“If poverty were simply an economic problem, we would be closer to a solution by now. But underdevelopment is a web of economic, political, institutional, ethnic, and class-related connections with persistent historical roots.” That’s Bob Solow, eminent neo-classical economists, winner of the Bank of Sweden’s Economic Sciences Prize in the Memory of Alfred Nobel (1987). Clearly, he understands the distinction between economic growth and economic development as he is the celebrated author of what is called the Solow-Swan economic growth model. That model, developed in the 1950s, was supplanted by endogenous growth models in the 1980s. The latter models have microeconomic foundations and one of their implications is that you can affect the long-run growth rate through suitable policy interventions that change incentives and which in turn affect the rate of innovation.
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Author: Atanu Dey
Economist.
Pranab Bardhan on the Indian Economy
One of my gurus at UC Berkeley was Pranab Bardhan, professor of economics. “He has done theoretical and field studies research on rural institutions in poor countries, on political economy of development policies, and on international trade. A part of his work is in the interdisciplinary area of economics, political science, and social anthropology. He was Chief Editor of the Journal of Development Economics for 1985-2003. He was the co-chair of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Network on the Effects of Inequality on Economic Performance. for 1996-2007.”
Everything I know about international trade, I learnt from his lectures. He is matchless in his ability in making difficult concept accessible. It is always a pleasure to listen to him and learn. I spent some time in conversation with him last month in Berkeley. The transcript of the entire conversation I will post later. For now, here is a brief write up.
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California Fires
Fires, floods, earthquakes, riots. What’s not to like about southern California? 🙂
<img src="https://deeshaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/culdesac4301.jpg"
That picture is from the recent fires there. In one cul-de-sac, all but one house is standing; in the other, all but one is ashes. Yehi hai ishwar ki maya, kahin dhoop and kahin chaya.
Mirror Prank
Techno-hype
Really productive ideas, like internal combustion and the assembly line, are hard to find… But the techno-hype that surrounds us has some real costs. It causes businesses to waste money; it causes politicians to seek high-tech fixes (give every child a laptop!) when they should be getting back to the basics (teach every child to read). The slightly depressing truth is that technology has been letting us down lately. Let’s face up to that truth, and get on with our lives.
That is Paul Krugman writing in Dec 1996.
Job Discrimination
There is no easy way for me to go about discussing a subject that I think requires some degree of hard thinking. It is always so when what one is dealing with matters that lie at the foundation of one’s entire mental edifice. Replacing the entire foundation, or even parts of it, is not a task which can be undertaken over the course of an afternoon. In most cases, I don’t think foundations can be reworked; it is best to tear down the whole structure and build upon a new foundation. Keeping that caution in mind, what I want to consider here is one of my foundational principles which is that coercion is wrong.
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OLPC — The Rube Goldberg Variation
As if the OLPC was not Rube Goldbergian enough! What will they try next, I wonder. Try this definition of a Rube Goldberg device from the Wikipedia and tell me that it does not fit the OLPC to a t. Continue reading “OLPC — The Rube Goldberg Variation”
Smart New Togs
This blog is undergoing change. Not just in the looks but new editorial policies will be followed. New improved looks (50% increase in the number of columns, in case you have not noticed), tags, login for commenting, and whatnots.
Form changes will be matched with content changes. Let me know how you like the new looks and also what you would like to see by way of content.
Durga Puja
Durga Puja Greetings
For Bengalis, this is the biggest festival of the year. Today, the last day of the five-day event, is called “Bijoya Dashimi.” Mother Durga, who had come with her children (Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh, and Kartik) to visit her parents, departs today. For five days her idols had been worshiped and today the idols will be given back to the earth from which they were made.
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What and How
Mr Adam Smith
It is not just an article of faith among economists (such as yours truly) that markets allocate resources most efficiently under a set of set of assumptions; it has been mathematically proved by theoreticians and empirically demonstrated in thousands of well-documented instances. However, that does not make the proposition that markets work better than other mechanisms – such as command and control – any more intuitive or easy for people to appreciate. It is easy to misunderstand, misinterpret, and often misrepresent.
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Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
