Growth and Regional Disparities in Odisha: An Analysis in the Post-reform Period

The post-reform period has witnessed high economic growth in the net state domestic product (NSDP) of the state of Odisha. With a higher growth in income in the post-reform period, especially in the tertiary sector, the state witnessed high regional disparities among its districts in terms of per capita income (PCI). The regional disparities can be assessed by looking at the convergence/divergence in the PCI of the 30 districts of Odisha. The state has seen a sigma ( σ) divergence in the income of districts during the post-reform period, which points to an increase in income disparities among the districts. To know the sectoral effects of the income divergence, the PCI growths of the 30 districts, over the period from 1993–1994 to 2011–2012, are regressed with the initial PCI of the three sectors—primary, secondary and tertiary—of the 30 districts. The beta ( β) divergence shows a mixed result. The districts having a low PCI in the primary sector show a convergence, meaning these were growing at a faster rate and converged with the districts having a high PCI in the primary sector. On the other hand, the districts having a low tertiary sector PCI show a divergence, which means these were growing at a slower rate while districts having a high PCI in the tertiary sector were growing at a faster rate, causing a divergence altogether. The secondary sector PCI of the districts shows an insignificant result. Combining the growth in the sectors’ income and the disparities among the districts in terms of sectoral PCI shows that the growth in income, especially the tertiary sector income growth during the post-reform period in Odisha, caused income disparities among the districts.

Income Convergence in Presence of Liberalization Measures, Governance and Technology Adoption

The study focuses on the examination of income-convergence or inequalities amid Asian economies in the presence of trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, governance, and technology adoption. The existence of clubs in the sample of 14 selected Asian countries for a large panel data set covering the 1999-2015 period facilitated us to examine the club-convergence. Unconditional and conditional income-convergence is explored by adopting Blundell and Bond's estimating technique. Findings reveal that income-convergence is taking place among Asian developed countries and ASEAN countries. However, there is income-divergence in SAARC countries and Asian least developed countries. Nevertheless, it is concluded that despite Asian countries having different economic structures and policy measures; they are on the track of conditional convergence in their respective clubs.

Divergence in mind: Why inequality devil is as black as he is painted

The paper presents contemporary economic discussions about the problems of inequality and the actual circumstances than make it difficult to take into account not only statistical, but also the socio-political conjuncture of wealth and income divergence. The paper concludes that objective and complex analysis of inequality faces methodological problems — such as discrepancies in the tools for measuring inequality or fundamental disregard for interdisciplinary research perspectives, — and also with disregard of the “subjective” component of the inequality perception.

If Technology Has Arrived Everywhere, Why Has Income Diverged?

We study the cross-country evolution of technology diffusion over the last two centuries. We document that adoption lags between poor and rich countries have converged, while the intensity of use of adopted technologies of poor countries relative to rich countries has diverged. The evolution of aggregate productivity implied by these trends in technology diffusion resembles the actual evolution of the world income distribution in the last two centuries. Cross-country differences in adoption lags account for a significant part of the cross-country income divergence in the nineteenth century. The divergence in intensity of use accounts for the divergence during the twentieth century. (JEL N10, N70, O14, O33, O41, O47)