| Description |
1 online resource |
| Series |
South Asia development matters |
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South Asia development matters.
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| Contents |
Cover; Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Overview; Figures; 1 Based on standard monetary indicators, South Asia has moderate levels of inequality; Why inequality matters; 2 Billionaire wealth in India is exceptionally large; 3 The health outcomes of the poor are among the worst worldwide; 4 Returns to education create incentives to study; 5 Greater inequality reduces the quality of public services when the rich can opt out; The extent of inequality; 6 Poverty is higher in Indian districts suffering from Naxalite violence; 7 The least wealthy are alarmingly vulnerable |
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8 Inequality in health outcomes is wide9 Schooling among young adults is highly unequal in some countries in South Asia; Drivers of inequality; 10 Richer countries tend to be more unequal in both South Asia and East Asia; 11 Monetary inequality is increasing across most of South Asia; 12 South Asians do not see an environment conducive to lower inequality; 13 Multiple factors affect household outcomes relative to others in society; Limited opportunity; 14 Opportunities in education are better than in health or sanitation, as measured by the HOI |
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15 Better opportunity is driven by greater coverage16 Parent's education and location are critically important circumstances; Substantial mobility; 17 Considerable occupational mobility exists across generations in India; 18 Occupational mobility is higher for younger generations; 19 Upward mobility in South Asian countries is similar to that in the United States and Vietnam; 20 Upward mobility is much stronger in cities than in rural areas; Tables; 1 Changes in employment status reveal substantial mobility among migrant men in India; 2 Rural jobs allow people to escape poverty |
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Urban jobs are a ticket to the middle classInadequate support; 21 The composition of urban employment varies with city size and governance in India; 22 In Pakistan, poorer and richer households cope with shocks in different ways; 23 Social assistance is less adequate than social insurance but has greater coverage; Maps; 1 Government revenue in South Asia is low compared with the rest of the world; References; 24 Electricity subsidies favor the better-off; 25 Development spending per person is lower in poorer states and districts; 1. Why Inequality Matters; Inequality of what? |
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Opportunities versus outcomesBoxes; 1.1 Discrimination by teachers pushes children out of school; Monetary measures of inequality; Multidimensional indicators of inequality; 1.2 Standard statistical measures of monetary inequality; 1.1 Estimates of expenditures differ between household surveys and national accounts; 1.3 Some monetary indicators may underestimate the true extent of inequality; Subjective well-being; 1.2 Monetary and nonmonetary indicators can lead to opposite conclusions; 1.4 Bhutan uses a happiness index to measure well-being; The costs (and benefits) of inequality |
| Summary |
Inequality in South Asia appears to be moderate when looking at standard indicators such as the Gini index, which are based on consumption expenditures per capita. But other pieces of evidence reveal enormous gaps, from extravagant wealth at one end to lack of access to the most basic services at the other. Which prompts the question: How bad is inequality in South Asia? And why would that matter? This book takes a comprehensive look at the extent, nature, and drivers of inequality in this very dynamic region of the world. It discusses how some dimensions of inequality, such as high returns to investments in human capital, contribute to economic growth while others, such as high payoffs to rent-seeking or broken aspirations, undermine it. Drawing upon a variety of data sources, it disentangles the contribution that opportunity in young age, mobility in adult years, and support throughout life make to inequality at any point in time. Equally important, the book sheds light on the prospects of escaping disadvantage over time. The analysis shows that South Asia performs poorly in terms of opportunity. Access to basic services is partial at best, and can be traced to characteristics at birth, including gender, location, and caste. Conversely, the region has had a robust performance in terms of geographical and occupational mobility despite its cluttered urbanization and widespread informality. Migration and jobs have served disadvantaged groups better than the rest, highlighting the importance of the urbanization and private sector development agendas. Support falls somewhere in between. Poverty alleviation programs are pervasive. But the mobilization of public resources is limited and much of it is wasted in regressive subsidies, while inter-government transfers do not do enough to mitigate spatial inequalities |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher |
| Subject |
Poverty -- South Asia
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Equality -- South Asia
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- Macroeconomics.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Economic Conditions.
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Economic history
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Equality
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Poverty
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Social conditions
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| SUBJECT |
South Asia -- Economic conditions
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South Asia -- Social conditions
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| Subject |
South Asia
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
World Bank.
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| LC no. |
2014042169 |
| ISBN |
9781464800221 |
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1464800227 |
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9781464800238 |
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1464800235 |
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