Climate and the economy in India, 1850-2000

Tirthankar Roy

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: This article says that climate shaped the long-term pattern of economic change in India and that the climatically conditioned economic change generated a distinct set of environmental consequences in the region. From the nineteenth century, political and economic processes that made scarce and controlled water resources more accessible to more people, enhanced welfare, enabled more food production and sustained urbanization. The same processes also raised water stress. These propositions carry lessons for comparative economic history and the conduct of discourses on sustainability in the present times.

Keywords: caste; climate; environmental history; hydrology; India; inequality; monsoon; poverty; property rights; seasonality; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N50 N55 O13 P48 Q00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cwa, nep-env and nep-his
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