Why do some places achieve great feats of architecture, while others routinely opt for merely functional structures? The economist in me is instinctively unsatisfied at a claim that America lacks great architecture because they have poor taste. Taste-based explanations are a cop-out. Instead, how about the following five angles:SurplusTo go beyond merely functional structures requires resources to spare. At low levels of income, people are likely to merely try to get some land and brick and stone together. In these things, we have nonlinear...
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Sunday, 13 March 2011
If you are in India, and hear news about the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactors in Japan, you might want to trade on this. Either because you are hedging Japan exposure that's embedded in your Indian equity holdings, or because you think you are an informed speculator who has a better and faster judgment about what these events mean for Japan.Sadly, the Indian capital controls don't let you trade on the Nikkei 225, which is the Nifty of Japan....
by Shubho Roy.One essential feature of the rule of law is transparency. When a government says something, it must say why it said so. This is important from three points of view: A government that does not need to explain itself is one that has arbitrary power. When a policeman can tell you that you're prohibited from driving because he does not like your face, it is rule of men and not rule of law. The fundamental idea of common law is that the laws enshrine principles that are unvarying for decades or centuries. But institutional...
Friday, 11 March 2011
The Economist has an article titled Glitzkrieg, where the blurb reads: "Respectability is for sale. Here is a buyer's guide."As I read it, I thought: A lot of these tricks are used within India by some businessmen rocketing up to respectability! But there are a few unique dimensions of this racket in India. E.g. big hoardings on the street in Bombay; Gaddafi doesn't do that in London.But it's interesting to think of three shades of gray:Goods with objective attributes: An ogre can make a commodity like steel, and the customer does not care....
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
The Centre for Civil Society (CCS) is an independent public policy think tank based in New Delhi working on research, advocacy and outreach on critical public policy issues that affect India. CCS is currently looking for researchers, advocacy specialists, and program coordinators to help take the Centre to a higher level. We are recruiting for a Research Coordinator to manage our research agenda, focusing on our ‘Education Reforms Initiative’ and the ‘Law, Liberty and Livelihoods' campaign. The Research team at CCS is responsible to help develop,...
Monday, 7 March 2011
For the backdrop, here are two key facts. First, the failures of policy in the field of interest rate derivatives have led to a peculiar situation where substantial trading on the INR yield curve now takes place outside India. Second, while RBI has permitted one exchange traded interest rate derivative product, there are a host of problems with this contract. The process of policy reform in this field has been a disappointing experience. RBI seems to have quaint notions that cash settlement is harmful, that derivatives trading on short-dated bonds...
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Jumpstart a cityCities are the heart of civilisation and growth. A well functioningcity is a great opportunity to obtain economic growth and socialchange. The best thing that we can hope for, in thinking about thelives of poor people or those facing discrimination in rural India, isfor them to escape to a city. We in India don't have a single wellfunctioning city. As anexample, governancein Bombay is deeply broken.How could a poor country kick start the emergence of one or moregood cities? Paul Romer has an idea : To walk down the Hong Kongroute,...
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