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No. 333 |
October 2003 |
Vol LXXX |
ISSN 0019-5170 |
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Contents
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The
Buoyancy and Elasticity of the Tax System: A Study of
Botswana
THAPELO MATSHEKA
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This paper reports the results of the
estimation of the buoyancy and elasticity of the Botswana
tax system over the period 1973- 1995. The Oivisia Index
Method, developed by Choudhry (1979), is used to estimate
tax elasticities. The paper extends on the 'work done
by Lewis and Mokgethi (1983), that estimated tax buoyancies
for the Botswana tax system. It improves this earlier
work in two ways. Firstly, this study uses a larger data
set, and secondly, it provides estimates of the elasticity
of the tax system. The study finds that, although the
structure of tax revenues is dominated by mineral revenues,
the tax system is buoyant and elastic. Furthermore, where
there are reductions in tax rates, the elasticity estimates
are higher than buoyancies. It is concluded as such that
a non diversified, non-elastic tax structure imposes a
constraint on the ability of the country to fund the requisite
investment and more severe where the private sector is
not adequately developed unless if the country has accumulated
budget surpluses and foreign reserves, which is the case
with Botswana. |
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Agri-Infrastructure and Modem Farm Practices: Their
Impact on Agricultural Productivity
RUDRA PRAKASH PRADHAN
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Agri-infrastructure's role in modern
farm practices has received renewed attention in recent
research to determine the agricultural productivity. Thus,
the primary aim of this paper is to establish the linkage
between agri-infrastructure and modern farm practices,
which are used in agricu1ture. An attempt is also made
to carry out the linkage between agri-infrastructure and
agricultural productivity and then between modem farm
practices and agricultural productivity. Orissa, one of
the backward states of eastern India has been taken as
a study area.
The implication 01' these findings is that the main determinant
of agricultural productivity is the use of modem farm
practices .in agriculture. However, the effect is supported
by the availability of agri-infrastructure, as it indirectly
determines the agricultural productivity. Further, there
is need to wipe out the inter-regional disparities in
the availability of agri-infrastructure, which restores
balance agricultural development in the economy. |
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Measuring India's--Food Security Problem: A Risk and
Vulnerability Approach
AKRAM A. KHAN AND FARHAD SHIRANI
BIDABADI
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The intensity of food insecurity existing
in a country is a composite of interactions operating
at diverse levels from the macro to micro or household
level. The components of the system would include international
trade and macro policies, the agriculture sector, the
market economy, consumption patterns, and the micro economy
or household incomes, urban rural differentiation, gender
issues, etc. Change in any one of these components is
able to produce as price or income distress. Even if the
magnitude of price or income shock is relatively high,
the households/individuals with diversified income and
outflow pattern can stand the distress without using severe
coping strategies such as reduction of food consumption.
For India to deal with risks of people being exposed to
food insecurity there is need to identify its worst food
security problems in terms of risks and population exposed
to them and give the highest priority to tackling them.
A prerequisite for determining risk is defining a scale
against which to measure an outcome. In this analysis,
the outcomes are physical availability which itself is
affected by variability in production, and economic access
to food, which is under the effect of price rise or income
failure. To assess risk of entitlement failure or susceptibility
to food insecurity the best way is to calculate the ratio
of expenditure on non-food items to the expenditure on
food items. In fact, the non-food expenditures, are acting
as buffer this means when there is a rise in food prices
or decline in income of households or individuals the
expenditure on non-food items can be diverted to food
expenditure and protect person's food entitlement. Rich
people have little to fear from hunger, this is a simple
consequence of Engel's law; consumers have a substantial
buffer of non-food expenditures to rely on, even if food
prices rise sharply. Without the buffer of Engle's law,
poor consumers are exposed to routine hunger and vulnerability
to shocks that set off famine.
The risk feature related to physical availability and
food entitlement has been reviewed in this analysis. While
in case of production and physical availability' India
faces less variation and consequently less risk during
I 990s when compared to I 980s, and 1970s. The food entitlement
especially in rural areas is faced with high level of
risk. The risk level has been classified into five different
levels including; very high risk, high risk, moderate
risk, risk and no risk. Calculations based on National
Sample Survey Data on Household Consumption Expenditure
Shows that 69.8 percent of urban population and 95 percent
of rural population are to some degree at risk of loosing
their food entitlement. It is necessary to understand
that reduced risk at national level doesn't translate
into reduced risk as far as households and individuals
are concerned. The reduced risk of entitlement failure
could be achieved through a mix of employment and income
policies for the fann and non-fann sectors and through
a minimum safety net. |
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Policy
Package for Informal Sector Development: Basic Assumptions
VINOD ANAND
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There is sufficient evidence to support
the fact that non-format, micro, small, and intermediate-sized
enterprises, which essentially survive and subsist without
the active encouragement of public authorities, and frequently
with their disapproval. have tremendous employment-generation
capabilities. It is perhaps for this reason that economic
literature abounds in a large number of research projects
on this and other facts of these enterprises. But, talking
in general terms, there always occur inconsistencies and
contradictions between the stated goals and the actual
policy, and also between the stated goals and allocations.
These inconsistencies and contradictions occur because
of many reasons, including ignorance and indifference
of the policy makers in respect of many inherent assumptions
that are basic to the context to which the given policy
relates. In other words, the policy package fails to account
for the given assumptions, and this lack of perspective
in the policy package adversely affects its final outcome.
Atl this is also true of the various policy packages in
the context of informal sector support and development.
The focus of this paper is on the various inbuilt and
inherent assumptions that are basic to all the segments
of this sector. The paper very explicitly underlines the
basic assumptions that are highly relevant to the very
existence and survival of the informal sector all the
world over. |
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Special-skills
Payment-base from Viewpoint of Competitive Advantage:
Exploratory Studies
HAI-MING
CHEN AND CHIA-HUI CHEN
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This paper proposes a "special-skills
payment-base'.. from competitive advantage viewpoint,
which is defined by two dimensions, "competitive advantage
of human resources" and "explicitness of job worth." It'll
increase core employees' accomplishment sense, commitment,
satisfaction, and decrease the employees' turnover. Two
high-tech companies had been studied to illustrate the
pay system proposed. The paper emphasizes certain positions
shouldn't be given more priorities of special skill- based
pay unless development for a competitive advantage is
needed. It also helps discovering positions to be potential
source of competitive advantage and better decisions can
be made. |
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An
Approach to Sustainable Development
T. V. S. RAMAMOHAN RAo AND SUJATA
KAR
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Over the years a few authors considered
the satisfaction to society, from the production and consumption
of goods and services, as a stock instead of a flow over
time. It has been conjectured that this will make the
development process sustainable. This study present~ some
formal models to demonstrate this result. It can be surmised
that an awareness of this result will, in itself, result
in behavioral and institutional changes that contribute
to the process of sustainable development. |
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The
Money Supply Process in Bangladesh: An Error-Correction
Approach
M. KABIR HASSAN. MUHAMMAD MUSTAFA
AND SYEDABUL BASHAR
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Money supply has become an important policy instrument and
is being increasingly used since the financial deregulation in the late 1 980s.
There lies a consensus among policy-makers that controlling the growth rate of
money stock is essential to achieve full employment and stable price level.
However, two prerequisite must be accomplished in order to attain these targets
(Zaki 1995) : first, development of an effective procedure for controlling the
rate of money stock growth and second, close identification of the linkage
between the desired growth rate of money and the ultimate objectives. Money
multiplier in this case plays a crucial role by exerting control over the
reserve aggregate such as the monetary base (Johannes and Rasche 1979) although
the monetary base, often called high- powered money!, is independent in this
case. |
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Sustaining
Farm Production through Integrated Nutrient Management-Adoption
Levels in Farms of Tamil Nadu and Future Prospects
K. N. SELVARAJ. T. SAMSAIANDT. C.
SIVAKUMAR
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Farmers are aware of the need to incorporate
organic nutrients in their package of practices due to
their advantages both in terms of productivity and environment.
The present level of production and actual requirement
of eco-friendly inputs show a big gap. The gap suggests
further investment on evolving more and more of eco- friendly
technologies to sustain agricultural productivity. The
estimates of production elasticities indicated that economic
responses continue to be obtained to TamilNadu and there
is a gap between actual use and recommended doses suggesting
that fertilizer use at these levels has to be continued.
However, imbalance in use of fertilizer was noticed among
the sample Farmers across the agro-climatic regions of
TamilNadu. Further, it was noticed that in the trend of
increasing cost of production due to increase in cost
of fertilizer inputs, higher output-input ratio is possible
only if the Farmers adopt right mix applying organic forms
of nutrients. While planning for nutrient supply through
fertilizers, the availability. of organic quantity of
manures should be assessed thereby use of inorganic fertilizers
may be reduced, which also reduces the burden of burgeoning
subsidies and appropriate mix can be evolved. Considering
the special benefits of the integrated plant nutrient
system, government should implement various schemes to
encourage production of compost apart from popularising
the improved compost-making techniques for preparation
of rural compost. Quantity of available organic manures
and requirement of inorganic manure with the available
organic nutrients need assessment for sustainable use.
Further, such estimates would enable government to reduce
burden of subsidies and sustain agriculture. To promote
and popularise bio-fertilizers in the state, training
centres should be developed and setting up of more number
of bio-fertilizer production units with public and private
support requires emphasis. |
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Exports
and Output in Three South Pacific Countries
TSANGY AO CHANG. WENRONG Llu AND
HENRY THOMPSON
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The relationship between exports and
output is investigated in a bivariate framework for three
small open South Pacific island countries: Fiji, Papua
New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Exports and output
are co integrated in Papua New. Guinea and the Solomon
Islands, but not Fiji. Time series properties are evaluated,
and Granger causality tests are supplemented with bivariate co-integration and error correction models. Hsiao's of
the Granger causality test is used to examine the direction
of causality. Impulse response and variance decomposition
analyses confirm conclusions of the Granger causality
analysis. |
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Economic
Contribution of Women Workers and Development of Family
Members: A Note
S. SHARMA AND N. OGALE
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The impact of economic contribution
of women workers was assessed in terms of the development
of family members. The mean percentage share of respondents'
income to family income/month was 32.51 per cent. Almost
61 per cent of respondents' perceived their family members'
health status as normal after their employment where as
this figure was 52 per cent before employment of respondents.
Nearly 61 per cent of respondents reported improvement
in education of children and 43 per cent were able to
spare some money to teach skills to their children after
their employment. Income of the respondents and development
of family members showed positive correlation. Development
of urban households was more than rural households. |
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