Capability Failure and Group Disparities : Some Evidence from India for the 1980s

This paper advances a particular measure of deprivation - called the Capability Failure Ratio (CFR) - on the dimensions of longevity, knowledge and income, and suggests how an (inequality-) 'adjusted' version of the CFR may be derived. These measurement concerns are explored in the context of relevant State-wise data for the Indian Union. The paper thus makes an attempt to enrich the analysis of human predicament by sensitising 'measures of central tendency' to distributional concerns.     

Aid and Performance: A Reassessment

Two visions of aid effectiveness and allocation are compared. The first, corresponding to the new aid paradigm, argues that aid is only effective if domestic policies are appropriate. The second, in contrast, argues that aid effectiveness depends on the external and climatic environment: the worse this environment, or the more vulnerable the recipient countries, the greater the effectiveness of aid. Cross-sectional econometric tests related to GDP growth on two 12-year pooled periods clearly favour the second view. The two views can be reconciled through the principle of performance-based aid allocation, where performance is defined as outcomes adjusted for the impact of environmental factors. Performance can then be measured in several manners which are subject to comparison. One approach would lead one to allocate more aid the worse the (external) environment is (for a given policy) and the better the policy is (for a given environment).