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Civil-military relations and democracy in Bangladesh
No full textCivilian control of the armed forces is a sine qua non for democracy. In Bangladesh, the military has played a crucial role during several authoritarian setbacks on its path to democratic consolidation. Civilian control is understood as the distribution of decisionmaking power between civilians and the armed forces.
This article sheds light on the successes and failures in the efforts of civilian governments to establish supremacy over the country’s armed forces in order to consolidate democratic rule. The analysis derives from a conceptualization of civilian control that distinguishes five areas of political decisionmaking: elite-recruitment, public policy, internal security, national defence, and internal security. In order to establish control in these various areas civilians have a choice between different strategies for which they need certain resources. In this context, the study shows that civil-military relations in Bangladesh have tended to be affected by historical legacies. Civilian polarisation as well as military factionalism and politicisation have not only hampered the institutionalization of civilian control but also led to the predominance of informality
Specialization, Diversity, and Indian Manufacturing Growth
No full textThis paper examines the specialization and diversity of manufacturing industries within Indian districts. Prior to India's recent economic growth and liberalization, specialization levels in 1989 were substantially higher than similar metrics calculated for the United States. From 1989 to 2010, average specialization levels for Indian districts declined to a level that is now quite comparable to the United States. Diversity levels similarly increased. Specialization and diversity levels in India are becoming more persistent with time. Manufacturing plants display higher productivity in districts that display both properties. From 1989 to 2010, manufacturing employment growth was higher in districts that were more specialized at the start of the period
Sri Lanka: Justice Sector Review
No full textImprovement of the performance of the judiciary is an important part of a growth agenda for Sri Lanka as it moves to middle income country status. The present government has set ambitious targets to double gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by 2016 and has cited the need for a more efficient judicial sector as a means of reducing poverty. This is consistent with the broad historical evidence that a well-functioning judicial sector is the most effective long-term instrument for securing property rights and enforcing contracts, which in turn are critical factors for investment and commerce, and hence poverty reduction and economic growth. Sri Lanka ranks 133rd in the 2013 doing business's sub-index on enforcement of contracts, a level that is comparable to other South Asian countries but lower than other middle income comparators such as Thailand (ranked 23rd) and Malaysia (ranked 33rd). Identifying the contributing factors to inefficiency in Sri Lanka's courts in hearing commercial cases is the main purpose of this review. The findings in the report are based on available statistics on court performance and interviews with key stakeholders in the justice sector. The report is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction, chapter two gives organization and management of the courts, chapter three gives data on case handling in courts, chapter four deals with private sector approaches to dispute resolution, chapter five focuses on legal and procedural issues in commercial cases, chapter six gives past reform efforts, and chapter seven gives conclusions and recommendations
Education and Civil Conflict in Nepal
No full textBetween 1996 and 2006, Nepal experienced violent civil conflict as a consequence of a Maoist insurgency, which many argue also brought about an increase in female empowerment. This paper exploits variations in exposure to conflict by birth cohort, survey date, and district to estimate the impact of the insurgency on education outcomes. Overall conflict intensity, measured by conflict casualties, is associated with an increase in female educational attainment, whereas abductions by Maoists, which often targeted school children, have the reverse effect. Male schooling tended to increase more rapidly in areas where the fighting was more intense, but the estimates are smaller in magnitude and more sensitive to specification than estimates for females. Similar results are obtained across different specifications, and robustness checks indicate that these findings are not due to selective migration
Does Urbanization Affect Rural Poverty? Evidence from Indian Districts
No full textAlthough a high rate of urbanization and a high incidence of rural poverty are two distinct features of many developing countries, there is little knowledge of the effects of the former on the latter. Using a large sample of Indian districts from the 1983-1999 period, the authors find that urbanization has a substantial and systematic poverty-reducing effect in the surrounding rural areas. The results obtained through an instrumental variable estimation suggest that this effect is causal in nature and is largely attributable to the positive spillovers of urbanization on the rural economy rather than to the movement of the rural poor to urban areas. This rural poverty-reducing effect of urbanization is primarily explained by increased demand for local agricultural products and, to a lesser extent, by urban-rural remittances, the rural land/population ratio, and rural nonfarm employment
Involving Men in Reproductive and Fertility Issues: Insights from Punjab
No full textPakistan's slackening in its fertility transition is a cause of concern internationally, as well as within the country. This study has a twofold aim of exploring couples' dynamics during decision processes regarding fertility intentions and practices along with community perceptions of male-focused interventions and men's suggestions for future intervention strategies. The findings are based on three data sources. The primary data source is a 2013 qualitative study in four districts of Punjab province. The second data source is secondary analysis of the baseline and end line surveys of the Family Advancement for Life and Health (FALAH 2007-2012) project. The third data source is the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) 1990-1991 and 2006-2007, which were used to assess trends over two decades. The 2013 qualitative study was in four districts of Punjab, namely Jhelum, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan, and Okara. The first three were FALAH districts in which interventions were tested, while the fourth was chosen as a control district. A total of 12 focus group discussions were conducted with men, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 couples in these districts. Data from 2,649 men and 638 couples from the FALAH baseline and end line surveys were analyzed to assess the impact of FALAH male-directed interventions on fertility intentions and behavior. This study seeks to explore the decision-making process of couples in the move from intentions to fertility behavior. It also examines the readiness of men to be involved in family planning (FP) programs through different male-centered interventions. In-depth interviews (IDIs) with couples are especially direct in gauging spousal perception of the partner's FP approval or disapproval. The study focuses on urban and semi-urban areas of Punjab province and can be used, at least indicatively, for interregional and temporal analyses within the Pakistani context
Revisiting the Constraints to Pakistan's Growth
No full textThis paper revisits the identification of the binding constraints to investment and growth in Pakistan by rigorously applying the growth diagnostic framework. It has a central finding: Pakistan's economy faces two major groups of constraints emerging and structural. The emerging constraints include infrastructure (energy) deficit, high macro-fiscal risks, and inadequate international financing (high country risks and low FDI inflows). The structural binding constraints that persistently affect prospects of sustainable growth in Pakistan are low access to domestic finance, high anti-export bias, bad taxation system, micro risks (bad governance, excess business regulations, and poor civil service) and slow productive diversification
Food Prices, Wages, and Welfare in Rural India
No full textThis paper considers the welfare and distributional consequences of higher relative food prices in rural India through the lens of a specific-factors, general equilibrium, trade model applied at the district level. The evidence shows that nominal wages for manual labor both within and outside agriculture respond elastically to increases in producer prices; that is, wages rose faster in rural districts growing more of those crops with large price run-ups over 2004-09. Accounting for such wage gains, the analysis finds that rural households across the income spectrum benefit from higher agricultural commodity prices. Indeed, rural wage adjustment appears to play a much greater role in protecting the welfare of the poor than the Public Distribution System, India's giant food-rationing scheme. Moreover, policies, like agricultural export bans, which insulate producers (as well as consumers) from international price increases, are particularly harmful to the poor of rural India. Conventional welfare analyses that assume fixed wages and focus on households' net sales position lead to radically different conclusions
A Growth and Adjustment Strategy for Pakistan
No full textThis paper is divided into four sections. The first provides a quick overview of the current political and economic situation, focusing in particular on the stagnation of growth and deepening macroeconomic imbalances, and a fast approaching balance of payments crisis. The second section focuses on ways to improve macro-economic balances especially public finances not only by increasing revenues but restructuring expenditures including reductions in subsidies to the non-poor and increasing the effectiveness of public spending. The third section focuses on critical elements in reviving growth. The paper argues for a comprehensive growth strategy which focuses on governance as a central issue. Reversing the decline of public institutions and improving the quality of governance will provide confidence in the country's economic future and will result in increasing domestic investment. Other elements of the strategy must involve improving the energy situation; correcting the long neglect of exports and using international trade as a driver of growth (including opportunities that may become available by the intended normalization of trade with India); reversing the decline on growth rate of agriculture both by supporting diversification in the cropping pattern; processing of agricultural products, and more economical use of inputs (especially water); a new push on human development including quality of education in public schools, skills training and a new emphasis on adult literacy; and, a new compact with the private sector that phases out economic rents, reduces the burden of unnecessary or ineffective regulation not excluding labor legislation, and strengthens incentives for investment and productivity improvements especially in moving up the value added chain. Finally, the fourth section presents a summary of key actions that government could take along with a timeline for implementation
Connecting the Disconnected: Coping Strategies of the Financially Excluded in Bhutan
No full textIn the spring of 2012, the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan and the World Bank commissioned a diagnostic assessment of financial practices and strategies among urban and rural Bhutanese. The resulting survey, the Bhutan financial inclusion focus group survey, represents one of the first efforts to capture household financial management practices in the country. The assessment, undertaken at the request of a government working group led by the Royal Monetary Authority, was designed to inform Bhutan's Financial Inclusion Policy by providing information about households' use of and demand for financial services. Since the research mainly captures the perspectives of Bhutanese households, this report does not present recommendations. Instead, its findings from the field research provide qualitative evidence that has informed the financial inclusion policy by highlighting opportunities and challenges in increasing financial inclusion