South Asian experience with growth / edited by Isher Judge Ahluwalia and John Williamson

The enquiry into the causes of growth is motivated by the recognition that growth is a dominant condition for social and economic development in a country or region. In exploring the possible explanations for growth in South Asia over the second half of the twentieth century, this volume covers some significant dimensions of this process.

It discusses growth in individual countries in the context of performance in other regions through cross-country analyses. The book presents a conventional decomposition of growth into factor accumulation and total factor productivity increase for the five major economies of the region-India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It also highlights the importance of a poverty-focus in economic reform strategies.

The book goes on to describe the political economy of reforms and suggests policies in the context of India and Sri Lanka. It highlights the importance of understanding the political economy of issues in order to build a constituency of growth promoting policies.