Sunday, March 06, 2011

To keep it alive

Say you're researching/writing an article about the 'demographic dividend'. Say you're hypothesizing that it is the single biggest factor in India's recent economic growth. Say your evidence is the differences in inter state growth rates and inter-state working age population, between those states are doing well and those that aren't doing so well. Say your evidence shows you that the working age population in UP/MP/Bihar actually *declined* between 1991 and 2001.

What would your reaction be?

Option A. "Oh dude, I forgot. Migration. Let's dig deeper. and re-hypothesize."

Option B. "Uh-oh. Nevermind, who's gonna get that anyway. Let's publish."

Option C. "Damn! That's like the last piece in this tremendous body of evidence. Brilliant, let's publish!".

If your response is B or C, congratulations! You are now fit to write for Mint Lounge's economics coloumn.


Forgive the vitriol, it's been very long.