India

Local culture impacts cotton production in India. In a study published in the February issue of Current Anthropology, Glenn D. Stone, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and of environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, explores how the arrival of genetically modified crops has added a new layer of complexity to cotton farming in a key area of the developing world. More…

Over the past 18 months, many trees have given their lives so that articles titled something like, “Is India the next China?” could appear. But, an equally interesting question a professor from Washington University in St. Louis posed is, “Is China the next India?” These two questions offer a lens through which we might glimpse, however darkly, the economic futures of India and China. And by posing these questions side by side, Professor Jim Little said we can see an interesting pattern emerge: as China moves up the technology ladder, the drivers of its growth are becoming more like India’s. At the same time, India increasingly resembles China’s current economy as it develops as a manufacturing base.

MacDonaldShaken by numerous accounting-related scandals in recent years, some investors are clamoring for better legal protection for their investments. But does investor protection through government regulation foster economic growth? To assess the widely-held view that it does, WUSTL economics professor Glenn MacDonald and two colleagues have completed a study concluding that the positive effect of investor protection on economic growth is stronger for countries with fewer restrictions on international capital flows.