SOCIAL SECURITY AND WELL‐BEING IN A LOW‐INCOME ECONOMY: AN APPRAISAL OF THE KERALA EXPERIENCE

The State of Kerala, which is considered to have attained a level of social well‐being comparable to that of advanced countries despite its relatively low income standard, is widely known as an example of “welfare by public intervention” in developing economies. This paper, focusing on the four areas of food provision, health services, elementary education, and pension schemes, and paying attention to the participation of the private sector as well as the activities of political parties and labor unions, points out that in Kerala, the private sector and organized activities have played a vital role, in addition to “public intervention,” in the betterment of public welfare.     

FISCAL POLICY AND ENDOGENOUS GROWTH IN A BEQUEST-CONSTRAINED ECONOMY

Evidence suggests that the vast majority of planned altruistictransfers between generations are human capital investmentsin children (households are generally bequest-constrained).This paper demonstrates that empirically-based calibrationsof simple overlapping generations models with altruism generatebinding bequest constraints with realistic endogenous growthrates and returns to capital. We also show how intergenerationaland intragenerational redistributions of wealth affect long-rungrowth in bequest-constrained economies. Redistribution is afeature of fiscal policy abstracted away from by the standardinfinitely-lived representative agent models used to analyzeendogenous growth.     

MIGRATION,LABOR MARKET FLEXIBILITY,AND WAGE DETERMINATION IN CHINA: A REVIEW

This paper reviews economic studies on rural‐urban migration issues in China. The paper focuses on four issues: the household registration system in China, the profile of the migrants, explanations for rural‐to‐urban migration, and the interaction between migration and labor market evolution, with special reference to labor market segregation, labor market flexibility, and wage differentials. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research topics.