08 | October | 2014 | Mostly Economics

Archive for October 8th, 2014

Book review – An Undocumented Wonder : The Making of the Great Indian Election

October 8, 2014

This is an exciting book on Indian elections written by Dr SY Quraishi, former Election Commission chief. The title of the book says it all. The way India conducts and manages its elections is really an undocumented wonder. So little is known and we have all kinds of prejudices and biases around the process.

So, the book tells you about how elections are conducted and the challenges faced by ECI in the process. How our visionary founders gave ECI supreme independence to conduct elections, a mandate from which we continue to benefit. The book is interspersed with interesting anecdotes regarding elections. The stories on how ECI runs a booth just for one individual is quite a read. I mean there is a temple in Gir (Gujarat) where only the priest lives and we have a booth for him. Likewise all people from village migrated except one and there is a booth for him as well.

The book discusses roles of various stakeholders in the election game/circus and way ahead.

Must read..

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Well…Philips curve is a myth…

October 8, 2014

James Forder of Oxford Univ writes this stirring paper saying much of what we know of Philips curve is a myth. He has written a series of papers questioning the idea.

He says what we know of the famous curve is just a cooked up story. First, Philips did not really point to a new relationship. Second, he did not wish it be known as a trade-off. Third, the glorification of how Phelps and Friedman dismantled the curve is another cooked up story. The idea of expectations was always there and their contribution was questioning that we could run inflation permanently. So, we need to reconsider how this idea has become mainstream macroeconomics where as it is just stories:

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