Economic Transformation of a Developing Economy

Foreword by Prof. Kaushik Basu

This book traces the development experience of one of India’s most dynamic and prosperous states, Punjab, which has provided the country with a much-needed degree of food security. The relative regression of Punjab’s economy in the post-economic reforms period and slow current economic growth give cause for concern. The contributions in this book address the question of why the structural transformation of Punjab’s economy has fallen into the middle-income trap. Each investigates the policy constraints influencing the relative stagnation of the economy and suggests appropriate measures for alleviating them. By integrating theoretical constructs and new evidence, the authoritative contributions diagnose the nature of the current problems and offer practical solutions. They cover important issues such as the crisis of agrarian transition, agrarian markets and distributive justice, employment growth and transition to non-agriculture sectors, fiscal policy, external factors in economic transformation, and perspectives on rejuvenating the state’s economy.

• Economic Transformation
• Regional Economics
• Punjab Economy
• Agrarian Markets
• Developing Economies

“I have found the book … to be quite timely and useful. What this book uniquely offers is an incisive and comprehensive look at how economic transition, in this case, a service-led structural transformation, has affected a predominantly rural and agriculture economy. The book is organized in 21 contributed chapters and is systematically organized into seven sections. ... This book will surely benefit economists and researchers of countries whose structural transformation is still being designed.” (Leonardo A. Lanzona, Jr., Millennial Asia, Vol. 7 (2), 2016)

• Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

  Lakhwinder Singh

• Department of Economics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, USA

  Nirvikar Singh

Lakhwinder Singh is a Professor at the Department of Economics, Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies (CDEIS), Punjabi University, India. Prior to this, he has been a faculty at the University of Delhi and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi. He has been a Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow in Economics at Yale University, USA and a Visiting Research Fellow, Seoul National University, South Korea. He has been awarded Asia Fellowship by the Institute of International Education, New York, 2001. His current research focuses on the national innovation system, international knowledge spillovers, pattern of development, globalization and agrarian distress in developing economies. Apart from publishing a number of research papers in journals of national and international repute, he is also the founding editor of the journal “Millennial Asia: An International Journal of Asian Studies”, published by Sage Publications and Association of Asia Scholars. He has co-edited the books “Economic and Environmental Sustainability of the Asian Region” (Routledge, 2010) and “Technology, Innovations and Economic Development: Essays in Honour of Robert E. Evenson” (Sage Publishers, 2015).

Nirvikar Singh is a Distinguished Professor of Economics and Sarabjit Singh Aurora Chair of Sikh and Punjabi Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he is also the Director of the Centre for Analytical Finance. He is a member of the Advisory Group to the Finance Minister of India on G-20 matters, and has served as a consultant to the Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. His current research interests include entrepreneurship, information technology and development, business strategy, political economy, federalism, and economic growth. He has authored over 100 research papers, including several on the East Asian and Indian economy and co-authored or edited four books,the most recent being “The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of the Pacific Rim” (Oxford University Press, 2014). He has also served as an advisor for several start-up and knowledge services firms in Silicon Valley and in India.

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