Showing papers by "Amartya Sen published in 2003"

Development as Capability Expansion

Abstract: Page Introduction ........................................................................................................................41 The capability approach: conceptual roots .........................................................................43 Commodities, functionings and capability..........................................................................43 Utilitarian calculus versus objective deprivation ................................................................44 Ambiguities, precision and relevance .................................................................................45 Quality of life, Basic needs and capability .........................................................................46 Rawls, primary goods and freedoms...................................................................................47 Freedom, capability and data limitations ............................................................................48 Inequality, class and gender................................................................................................51 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................54

Missing women—revisited

Abstract: Reduction in female mortality has been counterbalanced by sex selective abortions The concept of “missing women,” which was presented in an editorial I wrote in this journal 11 years ago, refers to the terrible deficit of women in substantial parts of Asia and north Africa, which arises from sex bias in relative care.1 The numbers are very large indeed. For example, using as the standard for comparison the female:male ratio of 1.022 observed in sub—Saharan Africa (since women in that region receive less biased treatment), I found the number of missing women in China to be 44m, in India 37m, and so on, with a total that easily exceeded 100m worldwide,a decade or so ago. Others used different methods and got somewhat different numbers—but all very large (for example, Stephan Klasen's sophisticated demographic model yielded 89m for the countries in question).2 How have things moved more recently? At one level they have not changed much. The ratio of women to men in the total population, while changing slowly (getting a little worse in China and a little better in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and west Asia), has not altered radically in any of these countries. Even though the total numbers of missing women have continued to grow (Klasen's 89m is now 93m for the same countries and 101m for the …

The hidden penalties of gender inequality: fetal origins of ill-health.

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the interconnections between gender inequality and maternal deprivation, on the one hand, and the health of children (of either sex) and of adults that the children grow into (again, of either sex). The basic message of the paper is that women's deprivation in terms of nutrition and healthcare rebounds on the society as a whole in the form of ill-health of their offspring-males and females alike-both as children and as adults. There are a variety of pathways through which women's deprivation can affect the health of the society as a whole. This paper focuses on the pathways that operate through undernourishment of the mother. Maternal deprivation adversely affects the health of the fetus, which in turn leads to long-term health risks that extend not just into childhood but into adulthood as well. There are, however, important differences in the way children and adults experience the consequences of maternal deprivation via fetal deprivation. In particular, the pathways that lead to their respective risk factors and the circumstances under which those risk factors actually translate into ill-health are very different. These differences are best understood through the concept of 'overlapping health transition' in which two different regimes of diseases coexist side by side. Gender inequality exacerbates the old regime of diseases among the less affluent through the pathway of childhood undernutrition. At the same time it also exacerbates the new regime of diseases among the relatively more affluent through a pathway that has come to be known as the 'Barker hypothesis'. Gender inequality thus leads to a double jeopardy-simultaneously aggravating both regimes of diseases and thus raising the economic cost of overlapping health transition.

Generalized Chaplygin gas and cosmic microwave background radiation constraints

Abstract: We study the dependence of the location of the cosmic microwave background radiation peaks on the parameters of the generalized Chaplygin gas model, whose equation of state is given by $p=\ensuremath{-}A/{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}},$ where A is a positive constant and $0l\ensuremath{\alpha}l~1.$ We find, in particular, that observational data arising from Archeops, BOOMERANG, supernova and high-redshift observations allow constraining significantly the parameter space of the model. Our analysis indicates that the emerging model is clearly distinguishable from the $\ensuremath{\alpha}=1$ Chaplygin case and the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}\mathrm{CDM}$ model.

Tachyonic inflation in the braneworld scenario

Abstract: We consider cosmological inflation driven by the rolling tachyon in the context of the braneworld scenario. We show that sufficient inflation consistent with the observational constraints can be achieved for well defined upper limits on the five-dimensional mass scale, string mass scale and the string coupling for the bosonic string.

Letter: Generalized Chaplygin Gas Model: Dark Energy—Dark Matter Unification and CMBR Constraints

Abstract: The generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model allows for an unified description of the recent accelerated expansion of the Universe and the evolution of energy density perturbations. This dark energy - dark matter unification is achieved through an exotic background fluid whose equation of state is given by p = − A/ρα, where A is a positive constant and 0 > α ≤ 1. Stringent constraints on the model parameters can be obtained from recent WMAP and BOOMERanG bounds on the locations of the first few peaks and troughs of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) power spectrum as well as SNe Ia data.

Sraffa, Wittgenstein y Gramsci

Abstract: Two distinct but interrelated issues are investigated here The first concerns Sraffa's critical role in contemporary philosophy through his pivotal influence on Wittgenstein The intellectual origins of this profound influence can be traced to the philosophical interests of the activist political circle in Italy (clustered around the journal L'Ordine Nuovo) to which both Sraffa and Antonio Gramsci belonged The second inquiry concerns the influence of Sraffa's philosophical views on his economics Sraffa's economic contributions can be much better understood by paying attention to the way Sraffa changed the nature of the questions asked, rather than seeking different answers to already established questions

Generalized Chaplygin Gas Model: Dark Energy - Dark Matter Unification and CMBR Constraints

Abstract: The generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model allows for an unified description of the recent accelerated expansion of the Universe and the evolution of energy density perturbations. This dark energy - dark matter unification is achieved through an exotic background fluid whose equation of state is given by $p = - A/\rho^{\alpha}$, where $A$ is a positive constant and $0 < \alpha \le 1$. Stringent constraints on the model parameters can be obtained from recent WMAP and BOOMERanG bounds on the locations of the first few peaks and troughs of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) power spectrum as well as SNe Ia data.

Continuing the Conversation

Abstract: AS: My interest in inequality, which goes back to my school days, was initially quite fixed on class divisions. My involvement with gender inequality grew more slowly. There was much greater concentration on class in standard politics (including standard student politics), and when in the early 1950s I was studying at Presidency College in Calcutta, it was taken for granted that class divisions were incomparably more important than other social divisions. Indeed, when later on, in the late 1960s, I started working on gender inequality (I was then teaching at Delhi University), many of my close friends still saw this as quite an ‘‘unsound’’ broadening of interest, involving a ‘‘dilution’’ of one’s ‘‘focus on class.’’ But, in addition to that political issue of priority, it is also true that classbased inequalities are, in many ways, much more transparent, which no one – even a child – can miss, without closing one’s eyes altogether. Even my sense of agony and outrage at the Great Bengal famine of 1943, to which you refer (and which did strongly shake even my 9-year-old mind), was also linked to the class pattern of mortality. Aside from the anger and outrage at the fact that millions could actually die of hunger and hunger-related diseases, I was amazed by the extraordinary recognition that no one I knew personally, through family connections or social ones, had any serious economic problem during the famine, while unknown millions, men, women, and children, roamed the country in search of food and fell and perished. The class character of famines in particular and of economic deprivation in general was impossible to escape. There was, of course, evidence of inequality between men and women as well. But its severe and brutal manifestations (on which I researched much later – from the late 1960s to the 1990s) were well hidden from immediate observation. And the less extreme expressions were confounded by a prevailing attitudinal fog. For example, in comparison with Feminist Economics 9(2 – 3), 2003, 319 – 332

Supergravity inflation on the brane

Abstract: We study N=1 Supergravity inflation in the context of the braneworld scenario. Particular attention is paid to the problem of the onset of inflation at sub-Planckian field values and the ensued inflationary observables. We find that the so-called $\eta$-problem encountered in supergravity inspired inflationary models can be solved in the context of the braneworld scenario, for some range of the parameters involved. Furthermore, we obtain an upper bound on the scale of the fifth dimension, $M_5 \lsim 10^{-3} M_P$, in case the inflationary potential is quadratic in the inflaton field, $\phi$. If the inflationary potential is cubic in $\phi$, consistency with observational data requires that $M_5 \simeq 9.2 \times 10^{-4} M_P$.

The Hidden Penalties of Gender Inequality: Fetal Origins and Ill-Health

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the interconnections between gender inequality and maternal deprivation, on the one hand, and the health of children (of either sex) and of adults that the children grow into (again, of either sex). The basic message of the paper is that women's deprivation in terms of nutrition and healthcare rebounds on the society as a whole in the form of ill-health of their offspring-males and females alike-both as children and as adults. There are a variety of pathways through which women's deprivation can affect the health of the society as a whole. This paper focuses on the pathways that operate through undernourishment of the mother. Maternal deprivation adversely affects the health of the fetus, which in turn leads to long-term health risks that extend not just into childhood but into adulthood as well. There are, however, important differences in the way children and adults experience the consequences of maternal deprivation via fetal deprivation. In particular, the pathways that lead to their respective risk factors and the circumstances under which those risk factors actually translate into ill-health are very different. These differences are best understood through the concept of 'overlapping health transition' in which two different regimes of diseases coexist side by side. Gender inequality exacerbates the old regime of diseases among the less affluent through the pathway of childhood undernutrition. At the same time it also exacerbates the new regime of diseases among the relatively more affluent through a pathway that has come to be known as the 'Barker hypothesis'. Gender inequality thus leads to a double jeopardy-simultaneously aggravating both regimes of diseases and thus raising the economic cost of overlapping health transition.

Escaping the Poverty Trap: Investing in Children in Latin America

Abstract: Escaping the Poverty Trap proposes early childhood investment policies that could decisively change the prospects for the next generation of the region's poor. Contributors include Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Gro Harlem Brundtland, former director-general of the World Health Organization. In examining the effects of family background on ITP in 16 Latin American countries, the study emphasizes that conception through preschool is when vulnerability to lifetime damage is greatest, but also when there is the most potential for cost-effective interventions to break out of that destructive cycle. Insufficient education is cited as the principal vector of poverty throughout the life cycle and across generations.

The Hidden Penalties of Gender Inequality: Fetal Origins of Ill-Health

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the interconnections between gender inequality and maternal deprivation, on the one hand, and the health of children (of either sex) and of adults that the children grow into (again, of either sex). The basic message of the paper is that women's deprivation in terms of nutrition and healthcare rebounds on the society as a whole in the form of ill-health of their offspring - males and females alike - both as children and as adults. There are a variety of pathways through which women's deprivation can affect the health of the society as a whole. This paper focuses on the pathways that operate through undernourishment of the mother. Maternal deprivation adversely affects the health of the fetus, which in turn leads to long-term health risks that extend not just into childhood but into adulthood as well. There are, however, important differences in the way children and adults experience the consequences of maternal deprivation via fetal deprivation. In particular, the pathways that lead to their respective risk factors and the circumstances under which those risk factors actually translate into ill-health are very different. These differences are best understood through the concept of 'overlapping health transition' in which two different regimes of diseases coexist side by side. Gender inequality exacerbates the old regime of diseases among the less affluent through the pathway of childhood undernutrition. At the same time it also exacerbates the new regime of diseases among the relatively more affluent through a pathway that has come to be known as the 'Barker hypothesis'. Gender inequality thus leads to a double jeopardy - simultaneously aggravating both regimes of diseases and thus raising the economic cost of overlapping health transition.

El valor universal de la democracia

Abstract: Winston Churchil pronuncio hace ya muchos anos el cada vez mas celebre lema de la democracia: "la democracia es la peor de las formas de gobierno, pero es la mejor que tenemos". La segunda parte de esta oracion,es decir; las razones por las cuales la democracia es la mejor forma de gobierno que tenemos, son demostradas por Amartya Sen en el presente articulo.Sobre el particular; el autor manifiesta que la democracia resulta una buena cuna para el desarrollo economico, da a los ciudadanos la posibilidad de aprender el uno del otro y ayuda a la sociedad a que forme sus valores y prioridades.

C ontinuing t he c onversation

Abstract: BA, JH, IR: What factors first led you to examine gender concerns intellectually? For instance, you have often said that your experience during the Great Bengal famine shaped your interest in and work on famine. Have any such social or personal experiences shaped your work on gender? AS: My interest in inequality, which goes back to my school days, was initially quite fixed on class divisions. My involvement with gender inequality grew more slowly. There was much greater concentration on class in standard politics (including standard student politics), and when in the early 1950s I was studying at Presidency College in Calcutta, it was taken for granted that class divisions were incomparably more important than other social divisions. Indeed, when later on, in the late 1960s, I started working on gender inequality (I was then teaching at Delhi University), many of my close friends still saw this as quite an ‘‘unsound’’ broadening of interest, involving a ‘‘dilution’’ of one’s ‘‘focus on class.’’ But, in addition to that political issue of priority, it is also true that classbased inequalities are, in many ways, much more transparent, which no one – even a child – can miss, without closing one’s eyes altogether. Even my sense of agony and outrage at the Great Bengal famine of 1943, to which you refer (and which did strongly shake even my 9-year-old mind), was also linked to the class pattern of mortality. Aside from the anger and outrage at the fact that millions could actually die of hunger and hunger-related diseases, I was amazed by the extraordinary recognition that no one I knew personally, through family connections or social ones, had any serious economic problem during the famine, while unknown millions, men, women, and children, roamed the country in search of food and fell and perished. The class character of famines in particular and of economic deprivation in general was impossible to escape. There was, of course, evidence of inequality between men and women as well. But its severe and brutal manifestations (on which I researched much later – from the late 1960s to the 1990s) were well hidden from immediate observation. And the less extreme expressions were confounded by a prevailing attitudinal fog. For example, in comparison with