Call for Concept Note & Papers for 15th SAESM

Call for Concept Note & Papers

SAESM Nepal invites application from eligible undergraduate Students of Economics for 15th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet (SAESM)  to be held at 21-26,January, 2019 at Colombo Sri Lanka. This program is organized by Department of Economics, University of Colombo in association with SAESM India and Pakistan.  

This call is to invite concept note or full papers on the themes mentioned below. The eligible student must submit i) covering letter expressing their interest to participate and willingness to pay registration fee and ii) a concept note (max 2 page) highlighting research problem, objectives and a brief methodology.

Ten students, one from each theme, will be selected to participate. The full call including logistics and registration  fee can be found on www.saesm.org.

Send these to saesm.nepal@gmail.com with cc to Naveen Adhikari, Country Coordinator for Nepal at nabueco@gmail.com . The deadline for submission is August 31, 2018.

Students submitting concept note will have to make presentation before SAESM Nepal team and final selection will be made after that. A full paper then will be due by end of October. The date of presentation will be announced later.

Nepali Students enrolled at Nepali University are eligible for application. 

Theme

1. Human Resource Development

When considering human resource development, it is important to focus on human resource management, value change, and various reforms governments must make. The education and health sectors are plagued by various problems. Papers may look into the role of state and publicfunded education versus loan-funded private education; supplementary or shadow education system; modes of delivery; returns to education; dearth of skilled personnel and problems relating to skill formation. Further, papers may explore issues related to eradication of diseases; availability of clean water; access to life saving drugs; the emergence of new diseases due to changes in lifestyle or climatic conditions; existence of a functional sanitation system; solid waste management; and social taboos related to sanitation. Authors are encouraged to explore challenges faced in provision of education, healthcare and sanitation facilities; inequalities in access to these facilities; the impact of lack of these facilities; and the role of new technology.

2. The Informal Economy in South Asia

This sub-theme focuses on the informal economy. The informal sector is of considerable significance in many South Asian economies both because of its contribution to GDP and employment. However, academic and policy concerns about this sector are often inadequate and there is a sense that the sector is either a remainder of the processes in the formal economy or exists parallel to it as just a sector of refuge. Contrary to this, the tendencies of informality are not only on the rise generally in South Asia (and globally) but also specifically so in the formal sector itself. Further, a whole range of globalised production is characterised by various dimensions of informality, particularly the use of casual and flexible labour. Papers in this subtheme may explore the extent and scope of the informal economy in any country of South Asia (or a comparative study between countries). The papers may analyse various aspects of informality – informal labour, informal enterprises and informal practices and strategies (informal contracts, networks etc.) and their social, ethnic and gendered dimensions. Papers are welcome to emphasize the links between the formal and informal sectors, particularly in the current global production networks and commodity chains and their distributional impacts. The papers may also analyse and critique the role and attitude of the state in this regard, both in terms of policy and regulation, and further suggest policy alternatives to address the acute needs of this largely unregulated but crucial segment of our economies.

3. Environmental Sustainability

 Environmental degradation poses several challenges for the sustainable, equitable, and inclusive economic growth of South Asian countries. Ineffective environmental management coupled with steep population growth has put an unprecedented strain on the existing stock of natural resources and the assimilative capacity of the environment. Papers can explore issues such as air quality, water management including capacity shortage of dams and reservoirs, absence of water rights, and lack of water pricing structures, deforestation, and sustainable fisheries. There are additional issues resulting from inability of authorities to meet the demands of irrigation, drinking, and hygiene, leading to food and water insecurity.

4. Gendered Work and Gender Equity

 This sub-theme aims to analyse various dimensions of gender. Papers may cover areas such as (a) gendered work and division of labour in the economy in general or in the globalized spheres of production such as SEZs, EPZs in particular, or the relevance of home-based work; (b) gendered discrimination in wages and earnings, conditions of labour, entitlements and ownership of resources; various discriminations faced at birth and the stark inequalities in various key economic, demographic and social indicators including those in education and health and workforce participation rates; (c) stressing the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment and policies enabling this for multifaceted development objective as well as removal of poverty; (d) gendering microenterprises and microcredit as a development approach and experience; (e) various gendered stereotypes and norms and their impact on the economy; (f) the family as a sphere of gendered inequality, contestation, bargaining and cooperation and the household as an institution for designing livelihood strategies.

5. Poverty and Food Security

 Papers covering this sub theme may choose to focus on the poverty and income distribution in South Asian Countries and how that links to food security. Papers may also explore the potential impact of food security on poverty and how it may be crucial in breaking out of the poverty trap. The papers can further look at the different dimensions that affect food security in a country such as policy, agricultural productivity and trade and how that plays a role in perpetuation of poverty through the generations and if inter-generational poverty can be countered using consumption smoothing mechanisms.

6. Increasing Investment in South Asia

This sub-theme aims to explore the impact of increased investment in South Asia and the ways in which this can be achieved. Papers may focus on capital investment policies to spur economic growth, or the impact that an injection of foreign aid can have on the economy. Similarly, the papers may also analyze the existing policies put in place by South Asian states to generate investment and economic growth such as tax rates, tariffs, export & import policies, trade agreements, and infrastructure and labour productivity, inward and outward movement of financial capital or fixed investment.

7. Structural Transformation for Growth

This sub-theme focuses on the role of reallocation of economic activities across the broad sectors of agriculture, manufacturing and services. Structural Transformation is a process of transfer of labour and other resources from low productivity to high productivity sectors, along with increase in productivity in all the sectors. A stereotypical structural transformation is a shift from agriculture to manufacturing and then to services. However, many developing economies including those of South Asia haven’t followed such a script. Should this be a cause for worry or should services and manufacturing be considered twin pillars of growth? Should South Asia emulate China and focus  more on manufacturing and manufacturing job creation, or as there is a growing interdependence between services and manufacturing, the approach of South Asia should rather be on services cum manufacturing? A more worrying point is the disparity between the sectoral shifts in GDP and employment in agriculture. In spite of a significant shift away from agriculture in GDP, such a shift is rather muted in employment leading to significant labour resources being trapped in a low productive sector and consequently low income generation. Once again, is a shift away from employment in agriculture / rural sector the only possible transformation or are there possibilities of retaining labour but increasing the productivity in agricultural or rural sectors to address this anomaly? Papers in this sub-theme can be based on recognizing potential linkages between the sectors. Authors are encouraged to explore alternative models and pathways to economic development including a historical analysis of the successful cases and policy lessons learnt thereby. Papers can also concentrate on role of sector specific policies and role of institutions and technology in achieving balanced transformation both in output and employment.

8. Regional Connectivity

At the 16th Summit of SAARC in 2010, 2010-2020 was declared as the Decade of Intra-regional Connectivity in SAARC. Regional cooperation and integration is a dynamic phenomenon and includes several aspects such as economic, social, political and strategic cooperation. South Asia’s diversity provides huge opportunities for trade. However, the South Asian region is weak in intercountry connectivity. Strengthening regional connectivity and trade facilitation would support the regional economic integration and generate higher growth. Papers on this subject can study the role of constructing inter-country road and rail transport systems in promoting regional and industrial development, tourism, connecting markets and increasing economic cooperation. The papers can also focus on the role of development of cross-border infrastructure (especially transportation linkages and energy pipelines) in promoting regional trade and industrial development; the efficiency gains associated with removing non-physical barriers to transport; connectivity between capital or main commercial cities. The papers may also explore how economic and infrastructural connectivity can go a long way in increasing social and political cooperation between the countries.

9. Consumption Patterns:

Society and Economy The economic notions of consumption patterns refer to how different people from different demographics and income groups spend money across or within categories of products, such as food, clothing, and discretionary items. Socio-cultural and political extensions of the consumption pattern idea probe the class, cultural, and symbolic dimensions of organization of economic decision making. Whereas consumption in theory is considered the sole end and purpose of all production, and consumer sovereignty the ultimate determining element of production, in reality “producer sovereignty” may rule in a corporate world with millions of dollars being spent on lifestyle creation, branding and advertisement. In fact, with globalisation reducing tariff barriers and protecting strong patents, global brands and products have replaced local products and cultures of consumption in many spheres. A further complexity is the relationship between income and consumption. Whereas the notions of consumption function relate income to consumption in various ways, where income is a key determinant of consumption (whether current income, SAESM 2019, Colombo Page 8 permanent income or that over a life cycle), continuous mortgage and credit financed consumption has seriously jeopardised such notions in many countries. Authors are encouraged to analyse the above complexities and any other issue related to consumption. Papers may also explore the conspicuous consumption (of both the rich and the poor), its multiplier effects and whether such conspicuous consumption is perverting the choice of the poor households away from essential spending on human resource expenditures. The papers may also explore the consumption patterns of the population living in rural and urban areas; ecological impact and the effects of consumerism. Papers can also deal with the shifts in consumption in the contemporary globalized world in a PostFordist era based on global branding and production based on global value chains.

10. Migration in the context of South Asia

This sub-theme studies the aspects of migration within an economy or across different economies. Papers may examine rural to urban migration, the associated push and pull factors, the urbanization accompanying and attracting migration, the creation of megacities and informal sectors. The papers may also analyse new patterns of domestic migration (i.e. not following the standard rural to urban pattern) and relate them to changes in work processes in both urban and rural spheres and may also investigate the gendered aspects of migration. The papers may alternatively deal with international migration and the opportunities and hindrances therein both at micro and macro levels. The papers may also focus on increasing international migration of women from some South Asian counties, particularly in care services (nurses, nannies, domestic workers) and the complexities involved there. The papers may study the characteristics of migration – whether permanent or temporary, legal or illegal; the status of migrants in the society and their living and economic conditions. The papers may also analyse the impact of international migration for both the source and the destination countries or regions in terms of advantages such as provision of cheap labour, resources generation, foreign currency remittances as well as disadvantages such as political instability, burden on urban infrastructure or brain drain. Papers may also discuss reverse migration, anti-migrant movements or trafficking. Papers may not restrict to migration within any South Asian country or across these countries, but also migration to developed countries from South Asia. Authors may also use development models in their explanations and arguments and draw comparisons with other South Asian countries.