Economic Reforms in SAARC Countries : Impact of LPG on Development Indicators

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / by Dr. Atul Sarma -- Revisiting Wagner's law, PW-hypothesis and structural break -- Liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) in the SAARC countries in historical perspective -- Impact of LPG on the growth of development indicators -- Determinants of development indicators in the post LPG era -- Summary and conclusions.

"This book presents a cross country comparison of development Indicators in the SAARC Countries with respect to the recent pre - and post- Liberalization, Privatization and globalization (LPG) era. In presenting the empirical analysis using econometric methods the present book brings in the theoretical background relating to the growth of public expenditure as articulated by Adolf Wagner and other researchers in the nineteenth and early twentieth century along with the Displacement Effect Hypothesis as advanced by Peacock and Wiseman in the mid twentieth century. It provides a critical analysis of the theories and views of the researchers on Wagner's law and the subsequent P-W hypothesis. It articulates and re-examines these with respect to the changes in the economic policies and comes up with reinterpretation of the impact using time series analysis. It empirically examines the changes in the structure of the estimated equation by using dummy variables. The study has tried to quantify the impact of the policy changes and has articulated the appropriateness of the use of dummy variable"--