and sex ratios in India

Historical Institutions and Electoral Outcomes: The Case of India after Decolonization

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