TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rodrik,Dani
AU  - Subramanian,Arvind
TI  - From "Hindu Growth" to Productivity Surge: The Mystery of the Indian Growth Transition
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10376
PY  - 2004
Y2  - March 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10376
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10376.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Dani Rodrik
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-9454
Fax: 617/496-5747
E-Mail: dani_rodrik@harvard.edu

Arvind Subramanian
Peterson Institute for International Economics
1750 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC  20036
E-Mail: asubramanian@piie.com
AB  - Most conventional accounts of India's recent economic performance associate the pick-up in economic growth with the liberalization of 1991. This paper demonstrates that the transition to high growth occured around 1980, a full decade before economic liberalization. We investigate a number of hypotheses about the causes of this growth favorable external environment, fiscal stimulus, trade liberalization, internal liberalization, the green revolution, public investment and find them wanting. We argue that growth was triggered by an attitudinal shift on the part of the national government towards a pro-business (as opposed to pro-liberalization) approach. We provide some evidence that is consistent with this argument.  We also find that registered manufacturing built up in previous decades played an important role in influencing the pattern of growth across the Indian states.
ER  -