IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v66y2015icp572-587.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Remoteness, Urbanization, and India’s Unbalanced Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Das, Samarjit
  • Ghate, Chetan
  • Robertson, Peter E.

Abstract

The unbalanced nature of India’s growth has caused considerable concern but little is known about its causes. We use a new data set of district-level income and socio-economic data to explore the determinants of transitional growth at the district level. We find that there is absolute divergence across districts but conditional convergence once we allow for district characteristics, particularly urbanization and the distance from a major urban agglomeration. State-level effects have also significantly contributed to India’s unbalanced growth. The results suggest that while geography is important, policy differences may also account for much of India’s uneven growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Das, Samarjit & Ghate, Chetan & Robertson, Peter E., 2015. "Remoteness, Urbanization, and India’s Unbalanced Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 572-587.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:66:y:2015:i:c:p:572-587
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.09.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X14002782
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.09.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimiliano Calì & Carlo Menon, 2013. "Does Urbanization Affect Rural Poverty? Evidence from Indian Districts," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(2), pages 171-201.
    2. Ejaz Ghani & Arti Grover Goswami & William R. Kerr, 2012. "Is India’s Manufacturing Sector Moving Away From Cities?," Harvard Business School Working Papers 12-090, Harvard Business School.
    3. Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 1995. "Globalization and the Inequality of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 857-880.
    4. Durlauf, Steven N. & Johnson, Paul A. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2005. "Growth Econometrics," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.),Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 555-677, Elsevier.
    5. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2004. "The empirics of agglomeration and trade," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 2609-2669, Elsevier.
    6. Masahisa Fujita & Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561476, December.
    7. Klaus Desmet & Ejaz Ghani & Stephen O'Connell & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2015. "The Spatial Development Of India," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 10-30, January.
    8. Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2003. "Regional Policy in the Global Economy: Insights from New Economic Geography," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 665-673.
    9. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/10191 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Viral V. Acharya & Ramin P. Baghai & Krishnamurthy V. Subramanian, 2013. "Labor Laws and Innovation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 997-1037.
    11. Chetan Ghate, 2008. "Understanding divergence in India: a political economy approach," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9.
    12. Redding, Stephen & Venables, Anthony J., 2004. "Economic geography and international inequality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 53-82, January.
    13. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    14. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-1152, December.
      • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Kallal, Hedi D. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Scholarly Articles 3451309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    15. Lall,Somik V. & Gun Wang, Hyoung & Deichmann, Uwe, 2010. "Infrastructure and City Competitiveness in India," WIDER Working Paper Series 022, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Ghate, Chetan & Wright, Stephen, 2012. "The “V-factor”: Distribution, timing and correlates of the great Indian growth turnaround," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 58-67.
    17. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/10191 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Laura Hering & Sandra Poncet, 2010. "Income Per Capita Inequality in China: The Role of Economic Geography and Spatial Interactions," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 655-679, May.
    19. Jonathan Temple, 2005. "Dual Economy Models: A Primer For Growth Economists," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 73(4), pages 435-478, July.
    20. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X., 1996. "Regional cohesion: Evidence and theories of regional growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1325-1352, June.
    21. Ciccone, Antonio & Hall, Robert E, 1996. "Productivity and the Density of Economic Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 54-70, March.
    22. M. Govinda Rao & Kunal Sen, 1997. "Internal Migration, Center-State Grants, and Economic Growth in the States of India: A Comment on Cashin and Sahay," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 44(2), pages 283-288, June.
    23. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2004. "Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 91-134.
    24. Barro, Robert J & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 223-251, April.
      • Barro, R.J. & Sala-I-Martin, X., 1991. "Convergence," Papers 645, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
      • Barro, Robert J. & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Scholarly Articles 3451299, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    25. Paul Cashin & Ratna Sahay, 1996. "Internal Migration, Center-State Grants, and Economic Growth in the States of India," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 43(1), pages 123-171, March.
    26. Baumol, William J, 1986. "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-run Data Show," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1072-1085, December.
    27. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Kaivan Munshi & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2005. "Why is Mobility in India so Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth," CID Working Papers 121, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    29. Sabyasachi Kar & Debajit Jha & Alpana Kateja, 2011. "Club‐convergence and polarization of states," Indian Growth and Development Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 53-72, April.
    30. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    31. Durlauf, Steven N. & Quah, Danny T., 1999. "The new empirics of economic growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 235-308, Elsevier.
    32. Panagariya, Arvind, 2011. "India: The Emerging Giant," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199751563, Decembrie.
    33. Gaurav Datt & Martin Ravallion, 2002. "Is India's Economic Growth Leaving the Poor Behind?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 89-108, Summer.
    34. Robert J. Barro & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1991. "Convergence across States and Regions," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1), pages 107-182.
    35. Krugman, Paul, 1993. "On the number and location of cities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 293-298, April.
    36. Robert J. Barro, 2012. "Convergence and Modernization Revisited," NBER Working Papers 18295, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Cain, J. Salcedo & Hasan, Rana & Magsombol, Rhoda & Tandon, Ajay, 2010. "Accounting for Inequality in India: Evidence from Household Expenditures," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 282-297, March.
    38. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1997. "I Just Ran Two Million Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 178-183, May.
    39. Ahmed, Sadiq, 2009. "Accelerating Growth and Job Creation in South Asia," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198060048 edited by Ghani, Ejaz, Decembrie.
    40. repec:hhs:iuiwop:430 is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Ms. Prachi Mishra & Mr. Utsav Kumar, 2005. "Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence From India," IMF Working Papers 2005/020, International Monetary Fund.
    42. David E. Bloom & David Canning & Günther Fink, 2008. "Urbanization and the Wealth of Nations," PGDA Working Papers 3008, Program on the Global Demography of Aging.
    43. Crost, Benjamin & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2010. "Political Market Characteristics and the Provision of Educational Infrastructure in North India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 195-204, February.
    44. Somik V. Lall & Hyoung Gun Wang & Uwe Deichmann, 2010. "Infrastructure and City Competitiveness in India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-022, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    45. Kamakshya Trivedi, "undated". "Regional Convergence and Catch-up in India between 1960 and 1992," Economics Papers 2003-W01, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    46. Somik Lall, 2007. "Infrastructure and regional growth, growth dynamics and policy relevance for India," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 41(3), pages 581-599, September.
    47. Jonathan R. W. Temple, 2005. "Growth and Wage Inequality in a Dual Economy," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 145-169, April.
    48. S. Narayan, 2009. "India," Chapters, in: Peter Draper & Philip Alves & Razeen Sally (ed.), The Political Economy of Trade Reform in Emerging Markets, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Klarl, Torben Alexander, 2015. "Urban-rural migration and congestion costs revisited: is there a triple dividend for cities in developing countries?," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112829, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Chhavi Tiwari & Sankalpa Bhattacharjee & Debkumar Chakrabarti, 2020. "Investigating Regional Inequalities in India: Are Indian Districts Converging?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 684-716, July.
    3. Piyali Majumder & Aparna Sawhney, 2020. "Manufacturing agglomeration and export dynamics across Indian states," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 3-26, June.
    4. Sedithippa J. Balaji & Munisamy Gopinath, 2023. "Spatial growth and convergence in Indian agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 761-777, November.
    5. Naresh Kumar & Ritu Rani, 2020. "Extent of Social Change in Family Quality of Life Index: Empirical Evidence from Selected States of India," South Asian Survey, , vol. 27(1), pages 62-80, March.
    6. Biswa Swarup Misra & Muhsin Kar & Saban Nazlioglu & Cagin Karul, 2020. "Income Convergence In Indian Districts: New Evidence From Panel Stationarity Test With Finite Time Dimension," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1256-1272, November.
    7. Syed Basher & Francesca Di Iorio & Stefano Fachin, 2020. "Regional Income Dynamics in Bangladesh: The Road to a Balanced Development is in the Middle," DSS Empirical Economics and Econometrics Working Papers Series 2021/1, Centre for Empirical Economics and Econometrics, Department of Statistics, "Sapienza" University of Rome.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    2. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Dosi, Giovanni & Roventini, Andrea & Russo, Emanuele, 2019. "Endogenous growth and global divergence in a multi-country agent-based model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 101-129.
    4. Miss Catriona Purfield, 2006. "Mind the Gap—Is Economic Growth in India Leaving Some States Behind?," IMF Working Papers 2006/103, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    6. Kounetas, Konstantinos Elias, 2018. "Energy consumption and CO2 emissions convergence in European Union member countries. A tonneau des Danaides?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 111-127.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/46k9rkvut99i7qnn4vqm25t53b is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    9. Azomahou, Théophile T. & El ouardighi, Jalal & Nguyen-Van, Phu & Pham, Thi Kim Cuong, 2011. "Testing convergence of European regions: A semiparametric approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1202-1210, May.
    10. Cem Ertur & Julie Le Gallo & Catherine Baumont, 2006. "The European Regional Convergence Process, 1980-1995: Do Spatial Regimes and Spatial Dependence Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-34, January.
    11. Tiiu Paas & Friso Schittle & Andres Kuusk, 2000. "Modelling Regional Income Convergence in EU-25," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600067, EcoMod.
    12. Zeira, Joseph & di Vaio, Gianfranco & Battisti, Michele, 2013. "Global Divergence in Growth Regressions," CEPR Discussion Papers 9687, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    14. Alejandro Díaz-Bautista, 2003. "Convergence And Economic Growth Considering Human Capital And R&D Spillovers," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 2(2), pages 127-143, Junio 200.
    15. Bosker, Maarten & Brakman, Steven & Garretsen, Harry & Schramm, Marc, 2012. "Relaxing Hukou: Increased labor mobility and China’s economic geography," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 252-266.
    16. Kristian Behrens & Frédéric Robert‐Nicoud, 2009. "Krugman's Papers in Regional Science: The 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk is gone and the 2008 Nobel Prize well‐deserved," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 467-489, June.
    17. J. Vernon Henderson, Zmarak Shalizi, and Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "Geography and development," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 81-105, January.
    18. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & You, Kefei & Chen, Lei, 2019. "Global and regional stock market integration in Asia: A panel convergence approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    19. H. Hanson, Gordon, 2005. "Market potential, increasing returns and geographic concentration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 1-24, September.
    20. Nicolas Debarsy & Cem Ertur, 2006. "The European Enlargement Process and Regional Convergence Revisited: Spatial Effects Still Matter," ERSA conference papers ersa06p198, European Regional Science Association.
    21. Sandy Dall'erba & Julie Le Gallo, 2003. "Geographic Spillover Effects of Regional Funds and their Impact on the European Convergence Process over 1989-1999," ERSA conference papers ersa03p136, European Regional Science Association.
    22. Le Pen, Yannick, 2011. "A pair-wise approach to output convergence between European regions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 955-964, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:66:y:2015:i:c:p:572-587. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.