Articles by Bhanoji Rao

and Prospects Beyond the Rhetoric: The Economics of India

Most earlier studies exploring the cross-ountry variation in the degree of income inequality (measured by Gini ratio) are valuable but for the inappropriate data on inequality comprising estimates of Gini from incomparable data sets such as national and sub-ational surveys, per person and per household income distributions, and income and expenditure distributions. This paper explores the cross-ountry variation in income inequality based on relatively more comparable data and suggests that public policy aimed at reducing inequality and freedom may be the key variables that explain the variation in the Gini across countries. Prospects for launching national policy initiatives to reduce inequalities are rather dim since globalisation could be conveniently used to rationalise a relatively high level of income inequality.

This essay deals with the saving and investment trends in the east Asian economies. They generated high rates of saving and used the resources productively. The high rates of saving reflect high rates of both private saving and public sector saving. The high investment rate was not only due to high saving rate, but also a relatively high level of inflow of foreign direct investment in some, backed by the policy of openness to trade and investment.