Srikanta Chatterjee

Sharing the national cake in post reform New Zealand: income inequality trends in terms of income sources

Abstract Using Household Economic Survey (HES) data in unit record form, this paper examines the trends of household income inequality in New Zealand over the period 1984–96, a period that saw New Zealand implement a wide range of economic and social policy reform. The observed changes in the overall income inequality are then decomposed by income components to measure the contributions of the different sources of personal income to the overall inequality. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the methodology for disaggregating the Gini co-efficient, including its more recent extensions by Lerman and Yitzhaki [Review of Economics and Statistics 63 (1985) 151]; Podder [Review of Income and Wealth 39 (1993) 51]; and Mookherjee and Shorrocks [Economic Journal 92 (1982) 886], has been applied to micro-level New Zealand data for computing income inequality and other, related, indices and measures reported in this study. The findings, which indicate a steady upward trend in income inequality, are examined in the light of the reform policies used at the time. Their implications for policy are also addressed.

Household Consumption Equivalence Scales: Some Estimates from New Zealand Household Expenditure and Income Survey Data

This paper uses data on expenditures and incomes of New Zealand households of different demographic profiles to construct equivalence scales. The scales are useful in estimating the relative levels of spending required by the households to attain a given level of utility. Preference consistent ‘complete demand systems’ are analyzed to test for the demographic effects on the consumption patterns of households. Equivalence scales for respect to specific items of consumption as well as total consumption are worked out from the observed consumption behaviour of households. The results are largely in line with those found in existing similar studies both in Australia and New Zealand. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt at constructing equivalence scales with New Zealand household budget data in the framework of hypothesized utility maximizing behaviour of households.

Ten years on: an appraisal of New Zealand’s economic restructuring 1984‐1994

Assesses and appraises New Zealand’s economic restructuring between 1984 and 1994. Provides an historical overview of the country’s economic performance and looks at past governmental policies. Examines the impact of the return to power of the Labour Party in 1984 and provides a broad chronology of the reform measures as they have evolved. Examines the compatibility of micro‐ and macro‐economic policies and then looks at possible achievements.

Some Ethnic Dimensions of Income Distribution from Pre- to Post-Reform New Zealand, 1984-1998

Based on unit record data from four household surveys conducted by Statistics New Zealand for the years 1983/1984, 1991/1992, 1995/1996 and 1997/1998, this paper addresses some ethnic dimensions of income inequality among New Zealanders over the period of the surveys. It applies alternative techniques of decomposition of the Gini coefficient of inequality by subgroups of population. It then analyses how changes in the incomes of specific population subgroups affect the overall inequality. The results help quantify the economic distances among the different ethnic populations of New Zealand, and indicate how and why these distances have been changing over time.

Globalisation, India’s Evolving Food Economy and Trade Prospects for Australia and New Zealand

This book explores the links between globalization, agriculture and development in a number of contemporary Asia-Pacific nations. It highlights the complex and diversified nature of agricultural change in these contexts, and the ways in which this shapes patterns of economic and social development. Globalisation, Agriculture and Development shows that while agriculture continues to play an important role in local, regional and national development, both the industry and the communities it supports are facing an increasing number of economic, social and environmental challenges.

Prevention and Cure from around the Home: Homestead Forests and Primary Health Care in Rural Bangladesh

This paper explores the inter-linkages between homestead forests, health care and the rural people of Bangladesh. In rural Bangladesh, where poverty is endemic, ill health is widespread. Yet, the provision of primary health care is perfunctory, to say the least. So, how do people get by? In this paper, we look at the role the so-called homestead forests, i.e. the trees, shrubs, plants and other ‘gifts of nature’ that grow around peoples’ homes, play in providing valuable, often the only, means of preventing and/or curing many common physical ailments. A brief socio-anthropological survey of herbal medicines is conducted first to background the importance humankind has historically placed on nature in the matter of health care. The place of such medication in the culture of the Indian subcontinent is explored next. Data from field surveys conducted in four Bangladeshi villages are then analysed to show how homestead forests meet the demands of health care in rural Bangladesh. Implications for public policy in regard to homestead forests and their contribution to health care are also addressed in the paper.

The World Supply of Food and the Role of Dairy Protein

Abstract World hunger continues to be a major problem. The main focus of those concerned with world hunger is on the availability of adequate calories for all, but this overshadows another problem: the availability of enough protein and enough dietary essential amino acids. We estimate that about a quarter of the worlds population is getting barely enough protein; a particular issue is that of the essential amino acid lysine, which is deficient in cereal proteins, the biggest source of protein nutrition. Milk protein is an important source of dietary protein and is particularly rich in lysine and branched-chain amino acids. It accounts for 10% of all the global protein supply and provides the third highest supply after cereals and meat, but it is more important than the amounts would suggest because of its rich supply of essential amino acids and high digestibility (in contrast to cereal protein) and because of its acceptability to vegetarians. Global trade in dairy is still small (about 8% of dairy production is traded) but growing. Supplementation of cereal protein with milk protein has a potentially important role to play in balancing world protein nutrition.

Unfashionable economics selected contributions of Amartya K. Sen: 1998 economics nobel laureate

Professor Amartya Kumar Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998 in recognition of his “several key contributions to the research on fundamental problems in welfare economics”, as noted in the Nobel citation. This paper examines three major areas of economics, which it calls “unfashionable economics”, and in which Sens contributions have been particularly notable. These areas are inequality, poverty, and hunger and famine. The paper argues that Sens pioneering research in these areas has not only helped to resolve some theoretical and/or policy issues, it has also made a significant contribution to generating public interest in the problems that face some of “the most impoverished members of society “, in the words of the Nobel citation. In addition to putting Sens work in the context of established thinking in the relevant areas, the paper demonstrates how his contributions have helped to improve our understanding of the issues involved, and how such advances have influenced policy‐making. To make the paper accessible to the interested non‐specialist, the paper uses a style of exposition that is less technical even where the issues involved are of a highly technical nature.

India’s Evolving Food and Nutrition Scenario: An Overview

After 60 years of planned economic development, the Indian economy has many achievements to its credit, but the ability to provide its vast population with an adequate, let alone balanced, diet is, sadly, not one of them. While India experienced widespread famines with surprising regularity in the past, independent India can be said to have avoided that. However, hunger and malnutrition have continued to plague India to this day, despite the dramatic improvements in its economic growth in recent decades. This chapter examines the evolution of India’s food economy and its administration since independence in some of its relevant aspects. Its purpose is to understand the underlying issues by identifying the factors and forces responsible for the unresolved problem of India’s food and nutrition insecurity and its concomitant, the widespread maternal and child undernutrition. It looks at the current situation in respect of the availability and affordability of food, and how they affect people at different levels of affluence in both rural and urban India. It then turns to the examination of food and nutrition policies and their interaction with poverty, its measurement and alleviation. The passing of the National Food Security Act in 2013, guaranteeing access to food as a right, is discussed next to assess how its provisions might influence India’s quest for greater food and nutrition security. The chapter finishes on some general observations on the food sector of the Indian economy.

Equity, efficiency and social welfare: An application of generalised Lorenz Dominance to New Zealand incomes data 1984-1998

This paper examines the changes in the level of social welfare in New Zealand over the period 1984 to 1998 in the context of the countrys economic reform process since the early 1980s. The earlier part of this period was also characterized by a largely policy-induced economic recession in New Zealand. In this paper, we make an attempt to identify the sections of the population that became better off in terms of real income, and those that became worse off during the period chosen. In addition, we examine the changes to the overall level of social welfare. The methods used are both ordinal and cardinal. The ordinal method is based on the criterion of generalized Lorenz dominance, and the cardinal method is based on a social evaluation function that provides complete ordering of all possible social states. The social welfare changes, derived with the help of the cardinal method, and measured in terms of real income, are then attributed to the twin influences of mean income changes and changes in measured inequality. In addition to showing up the dramatic increase in the Gini coefficient of income inequality overall, the results also track the changes in real income of the different income groups over time, and quantify how these changes, coupled with the increased inequality, affected the well-being of New Zealanders over a period of extensive economic reform. The study is based on unit record data from four Household Surveys conducted by Statistics New Zealand in the years 1983/84, 1991/1992, 1995/1996 and 1997/1998.