Abhirup Sarkar - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Abhirup Sarkar
The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a le... more The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a less-developed country where the agricultural market is controlled by a handful of large farmers. It is shown that the success of trade reform depends upon the distribution of output between large and small farmers and the success of land reform leading to redistribution from the large to the poor depends on trade reform. In other words, if undertaken in isolation, each reform might lead to a fall in welfare, but if jointly undertaken, they will lead to an increase in welfare. Thus the two reforms are complementary.
This paper provides evidence concerning political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance a... more This paper provides evidence concerning political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance at meetings, campaign involvement, voting) and its relation to local governance (targeting of public services) in a developing country, based on a rural household survey in West Bengal, India. We find that reported participation rates varied remarkably little with socio-economic status, with the exception of education and immigrant status. Within villages, benefits disbursed by local governments displayed no relation to wealth, caste, education, gender or political affiliations. In contrast, allocation of benefits across villages by higherlevel governments displayed bias against the poor; these biases were larger in villages with more unequal landownership and lower participation rates in village meetings. Political support among voters for the dominant Left party was positively correlated with receipt of recurring benefits and help provided by local governments in times of personal need,...
Studies in Microeconomics
In this article, we build a theoretical model of retail and wholesale trade to analyse the effect... more In this article, we build a theoretical model of retail and wholesale trade to analyse the effects of the entry of multinationals in wholesale and retail markets on the size of the domestic retail sector and prices. We show that the domestic retailing sector will expand, the retail price will fall and the wholesale price will go up, if and only if the retailing cost of the MNCs is greater than the retailing cost of the domestic retailers. JEL Classifications: F13, F61, F63
Economic and Political Weekly, Dec 28, 2012
Economic and Political Weekly, Sep 19, 2014
Keio Economic Studies, 1998
Economic and Political Weekly, Apr 21, 2007
The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price sea... more The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price seasonality coexists with high (low) seasonality in market arrival in some backward agricultural markets. The explanation is provided in terms of differences in the degree of monopoly across markets.
Perspectives from Academics and Policy Makers, 2015
This paper uses results of a household survey to study patterns of political participation (turno... more This paper uses results of a household survey to study patterns of political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance at political and civic meetings, involvement in political campaigns, voting) and their relation to local governance in rural West Bengal, a state in Eastern India. With the exception of education and immigrant status, reported participation rates varied remarkably little with socioeconomic status. Allocation of government-disbursed benefits within villages displayed no significant association with wealth, caste, education, gender or political affiliation of household head. In contrast, allocation of benefits across villages displayed bias against poor and low caste groups; these biases were larger in villages with more unequal land distribution and lower participation rates in village meetings. Political support among voters for the incumbent party dominating the local government was positively correlated with receipt of recurring benefits and help provided by local governments in times of personal need, but independent of more long-term, one-time benefits or local public goods provided.
The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a le... more The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a less-developed country where the agricultural market is controlled by a handful of large farmers. It is shown that the success of trade reform depends upon the distribution of output between large and small farmers and the success of land reform leading
Most of the models attempting to give an account of trade induced symmetric increase in wage ineq... more Most of the models attempting to give an account of trade induced symmetric increase in wage inequality have abandoned the factor price equalization (FPE) framework. In this paper we identify a plausible route through which trade might increase wage inequality in both the trading countries in a standard factor price equalization framework. We develop a very simple two-sector model with
The paper examines political awareness, participation and the unusual stability of political powe... more The paper examines political awareness, participation and the unusual stability of political power in rural West Bengal, using data from a household survey conducted by the authors during 2003-05. We examine variation of voting and other political behaviour across households of varying socio-economic characteristics. The analysis suggests that (i) political participation was high on the average; (ii) within village distribution
New Economic Windows, 2010
... Skill Formation Brati Sankar Chakraborty and Abhirup Sarkar ... Brati Sankar Chakraborty Econ... more ... Skill Formation Brati Sankar Chakraborty and Abhirup Sarkar ... Brati Sankar Chakraborty Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. e-mail: brati@isical.ac.in Abhirup Sarkar Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. ...
New Economic Windows, 2007
Page 1. Knowledge Sharing and R&D Investment Abhirup Sarkar Economic Research Unit, Indian St... more Page 1. Knowledge Sharing and R&D Investment Abhirup Sarkar Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata abhirup@isical.ac.in Summary. ... Page 2. 228 A. Sarkar the agent who is able to market the knowledge in incapable of doing basic re-search. ...
New Economic Windows, 2006
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the problem of regional inequality and the possibility of ... more The purpose of the paper is to analyse the problem of regional inequality and the possibility of inter-regional cooperation. In particular it tries to answer why backward regions of a country might prefer regional autonomy as opposed to cooperation. It also provides an example where inequality and inefficiency are positively correlated.
Trade, Globalization and Development, 2013
Abstract Uncertainty in agricultural production resulting in loss of insurance works against stan... more Abstract Uncertainty in agricultural production resulting in loss of insurance works against standard gains from trade through comparative advantage. The strength of these two forces determine the final effect of trade on welfare. If gains from trade is strong enough, utility ...
The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price sea... more The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price seasonality coexists with high (low) seasonality in market arrival in some backward agricultural markets. The explanation is provided in terms of differences in the degree of monopoly across markets.
Metroeconomica, 2008
The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a le... more The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a less developed country where the agricultural market is controlled by a handful of large farmers. It is shown that the success of trade reform depends on the distribution of output between large and small farmers and the success of land reform leading to redistribution from the large to the small farmers depends on trade reform. In other words, if undertaken in isolation, each reform might lead to a fall in welfare, but if jointly undertaken, they will lead to an increase in welfare. Thus the two reforms are complementary.
Journal of International Economics, 1985
The purpose of this paper is to show in a two-country-two-good stationary state model where one o... more The purpose of this paper is to show in a two-country-two-good stationary state model where one of the goods is produced by an Austrian flow-input-point-output technology that the country with the higher rate of interest specializes in the early stages of production. These countries can be roughly identified with the less developed nations where lower wage rates and higher capital costs lead to a comparative advantage in the early stages of the productive spectrum.
The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a le... more The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a less-developed country where the agricultural market is controlled by a handful of large farmers. It is shown that the success of trade reform depends upon the distribution of output between large and small farmers and the success of land reform leading to redistribution from the large to the poor depends on trade reform. In other words, if undertaken in isolation, each reform might lead to a fall in welfare, but if jointly undertaken, they will lead to an increase in welfare. Thus the two reforms are complementary.
This paper provides evidence concerning political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance a... more This paper provides evidence concerning political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance at meetings, campaign involvement, voting) and its relation to local governance (targeting of public services) in a developing country, based on a rural household survey in West Bengal, India. We find that reported participation rates varied remarkably little with socio-economic status, with the exception of education and immigrant status. Within villages, benefits disbursed by local governments displayed no relation to wealth, caste, education, gender or political affiliations. In contrast, allocation of benefits across villages by higherlevel governments displayed bias against the poor; these biases were larger in villages with more unequal landownership and lower participation rates in village meetings. Political support among voters for the dominant Left party was positively correlated with receipt of recurring benefits and help provided by local governments in times of personal need,...
Studies in Microeconomics
In this article, we build a theoretical model of retail and wholesale trade to analyse the effect... more In this article, we build a theoretical model of retail and wholesale trade to analyse the effects of the entry of multinationals in wholesale and retail markets on the size of the domestic retail sector and prices. We show that the domestic retailing sector will expand, the retail price will fall and the wholesale price will go up, if and only if the retailing cost of the MNCs is greater than the retailing cost of the domestic retailers. JEL Classifications: F13, F61, F63
Economic and Political Weekly, Dec 28, 2012
Economic and Political Weekly, Sep 19, 2014
Keio Economic Studies, 1998
Economic and Political Weekly, Apr 21, 2007
The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price sea... more The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price seasonality coexists with high (low) seasonality in market arrival in some backward agricultural markets. The explanation is provided in terms of differences in the degree of monopoly across markets.
Perspectives from Academics and Policy Makers, 2015
This paper uses results of a household survey to study patterns of political participation (turno... more This paper uses results of a household survey to study patterns of political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance at political and civic meetings, involvement in political campaigns, voting) and their relation to local governance in rural West Bengal, a state in Eastern India. With the exception of education and immigrant status, reported participation rates varied remarkably little with socioeconomic status. Allocation of government-disbursed benefits within villages displayed no significant association with wealth, caste, education, gender or political affiliation of household head. In contrast, allocation of benefits across villages displayed bias against poor and low caste groups; these biases were larger in villages with more unequal land distribution and lower participation rates in village meetings. Political support among voters for the incumbent party dominating the local government was positively correlated with receipt of recurring benefits and help provided by local governments in times of personal need, but independent of more long-term, one-time benefits or local public goods provided.
The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a le... more The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a less-developed country where the agricultural market is controlled by a handful of large farmers. It is shown that the success of trade reform depends upon the distribution of output between large and small farmers and the success of land reform leading
Most of the models attempting to give an account of trade induced symmetric increase in wage ineq... more Most of the models attempting to give an account of trade induced symmetric increase in wage inequality have abandoned the factor price equalization (FPE) framework. In this paper we identify a plausible route through which trade might increase wage inequality in both the trading countries in a standard factor price equalization framework. We develop a very simple two-sector model with
The paper examines political awareness, participation and the unusual stability of political powe... more The paper examines political awareness, participation and the unusual stability of political power in rural West Bengal, using data from a household survey conducted by the authors during 2003-05. We examine variation of voting and other political behaviour across households of varying socio-economic characteristics. The analysis suggests that (i) political participation was high on the average; (ii) within village distribution
New Economic Windows, 2010
... Skill Formation Brati Sankar Chakraborty and Abhirup Sarkar ... Brati Sankar Chakraborty Econ... more ... Skill Formation Brati Sankar Chakraborty and Abhirup Sarkar ... Brati Sankar Chakraborty Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. e-mail: brati@isical.ac.in Abhirup Sarkar Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. ...
New Economic Windows, 2007
Page 1. Knowledge Sharing and R&D Investment Abhirup Sarkar Economic Research Unit, Indian St... more Page 1. Knowledge Sharing and R&D Investment Abhirup Sarkar Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata abhirup@isical.ac.in Summary. ... Page 2. 228 A. Sarkar the agent who is able to market the knowledge in incapable of doing basic re-search. ...
New Economic Windows, 2006
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the problem of regional inequality and the possibility of ... more The purpose of the paper is to analyse the problem of regional inequality and the possibility of inter-regional cooperation. In particular it tries to answer why backward regions of a country might prefer regional autonomy as opposed to cooperation. It also provides an example where inequality and inefficiency are positively correlated.
Trade, Globalization and Development, 2013
Abstract Uncertainty in agricultural production resulting in loss of insurance works against stan... more Abstract Uncertainty in agricultural production resulting in loss of insurance works against standard gains from trade through comparative advantage. The strength of these two forces determine the final effect of trade on welfare. If gains from trade is strong enough, utility ...
The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price sea... more The purpose of the paper is to explain, in terms of a theoretical model, why low (high) price seasonality coexists with high (low) seasonality in market arrival in some backward agricultural markets. The explanation is provided in terms of differences in the degree of monopoly across markets.
Metroeconomica, 2008
The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a le... more The purpose of the paper is to look at the welfare effects of trade in agricultural goods in a less developed country where the agricultural market is controlled by a handful of large farmers. It is shown that the success of trade reform depends on the distribution of output between large and small farmers and the success of land reform leading to redistribution from the large to the small farmers depends on trade reform. In other words, if undertaken in isolation, each reform might lead to a fall in welfare, but if jointly undertaken, they will lead to an increase in welfare. Thus the two reforms are complementary.
Journal of International Economics, 1985
The purpose of this paper is to show in a two-country-two-good stationary state model where one o... more The purpose of this paper is to show in a two-country-two-good stationary state model where one of the goods is produced by an Austrian flow-input-point-output technology that the country with the higher rate of interest specializes in the early stages of production. These countries can be roughly identified with the less developed nations where lower wage rates and higher capital costs lead to a comparative advantage in the early stages of the productive spectrum.