Meetings: Effects of Inequality on Economic Performance; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Satellite Meeting:

Decentralization, Devolution, and Participation

December 28-30, 1998: Calcutta, India

Note: The workshop is made possible by financial support of the MacArthur Foundation Network on the Effects of Inequality on Economic Performance and the Russell Sage Foundation. The workshop and the resulting publication is a collaborative project of the Network and other social scientists working on related topics.

Inaugural Session addressed by:

• Mr. Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister of West Bengal
• Dr. Asim Dasgupta, Finance Minister
• Mr. Bimal Jalan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India
• Professor Amartya Sen, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, UK
• Professor Pranab Bardhan, Network Co-Director and UCB Economics Professor

Topics of Discussion:

1. Overall Approach and Organization
2. Land Reform, Agriculture and Allied Activities
3. Power, Roads, and Industry
4. Social Sectors
5. Environmental Issues
6. Urban Development

Concluding session and subsequent Meeting with the Press directed by Pranab Bardhan and Sam Bowles.

Network Participants:

• Jean-Marie Baland: "Participation in Informal Solidarity Groups in a Poor Urban Environment: The Case of Kibera, Nairobi"
• Pranab Bardhan
• Sam Bowles
• Karla Hoff
• Michael Kremer
• Karl Ove Moene: "The Feasibility of Social Democracy"
• Dilip Mookherjee

At the end of the conference, participants went on a field visit to a few local village councils in the District of Medinipur in West Bengal.

To the Network on the Effects of Inequality homepage.

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