The main purpose of this book is to expose economics graduate students and researchers to the most significant development in international trade that has taken place in the recent past. Service transactions now make up a sizeable portion of global trade. Trade in both final and intermediate inputs is done virtually through information and communication networks, raising afresh the question of the basis of trade and calling for in-depth investigation. This book succinctly comes up with a relatively new explanation for the basis of trade, thus it adds a new dimension to three existing building blocks: technology, endowment, and returns to scale. Against a backdrop of standard Ricardian and Heckscher-Ohlin competitive models of trade, the chapters of this book nicely introduce the issue of communication cost and the difference in time zones between two trading nations. Then follow many intricate phenomena such as informality, skill formation, growth, wage inequality, and decisions regarding foreign direct investment (FDI). However, imperfectly competitive models are not dealt with in great detail as they deserve more space than can be allotted to them here. Given the nonexistence of any research-oriented in-depth analyses of competitive trade models with time-zone differences, this book is a valuable addition to the resources available to researchers and policymakers interested in deciphering recent developments in global trade patterns and the subsequent welfare effect.

Virtual economic transactions have radically transformed the way we think about trade and markets in closed and open economies. Continuous decline in costs of information and communications and setting up of phenomenally large number of virtual platforms have brought in 'Time' as an essential element in the discourse on international trade. This work delves deep into the issue of how Time enters as a major catalyst of international trade and virtual transactions. This changes the way we look at ideas of comparative advantage, factor mobility, growth, income distribution, and allied concepts. A key result is that greater physical distance might encourage trade contrary to what we are accustomed to accept.

This book was written in honour of Professor Kalyan K. Sanyal, who was an excellent educator and renowned scholar in the field of international economics. One of his research papers co-authored with Ronald Jones, entitled " The Theory of Trade in Middle Products " and published in "American Economic Review" in 1982, was a seminal work in the field of international trade theory. This paper would go on to inspire many subsequent significant works by researchers across the globe on trade in intermediate goods. The larger impact of any paper, beyond the number of citations, lies in terms of the passion it sparks among younger researchers to pursue new questions. Measured by this yardstick, Sanyal s contribution in trade theory will undoubtedly be regarded as historic.
After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester he joined the Department of Economics at Calcutta University in the early 1980s and taught trade theory there for almost three decades. His insights, articulation and brilliance in teaching international economics have influenced and shaped the intellectual development of many of his students.
After his sudden passing in February 2012, his students and colleagues organized a symposium in his honour at the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University from April 19 to 20, 2012. This book, a small tribute to his intellect and contribution, has been a follow-up on that endeavour, and a collective effort of many people including his teachers, friends, colleagues and students. In a nutshell it discusses intermediation of various kinds with significant implications for market integration through trade and finance. That trade can generate many non-trade-service sector links has recently emerged as a topic of growing concern and can trace its lineage back to the idea of the middle product, a recurring concept in Prof. Sanyal s work.

The main purpose of this book is to expose economics graduate students and researchers to the most significant development in international trade that has taken place in the recent past. Service transactions now make up a sizeable portion of global trade. Trade in both final and intermediate inputs is done virtually through information and communication networks, raising afresh the question of the basis of trade and calling for in-depth investigation. This book succinctly comes up with a relatively new explanation for the basis of trade, thus it adds a new dimension to three existing building blocks: technology, endowment, and returns to scale. Against a backdrop of standard Ricardian and Heckscher-Ohlin competitive models of trade, the chapters of this book nicely introduce the issue of communication cost and the difference in time zones between two trading nations. Then follow many intricate phenomena such as informality, skill formation, growth, wage inequality, and decisions regarding foreign direct investment (FDI). However, imperfectly competitive models are not dealt with in great detail as they deserve more space than can be allotted to them here. Given the nonexistence of any research-oriented in-depth analyses of competitive trade models with time-zone differences, this book is a valuable addition to the resources available to researchers and policymakers interested in deciphering recent developments in global trade patterns and the subsequent welfare effect.

This book was written in honour of Professor Kalyan K. Sanyal, who was an excellent educator and renowned scholar in the field of international economics. One of his research papers co-authored with Ronald Jones, entitled "The Theory of Trade in Middle Products" and published in American Economic Review in 1982, was a seminal work in the field of international trade theory. This paper would go on to inspire many subsequent significant works by researchers across the globe on trade in intermediate goods. The larger impact of any paper, beyond the number of citations, lies in terms of the passion it sparks among younger researchers to pursue new questions. Measured by this yardstick, Sanyal's contribution in trade theory will undoubtedly be regarded as historic. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester he joined the Department of Economics at Calcutta University in the early 1980s and taught trade theory there for almost three decades. His insights, articulation and brilliance in teaching international economics have influenced and shaped the intellectual development of many of his students. After his sudden passing in February 2012, his students and colleagues organized a symposium in his honour at the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University from April 19 to 20, 2012. This book, a small tribute to his intellect and contribution, has been a follow-up on that endeavour, and a collective effort of many people including his teachers, friends, colleagues and students. In a nutshell it discusses intermediation of various kinds with significant implications for market integration through trade and finance. That trade can generate many non-trade-service sector links has recently emerged as a topic of growing concern and can trace its lineage back to the idea of the middle product, a recurring concept in Prof. Sanyal's work.

This essential volume reflects the continuing and enduring utility of general equilibrium as a framework of analyses. It attempts to reiterate that understanding broad and holistic consequence of economic events and policies go beyond partial equilibrium perspective. Cutting across areas of research, general equilibrium perspectives in terms of small-scale GE models following the theory and perspectives of Ronald Jones can help readers develop informed judgement regarding critical policies. These include but are not limited to several areas of specific interest - the interaction of financial factors with international trade and implications for the 'real sectors' of the economy, the impact of labour market reforms on the unorganised sectors in developing and transition countries, the non-uniform effects of inflation and deflation on internal and external factor flows, and the sought-after relation between foreign investment and skill accumulation.

This book deals with the impact that international trade is likely to have on the skilled-unskilled wage gap in a typical developing economy. This is the first theoretical monograph on this particular issue which has already generated substantial debate and voluminous work for the developed countries. A unique feature of this work is that it tries to explain the possibility of rising inequality across trading nations and looks at the segmented labour markets of the poor economies. It makes convincing arguments that the standard general equilibrium models, the main workhorse of trade theory, can be given a creative facelift to address a number of critical and emerging issues in the area of trade and development.

This is a new volume in the "Frontiers in Economics & Globalization" series. This book deals with a wide-range of trade and development issues in terms of well-known general equilibrium structure. This volume shows how neo-classical models of trade theory can be used to highlight many challenging contemporary global problems. This book is a new volume in the "Frontiers in Economics & Globalization" series. It deals with a wide-range of trade and development issues. It focuses on neo-classical models of trade theory to highlight the challenges of global trade problems.

Health crises plague most economies irrespective of their average per capita income levels, and this is largely due to chronic and repeated illnesses. Contextualizing this paradigm in India, the India Public Finance and Policy Report: Health Matters is an attempt to discuss some of the most crucial issues faced by Indian health sectors and to examine alternatives for policymakers to provide affordable, reliable, and effective health care facilities to the people. This report compares three government-run social health insurance schemes-the Swasthya Sathi Scheme, the Aarogyasari Community Insurance Scheme, and a community-based health insurance scheme-to examine their effectiveness in reducing household's vulnerability to health shocks. Additionally, it brings to light the manipulation of health package deals by private hospitals to increase the amount patients spend on them. The report also estimates the inefficiencies across states and districts of India with regard to health care personnel and infrastructure. Moreover, the editors have put together a series of interviews with different stakeholders associated with the health care system, such as doctors, nurses, patients, and medical representatives, who discuss the problems that perturb this sector. Written in a lucid and non-technical language, this is a deeply researched theoretical and empirical commentary about health care and public polices in India.