Are special economic zones a curse on those "chosen" to be evicted? : evidence form West Bengal, India

Using data from a self-administered survey of 1,017 households we assess the long-term impact of establishing a special economic zone, on those who are exogenously selected to be displaced. We find those who are displaced suffer from lower land compensation and lack of adequate property rights. There is also some evidence of lower labour market participation among those who are displaced. However, in the long term, across measurable welfare indicators, we do not find that displaced households are significantly different from other households. One source of this resilience is through employment at the special economic zone – which is higher among displaced households compared to other households. Another factor that contributed to the absence of differences is spill-over effects; which made access to employment, education and other facilities about homogenous across displaced and non-displaced households.

Partition, independence, and population geography in Bengal

This study quantitatively explores the changing population geography in Bengal, with a particular focus on Partition in India in 1947 and Independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Based on decadal census data from 1901 to 2001 at the district level, this paper explores how trends in regional population growth evolved with such historical events. Following Redding and Sturm (2008), Differences-in-Differences estimation is also employed. Estimation results show that there were different shocks on both sides and from both events. In West Bengal, the change in the regional population trends occurred in 1947 and remained similar thereafter. On the other hand, in East Bengal, the population growth became statistically significant after 1971. Further robustness checks show that the impacts were not uniform with respect to the distance from the border. Overall analyses show that the emergence of the international border in Bengal had asymmetric impacts on both sides.

Development strategy in Bihar through revitalizing the agricultural sector : a preliminary analysis

Based mainly on secondary data and partly on primary information obtained through field surveys in selected rural areas in Bihar in 2011, this paper firstly argues the critical importance of agricultural growth for overall economic development, and then reviews the sluggish growth of agriculture in Bihar in the past and examines the major reasons for this. The long-term negligence of agricultural research (especially development and diffusion endeavors for improved rice varieties suitable to the local conditions of Bihar) by the state government and some sort of ‘backwardness’ in tube-well irrigation technology can be pointed out as important constraints. There is, in particular, the ‘paradox’ in Bihar agriculture of why rice and wheat yields have remained so low in spite of the relatively well-developed irrigation by tube-wells. Finally, by showing the process of a rapid increase in autumn and winter rice yields during the 1990s in West Bengal, it is suggested that Bihar farmers and policy-makers should learn from the experience of West Bengal in order to get some hints for the development of the rice sector in Bihar.