Achin Chakraborty - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Drafts by Achin Chakraborty
Papers by Achin Chakraborty
Exploring Urban Change in South Asia, 2017
The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by s... more The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by serious threats to the prospects of good life in future on the other. These two central problems are often put succinctly as intergenerational and intragenerational injustice. Yet, the typical development planner sees the city as a location where investment, production, consumption and innovation take place. The dominant approach in policy circles is one of competition—the city is supposed to be in endless competition with other cities for markets and for new industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the tension among the three goals of urbanization—economic growth, sustainability and distributive justice. International development agencies, while articulating a normative standpoint, often combine the three goals in such a way as to create the impression that they form a seamless whole, which could be attained without problems only if the international community had been sensitized about the importance of setting such goals. On the contrary, we unfold the tensions and conflicts, drawing on the Indian urbanization experience and the policy dilemmas to argue that although the imperatives of economic growth in the modern globalized world have an apparent ring of inevitability around them, an articulated view on social justice and appropriate conceptualization of equity through community engagement can help us understand the alternative possibilities with their associated trade-offs, which in turn would help us tread the contested terrain.
Limits of Bargaining, 2019
Limits of Bargaining, 2019
Motivation and the context This book primarily examines the status of trade unions and the collec... more Motivation and the context This book primarily examines the status of trade unions and the collective bargaining institutions in the urban labour market of West Bengal (WB) within an analytical framework that views capital–labour relations as an outcome of the interplay of the triad of market, technology and the state with its collective bargaining institutions. The framework that we have adopted here is sufficiently general in the sense that it is capable of explaining capital–labour relations elsewhere as well. West Bengal is the only state in India that had been, until recently, under left rule for more than three decades, and has long been known for its pro-worker stance. The analytical strategy that has been adopted in this book allows us to move back and forth between the general context of weakening of trade union power as a consequence of the changing scenario in the national and global economies on the one hand, and the specific context of a subnational region like the state of WB within the federal system of India, on the other. The regional focus of the study is motivated by the understanding that distinct differences in labour market conditions and in the associated complexities of labour institutions do exist across subnational units in a large developing country like India. Differences at the subnational level in economic prosperity, degrees of urbanisation, structural changes as reflected in the changing shares of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in total output, and employment—all influence the labour market, labour organisations and collective bargaining outcomes. It can be argued that trade union organisations largely derive their characteristics, heritage, identity and strategic options from the specificities that characterise the region in which they function. This diverse array of influencing factors, which can roughly be called ‘economic’, influences and is further influenced by the political, social and historical factors. Understandably, the way all these factors are supposed to interact to produce the trajectory of capital–labour relations in a subnational context is not easy to delineate, as they pose difficult methodological challenges.
can be downloaded from the Centres ' website (www.cds.edu)
The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by s... more The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by serious threats to the prospects of good life in future on the other. These two central problems are often put succinctly as intergenerational and intragenerational injustice. Yet, the typical development planner sees the city as a location where investment, production, consumption and innovation take place. The dominant approach in policy circles is one of competition—the city is supposed to be in endless competition with other cities for markets and for new industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the tension among the three goals of urbanization—economic growth, sustainability and distributive justice. International development agencies, while articulating a normative standpoint, often combine the three goals in such a way as to create the impression that they form a seamless whole, which could be attained without problems only if the international community ha...
Contemporary South Asia, 2020
Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour ... more Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour relations in the organised industrial sector in the context of economic liberalisation in India. It analyses the dynamics of the capital-labour bargaining process in the context of the changing nature of the state and market as a result of adoption of policies of liberalisation and globalisation for the last two and half decades. It examines the nature of collective bargaining and analyses the underlying structural-political conditions that shape the capital-labour relations. Based on original empirical material from West Bengal, a state long considered pro-labour, the book presents bargaining between capital and labour as endogenous to the interplay of the triad of the market, technology and the institutions of the state. It illustrates everyday interactions between labour and management, different unions and outside actors that shape collective bargaining, and highlights the negotiation, appropriations and compromises that shape bargaining at the operational level.
A growing body of research has addressed the issue of intersectionality since the last three deca... more A growing body of research has addressed the issue of intersectionality since the last three decades, mostly adopting qualitative methodologies. Quantitative attempts to capture intersectionality have been recent and few. We invoke the framework of intersectionality to shed light on the puzzle of an insignificant gender gap in child nutrition in India. Given the multifaceted intersections of caste and gender in shaping inequalities in other indicators such as childhood mortality, reported preference for sons and labour market outcomes, we examine the variations in nutritional status of children across the intersections of the two axes, sex and caste. This is a methodological paper, attempting to illustrate the various quantitative methods that have been used (with or without adhering to the term ‘intersectionality’) or may be used to capture intersectional inequalities.
The economist's conceptualisation of inequality in terms of interpersonal distribution of in... more The economist's conceptualisation of inequality in terms of interpersonal distribution of income or wealth, and the tradition of measurement of inequality that follows from this conceptualisation have not paid adequate attention to the need for reckoning inequality across social groups. In this paper we show that certain simple statistical tools to analyse categorical data can be shown to have properties that conform to our normative judgement on group inequality. We then analyse the grouped data available from such sources as the NSSO to illuminate our understanding of group inequality in India. A broader goal of this paper is to combine the insights from the literature on axiomatic method of measuring inequality with the idea of inequality that is commonly shared by other social science disciplines like sociology and political science. JEL Classification: I31
About a quarter century ago, when the Left Front Government in West Bengal was at a nascent stage... more About a quarter century ago, when the Left Front Government in West Bengal was at a nascent stage, the dominant mood in the Writers ’ Buildings was one of optimism about the possibility of radical changes in the state given the permissible limits of the federal constitution. During that euphoric time,
some time now, there has been a pervasive feeling in India that inter-state disparity in economic... more some time now, there has been a pervasive feeling in India that inter-state disparity in economic and social development is on the rise. In the context of a high rate of growth of the economy that goes side by side with rising interstate as well as interpersonal inequality, the pressing question is how policymakers should respond to it. The system of transfer between national and sub -national governments is one area where this issue assumes importance. Amaresh Bagchi in his Kale Memorial Lecture delivered at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, noted,
West Bengal under the Left 1977-2011, 2019
Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State, 2019
There has been an apparent shift in the Indian state’s approach to welfarist interventions—from t... more There has been an apparent shift in the Indian state’s approach to welfarist interventions—from the earlier approach focusing on ‘targets’ and ‘beneficiaries’ to the so-called right-based one. Several acts were passed during this time, ostensibly to allow citizens to make moral claims on the behaviour of the state and individuals, as well as on social arrangements in general. In this chapter, an analytical perspective has been developed to interpret this shift, starting from a brief account of the series of events that culminated in such important legislations as the Right to Information Act, 2005, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the much contested National Food Security Act 2013. While the normative discourse on rights and capabilities highlights the importance of the ‘discursive practice’ in shaping public policies, it throws very little light on how it influences and is influenced by t...
Journal of quantitative economics, 2010
Female work participation in West Bengal is one of the lowest among all the states in India. Howe... more Female work participation in West Bengal is one of the lowest among all the states in India. However, it varies widely across the state’s 341 blocks. An analysis of some block level characteristics based on Census 2001 data show that female work participation varies inversely with the female literacy rate and percentage of Muslim population, and is positively related to the overall work opportunity as reflected by male work participation. However, there are a few blocks with very high percentage of Muslim population where female work participation is rather high. These are the blocks where women are engaged in home-based work in large numbers. Surveys were conducted of households in two such areas in Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas, respectively. [IDSK OP 18].
Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State, 2019
The objective of this introductory chapter is to theoretically and empirically tackle four interr... more The objective of this introductory chapter is to theoretically and empirically tackle four interrelated themes that examine the various facets of the contemporary Indian state. Rather than simply assessing the deviations of the Indian state from the generalized abstractions of a developmental state, this chapter shows the actual functioning of the state at multiple levels, often in a disaggregated way. These themes are to identify some of the reasons for the changing role of the state, including first, the shifting contexts such as the reconfigured state–business relationship; second, the mediating role of society in distributive politics, especially in terms of rights-based movements or pressures from below; third, the seemingly contradictory role of the state in undertaking major public social programmes and simultaneously opening up of greater spaces for the market; and fourth, the dynamic relationship between the state and the form of democratic governance under changing politic...
‘Capital’ in the East, 2019
There has been a revival of interest in cooperative enterprises as an alternative to capitalist e... more There has been a revival of interest in cooperative enterprises as an alternative to capitalist enterprises. After visiting the Mondragon Corporation, the largest workers’ cooperative in the world, established in the Basque region of Spain in 1956, the Marxian scholar Richard Wolff wrote an op-ed piece in The Guardian where he argues that cooperatives like the Mondragon Corporation must be seen as a central element of a socialist alternative to capitalism. While the conventional understanding of Marx’s own writing on cooperative enterprises suggests that such a form as a cooperative enterprise cannot escape the teleological thinking which subsumes it under the forces of monopoly capital, the actually existing cooperatives around the world have occasionally received a positive reaction from the Marxian scholars. This paper is an attempt to situate cooperative enterprises in the extant literature on production organization within the Marxian tradition, keeping in view the ambiguities ...
Research Papers in Economics, 2000
Although significant developments have taken place in the area of valuation of the environment, t... more Although significant developments have taken place in the area of valuation of the environment, the gap between theoretical principles and their operationalisation still remains. This paper makes an attempt to contribute towards bridging this gap. It explores the ways of `doing' environmental valuation in practice in the specific context of a proposed hydroelectric project. Valuation is done within the overall framework of cost-benefit analysis. In the process, a number of methodological issues in environmental cost-benefit analysis have been dealt with.
Exploring Urban Change in South Asia, 2017
The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by s... more The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by serious threats to the prospects of good life in future on the other. These two central problems are often put succinctly as intergenerational and intragenerational injustice. Yet, the typical development planner sees the city as a location where investment, production, consumption and innovation take place. The dominant approach in policy circles is one of competition—the city is supposed to be in endless competition with other cities for markets and for new industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the tension among the three goals of urbanization—economic growth, sustainability and distributive justice. International development agencies, while articulating a normative standpoint, often combine the three goals in such a way as to create the impression that they form a seamless whole, which could be attained without problems only if the international community had been sensitized about the importance of setting such goals. On the contrary, we unfold the tensions and conflicts, drawing on the Indian urbanization experience and the policy dilemmas to argue that although the imperatives of economic growth in the modern globalized world have an apparent ring of inevitability around them, an articulated view on social justice and appropriate conceptualization of equity through community engagement can help us understand the alternative possibilities with their associated trade-offs, which in turn would help us tread the contested terrain.
Limits of Bargaining, 2019
Limits of Bargaining, 2019
Motivation and the context This book primarily examines the status of trade unions and the collec... more Motivation and the context This book primarily examines the status of trade unions and the collective bargaining institutions in the urban labour market of West Bengal (WB) within an analytical framework that views capital–labour relations as an outcome of the interplay of the triad of market, technology and the state with its collective bargaining institutions. The framework that we have adopted here is sufficiently general in the sense that it is capable of explaining capital–labour relations elsewhere as well. West Bengal is the only state in India that had been, until recently, under left rule for more than three decades, and has long been known for its pro-worker stance. The analytical strategy that has been adopted in this book allows us to move back and forth between the general context of weakening of trade union power as a consequence of the changing scenario in the national and global economies on the one hand, and the specific context of a subnational region like the state of WB within the federal system of India, on the other. The regional focus of the study is motivated by the understanding that distinct differences in labour market conditions and in the associated complexities of labour institutions do exist across subnational units in a large developing country like India. Differences at the subnational level in economic prosperity, degrees of urbanisation, structural changes as reflected in the changing shares of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in total output, and employment—all influence the labour market, labour organisations and collective bargaining outcomes. It can be argued that trade union organisations largely derive their characteristics, heritage, identity and strategic options from the specificities that characterise the region in which they function. This diverse array of influencing factors, which can roughly be called ‘economic’, influences and is further influenced by the political, social and historical factors. Understandably, the way all these factors are supposed to interact to produce the trajectory of capital–labour relations in a subnational context is not easy to delineate, as they pose difficult methodological challenges.
can be downloaded from the Centres ' website (www.cds.edu)
The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by s... more The contemporary world is marked by deep inequities in living conditions on the one hand and by serious threats to the prospects of good life in future on the other. These two central problems are often put succinctly as intergenerational and intragenerational injustice. Yet, the typical development planner sees the city as a location where investment, production, consumption and innovation take place. The dominant approach in policy circles is one of competition—the city is supposed to be in endless competition with other cities for markets and for new industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the tension among the three goals of urbanization—economic growth, sustainability and distributive justice. International development agencies, while articulating a normative standpoint, often combine the three goals in such a way as to create the impression that they form a seamless whole, which could be attained without problems only if the international community ha...
Contemporary South Asia, 2020
Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour ... more Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour relations in the organised industrial sector in the context of economic liberalisation in India. It analyses the dynamics of the capital-labour bargaining process in the context of the changing nature of the state and market as a result of adoption of policies of liberalisation and globalisation for the last two and half decades. It examines the nature of collective bargaining and analyses the underlying structural-political conditions that shape the capital-labour relations. Based on original empirical material from West Bengal, a state long considered pro-labour, the book presents bargaining between capital and labour as endogenous to the interplay of the triad of the market, technology and the institutions of the state. It illustrates everyday interactions between labour and management, different unions and outside actors that shape collective bargaining, and highlights the negotiation, appropriations and compromises that shape bargaining at the operational level.
A growing body of research has addressed the issue of intersectionality since the last three deca... more A growing body of research has addressed the issue of intersectionality since the last three decades, mostly adopting qualitative methodologies. Quantitative attempts to capture intersectionality have been recent and few. We invoke the framework of intersectionality to shed light on the puzzle of an insignificant gender gap in child nutrition in India. Given the multifaceted intersections of caste and gender in shaping inequalities in other indicators such as childhood mortality, reported preference for sons and labour market outcomes, we examine the variations in nutritional status of children across the intersections of the two axes, sex and caste. This is a methodological paper, attempting to illustrate the various quantitative methods that have been used (with or without adhering to the term ‘intersectionality’) or may be used to capture intersectional inequalities.
The economist's conceptualisation of inequality in terms of interpersonal distribution of in... more The economist's conceptualisation of inequality in terms of interpersonal distribution of income or wealth, and the tradition of measurement of inequality that follows from this conceptualisation have not paid adequate attention to the need for reckoning inequality across social groups. In this paper we show that certain simple statistical tools to analyse categorical data can be shown to have properties that conform to our normative judgement on group inequality. We then analyse the grouped data available from such sources as the NSSO to illuminate our understanding of group inequality in India. A broader goal of this paper is to combine the insights from the literature on axiomatic method of measuring inequality with the idea of inequality that is commonly shared by other social science disciplines like sociology and political science. JEL Classification: I31
About a quarter century ago, when the Left Front Government in West Bengal was at a nascent stage... more About a quarter century ago, when the Left Front Government in West Bengal was at a nascent stage, the dominant mood in the Writers ’ Buildings was one of optimism about the possibility of radical changes in the state given the permissible limits of the federal constitution. During that euphoric time,
some time now, there has been a pervasive feeling in India that inter-state disparity in economic... more some time now, there has been a pervasive feeling in India that inter-state disparity in economic and social development is on the rise. In the context of a high rate of growth of the economy that goes side by side with rising interstate as well as interpersonal inequality, the pressing question is how policymakers should respond to it. The system of transfer between national and sub -national governments is one area where this issue assumes importance. Amaresh Bagchi in his Kale Memorial Lecture delivered at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, noted,
West Bengal under the Left 1977-2011, 2019
Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State, 2019
There has been an apparent shift in the Indian state’s approach to welfarist interventions—from t... more There has been an apparent shift in the Indian state’s approach to welfarist interventions—from the earlier approach focusing on ‘targets’ and ‘beneficiaries’ to the so-called right-based one. Several acts were passed during this time, ostensibly to allow citizens to make moral claims on the behaviour of the state and individuals, as well as on social arrangements in general. In this chapter, an analytical perspective has been developed to interpret this shift, starting from a brief account of the series of events that culminated in such important legislations as the Right to Information Act, 2005, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the much contested National Food Security Act 2013. While the normative discourse on rights and capabilities highlights the importance of the ‘discursive practice’ in shaping public policies, it throws very little light on how it influences and is influenced by t...
Journal of quantitative economics, 2010
Female work participation in West Bengal is one of the lowest among all the states in India. Howe... more Female work participation in West Bengal is one of the lowest among all the states in India. However, it varies widely across the state’s 341 blocks. An analysis of some block level characteristics based on Census 2001 data show that female work participation varies inversely with the female literacy rate and percentage of Muslim population, and is positively related to the overall work opportunity as reflected by male work participation. However, there are a few blocks with very high percentage of Muslim population where female work participation is rather high. These are the blocks where women are engaged in home-based work in large numbers. Surveys were conducted of households in two such areas in Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas, respectively. [IDSK OP 18].
Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State, 2019
The objective of this introductory chapter is to theoretically and empirically tackle four interr... more The objective of this introductory chapter is to theoretically and empirically tackle four interrelated themes that examine the various facets of the contemporary Indian state. Rather than simply assessing the deviations of the Indian state from the generalized abstractions of a developmental state, this chapter shows the actual functioning of the state at multiple levels, often in a disaggregated way. These themes are to identify some of the reasons for the changing role of the state, including first, the shifting contexts such as the reconfigured state–business relationship; second, the mediating role of society in distributive politics, especially in terms of rights-based movements or pressures from below; third, the seemingly contradictory role of the state in undertaking major public social programmes and simultaneously opening up of greater spaces for the market; and fourth, the dynamic relationship between the state and the form of democratic governance under changing politic...
‘Capital’ in the East, 2019
There has been a revival of interest in cooperative enterprises as an alternative to capitalist e... more There has been a revival of interest in cooperative enterprises as an alternative to capitalist enterprises. After visiting the Mondragon Corporation, the largest workers’ cooperative in the world, established in the Basque region of Spain in 1956, the Marxian scholar Richard Wolff wrote an op-ed piece in The Guardian where he argues that cooperatives like the Mondragon Corporation must be seen as a central element of a socialist alternative to capitalism. While the conventional understanding of Marx’s own writing on cooperative enterprises suggests that such a form as a cooperative enterprise cannot escape the teleological thinking which subsumes it under the forces of monopoly capital, the actually existing cooperatives around the world have occasionally received a positive reaction from the Marxian scholars. This paper is an attempt to situate cooperative enterprises in the extant literature on production organization within the Marxian tradition, keeping in view the ambiguities ...
Research Papers in Economics, 2000
Although significant developments have taken place in the area of valuation of the environment, t... more Although significant developments have taken place in the area of valuation of the environment, the gap between theoretical principles and their operationalisation still remains. This paper makes an attempt to contribute towards bridging this gap. It explores the ways of `doing' environmental valuation in practice in the specific context of a proposed hydroelectric project. Valuation is done within the overall framework of cost-benefit analysis. In the process, a number of methodological issues in environmental cost-benefit analysis have been dealt with.
Economics Bulletin, 2017
We decompose inequality in nutritional status of Indian children along the axes ofcaste and econo... more We decompose inequality in nutritional status of Indian children along the axes ofcaste and economic class. Inequality is measured by the most commonly decomposed measures of the General Entropy Class. We first use the traditional method of inequality decomposition and find out how the ‘between group' component differs when we consider different groupings, namely caste, class, and caste-class intersections. However, since the traditional method of inequality decomposition is sensitive to the relative sizes and the number of groups under question, the decompositions are not comparable across alternative groupings.In this paper, we use a corrected method of inequality decomposition and show that compared to the traditional method, it is more meaningful even in the non-income space.