Convergence of Forest Resources in Jangalmahal, West Bengal

The topic of growth and convergence is at the heart of a wide-ranging debate in the growth literature. The century long history of deprivation and backwardness of Jangalmahal area and four districts of it in the state of West Bengal—Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore and parts of Birbhum—is also a well discussed issue. The dependency of the people on forest products to earn livelihoods is a natural phenomenon which, over the years, has resulted in considerable exploitation of forest resources. Through this chapter, we have made an attempt to see whether there exists any convergence, both absolute as well as conditional, in the total forest product of Jangalmahal and in the incomes earned from forest resources. We have seen the presence of Beta convergence, both conditional and absolute, in both tests of forest products as well as income from it. Sigma of forest income diverges instead of converge. Similar result is seen in case of timber.

Exploring Landscapes in Regional Convergence

The South Asian region is a key economic zone, as seen from the global perspective. In the past two decades, it has witnessed a healthy growth in GDP terms. Globalization has propelled the countries in the region towards regional cooperation as a means to address common growth concerns. Along with geo-political compulsions that have fostered this convergence, we find that there are also socio-cultural and historical factors present that could serve as binding stones. However environment and climate change pose a huge challenge to the economic integration and growth in this region. While a number of institutional and policy regional cooperative measures have been put in place, there are certain bottlenecks in the region, which are again a product of its history, that need to be addressed. We feel that reassessment of national interests and priorities through strong political will are essential to mitigate these bottlenecks to realize the true potential of convergence in this region.

Convergence and Equality of Road Infrastructure

The development of road infrastructure works as one of the most important inputs of production and overall economic activities all around the global economics. The developed countries of the west hold the larger road lengths in both gross and per capita terms compared to the less developed and emerging countries. But it is also undeniable that the less developed emerging countries have been growing fast in this respect or rushing to catch with the developed countries. The present chapter, hence, tries to study the modes of growth and convergence of GDP per kilometer of road length across the 30 selected countries for the period of 1990-2011 by means of ? convergence and also try to estimate the cross country inequalities by means of Gini Coefficients. It observes a sign of ? convergence and the inequality are going down over time, although there are some signs of divergences in some of the short time spans.

A Comparative Study on World-Wide Carbon Emission Convergence

Environmental issue is one of the primary concerns in present global scenario for developed as well as developing countries and reducing the emission level of greenhouse gases is the common objective for all. Study of per capita carbon emission convergence is quite significant in the ongoing debate of climate change policy formulation and implementation as future emission level can only decide the incentive to shift to the clean technology. With a balanced panel of 79 countries and 50 years, over 1960-2009, we have tested for both sigma and beta convergence. The data exhibits a possible convergence in carbon emission. The countries are disaggregated twice, first into OECD and Non-OECD countries and then into five categories on the basis of income. OECD countries show absolute and conditional beta convergence, also with sigma convergence. Countries from lower income group have a lower degree of variability in dispersion in the time period being considered. The set of explanatory variables in this analysis are real GDP per capita, population growth rate and trade openness.

The Environmentalism and Politics of Climate Change

This study examined the environmentalism and politics of climate change by undertaking a study of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) focusing on the Kyoto Protocol document and the UNFCCC conferences held after Kyoto that has centered on how to garner consensus on the way forward for the global community. The study also probed why the agreement at Kyoto, Japan started having problems when a change of government occurred in the United States with a Republican President that leaned towards the interests of big business most of whom would bear the most costs if the policies as articulated in the Kyoto protocols were to be executed and why the Democratic presidency of Barrack Obama has been slow in pushing forward the agreement at Kyoto. The study concluded that national political interests of the major powers seem to have stalled the implementation of the Kyoto protocol but a change in the dynamics of global leadership spectrum can have a significant impetus in producing an agreement on climate change.

Association between Governance and Human Development in South Asia

Good governance could play a catalytic role in creating an enabling working environment where the dream of sustainable human development can be fulfilled, whereas poor governance could erode individual capabilities to meet even the basic needs of sustenance for vulnerable sections of the population. Under this backdrop, this study attempts to explore empirically the association between the governance and human development in the context of South Asian countries. Broadly, a converging trend of both the indices of governance and human development across South Asian countries is noticeable with the passage of time. Moreover, substantial empirical evidences suggest that the state of governance and that of level of human development are positively correlated in the sense that countries having a better functioning of governance system are also the countries with relatively high levels of human development.

Convergence Aspect of Capital Formation

Empirical evidences on convergence or divergence of a group of economies or regions in most instances are based upon per capita income as the only determinant for discussion. As time goes on, there has been a lot of studies on the convergence or divergence of certain variables which are proxy to the income variable. The present chapter attempts to examine whether there is convergence or divergence in per capita gross capital formation across 37 countries for the period 1980-2013. The study observes that there is significant absolute ß and s convergence for the cross section of all the economies for the entire period. By segregating the entire data into the categories of developed and developing country, the study further observes significant s convergence in both the cases with no absolute ß convergence in either of the country categories.

Health Status and Convergence in Developing Open Economies

This chapter delves into the relationship among different economic issues like economic growth, health status and international trade in the context of convergence literature. In this chapter we illustrate and provide arguments behind the convergence of health status in developing economies in the presence of open economy regime. In this respect we consider a panel data set of 17 developing economies of the time span 1960-2011. In the present study we have found convergence not only in measure of health care status but also in the measure of trade and openness and therefore we have dealt with such kind of complexities. Apart from these we have found that health status improves in the post liberalization period but cross-sectional divergence increases in post liberalization era.

Economic Convergence and Real Dimensions

Economic convergence exists when two or more economies tend to reach a similar level of development and wealth. The idea of convergence in economics is the hypothesis that poorer economies' per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies. Though income is considered to be an important indicator, it is now widely recognized that ‘real' dimensions like nutrition, health, shelter, education etc. assess the overall wellbeing of an individual/household. The objective of this chapter is to discuss and formulate a methodology by which one can measure shelter deprivation and its convergence in a region as a step forward to add on to overall well-being of an individual or household. This chapter not only shows a methodology to calculate such divergence and analyses the reasons for such divergence, but also prepares a list of possible combinations of policy prescriptions by which a policy maker, such as the government, can find the extent of rectification of shelter deprivation of a group given its allotment of budget.

Optimum Currency Area Theory and Business Cycle Convergence in EMU

Which countries should be in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)? This question has been debated frequently in the aftermath of the Sovereign Debt Crisis. But this has been asked in every stages of European integration. This discussion has rooted in the Optimum Currency Area (OCA) theory. The theory simply reveals that; if the countries have similar business cycles, one size fits all monetary policy would able to address the problems of member countries. Otherwise, no single monetary policy could be able to satisfy all members. In this respect, we test the business cycle convergence in EMU12 countries over time and we have also analyzed the effects of crisis on this convergence. We have found that business cycles converged over time in these countries. This convergence rises in the times of crisis as they slump together after the shock, but falls sharply in the aftermath of the crisis. This reflects the divergent recovery paths of the countries and put a pressure on single monetary policy especially after crisis.