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Shedding Light on Regional Growth and Convergence in India

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Abstract

One of the well documented facts about India's rapid growth since 1991 has been the accompanying unequal sub-national experiences. In this paper, using unsaturated night-light data for 1996-2010, we investigate patterns of growth at the district level. We find evidence of absolute convergence. Disaggregating along rural and urban di- mensions, we also show that this is mainly due to faster growth in rural areas. Further, districts that have grown faster are ones that are geographically disadvantaged - fur- ther away from the coast, with lower agricultural suitability of land, and more rugged terrains. The convergence results are also robust to a few of the major policy initiatives that overlapped our period of analysis.

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  • Areendam Chanda & Sujana Kabiraj, 2018. "Shedding Light on Regional Growth and Convergence in India," Departmental Working Papers 2018-08, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2018-08
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    2. Ahmad, Zofia & Chicoine, Luke, 2021. "Silk Roads to Riches: Persistence Along an Ancient Trade Network," MPRA Paper 105146, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Areendam Chanda & C. Justin Cook, 2019. "Who Gained from India's Demonetization? Insights from Satellites and Surveys," Departmental Working Papers 2019-06, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    4. Matthieu Charpe, 2023. "Convergence heterogeneity at the local level in sub‐Saharan Africa," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(2), pages 273-305, April.
    5. Beyer, Robert & Yao, Jiaxiong & Hu, Yingyao, 2022. "Measuring Quarterly Economic Growth from Outer Space," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264007, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Priyaranjan Jha & Karan Talathi, 2021. "Impact of Colonial Institutions on Economic Growth and Development in India: Evidence from Night Lights Data," Working Papers 202102, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    7. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian & Galdo, Virgilio, 2021. "Examining the economic impact of COVID-19 in India through daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    8. Chanda, Areendam & Cook, C. Justin, 2022. "Was India’s demonetization redistributive? Insights from satellites and surveys," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. World Bank, 2020. "India Development Update, July 2020," World Bank Publications - Reports 34367, The World Bank Group.
    10. Das, Abhiman & Ghani, Ejaz & Grover, Arti & Kerr, William & Nanda, Ramana, 2024. "JUE insight: Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India’s GQ highway network," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Jain, Tarun & Sinha, Sonalika, 2023. "Lights out? COVID-19 containment policies and economic activity," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Priyaranjan Jha & Karan Talathi, 2023. "Trade liberalization and local development in India: evidence from nighttime lights," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 61-83, July.
    13. Bibek Adhikari & Saroj Dhital, 2021. "Decentralization and regional convergence: Evidence from night‐time lights data," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 1066-1088, July.
    14. Nurlatifah Hartojo & Mohamad Ikhsan & Teguh Dartanto & Sudarno Sumarto, 2022. "A Growing Light in the Lagging Region in Indonesia: The Impact of Village Fund on Rural Economic Growth," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-19, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Syed Abul, Basher & Jobaida, Behtarin & Salim, Rashid, 2022. "Convergence across Subnational Regions of Bangladesh – What the Night Lights Data Say?," MPRA Paper 111963, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Priyanka Dutta & Hemanta Barman, 2022. "Services sector growth and interstate income divergence in India," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 995-1015, October.
    18. Ajit Nag & Jalandhar Pradhan, 2023. "Does club convergence matter? Empirical evidence on inequality in the human development index among Indian states," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Costa de Arguibel Facundo & Sánchez Vargas Isabela & González Fernando Antonio Ignacio & Dip Juan Antonio, 2023. "Convergencia entre distritos argentinos: Un enfoque de econometría espacial," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4638, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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