Findings of a Socio-Economic Survey of Pavement Dwelling Families in Central Kolkata

Wage disparities research hardly incorporate for the cost of living differences due to data restriction, while the wage disparity issue is the crucial area of economist interest. The study aims to examine the wage disparities between high and low wage cities for Punjab and Sindh province of Pakistan with and without the cost of living, deploying the data of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) with Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) for 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2013. Applying the Oaxaca-Blinder estimation method, the findings infer that wage dispersion is high without the cost of living model for both provinces (Punjab and Sindh) as compared to with cost of the living model. Moreover, the results reveal that the wage dispersion is greater in Punjab province than Sindh province. For policymakers, our study suggests that the cost of living is an essential component of the wage dispersion in Pakistan’s cities; it should be considered while formulating for wage policy.

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Structural Transformation of Punjab Agriculture and its Environmental Implications

Indian Journal of Economics and Development ◽

10.35716/ijed/20036 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 533-546

Keyword(s):

Structural Transformation ◽

Diversity Index ◽

Green Revolution ◽

Agricultural Practices ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Cropping Pattern ◽

Environmental Implications ◽

Question Mark ◽

Sustainability Issue ◽

Economic Survey

As per Economic Survey of Punjab, (2019-20), Punjab alone contributed more than 1/4 and 1/3 of the central pool of rice and th rd wheat respectively in 2018-19 and accordingly named as bread-basket of India. However, such a huge contribution was due to the structural transformation of agriculture in Punjab under the Green Revolution. Such transformation leads to intensive use of natural resources with mono-culture of wheat-paddy till today, which put a big question mark on the sustainability issue of agriculture in Punjab. The present study was exclusively based on secondary data, covering the period of 1965-66 to 2018-2019, almost 55 years. Hirschman Herfindhal index and Simpson Diversity index were used to determine the extent of concentration and diversification in the cropping pattern of Punjab agriculture. The results highlight the facts that level of diversification was declining and the level of concentration was increasing. Moreover, Compound Growth Rate (CGR) of yield was either stagnating or declining over the years. Not only this, based on the index of agriculture production, the trend values were negative since the 21 century. Accordingly, st intensive agricultural practices should be stopped, and diversification should get priority in such a way that food security is not jeopardized.

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