The Sri Lankan Economy

The Sri Lankan Economy
Author: Prema-chandra Athukorala
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2017-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9292579746

This is a pivotal period in Sri Lanka's economic development. The end of conflict opens a door for accelerated economic growth and poverty reduction. Reform is needed to regain momentum because fiscal imbalances and rising public debt could jeopardize macroeconomic stability. The economy would benefit from significant trade and commercial policy reform. The labor market suffers from sluggish growth of formal sector employment and from skills mismatches, which can be addressed by changes in education policy and systems. The book analyzes these and related critical constraints on the Sri Lankan economy, and proposes a set of policy reforms that would lay the foundations for more rapid and inclusive development.

Getting to Work

Getting to Work
Author: Jennifer L. Solotaroff
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2020-03-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464810680

Sri Lanka has shown remarkable persistence in low female labor force participation rates—at 36 percent from 2015 to 2017, compared with 75 percent for same-aged men—despite overall economic growth and poverty reduction over the past decade. The trend stands in contrast to the country’s achievements in human capital development that favor women, such as high levels of female education and low total fertility rates, as well as its status as an upper-middle-income country. This study intends to better understand the puzzle of women’s poor labor market outcomes in Sri Lanka. Using nationally representative secondary survey data—as well as primary qualitative and quantitative research—it tests three hypotheses that would explain gender gaps in labor market outcomes: (1) household roles and responsibilities, which fall disproportionately on women, and the associated sociophysical constraints on women’s mobility; (2) a human capital mismatch, whereby women are not acquiring the proper skills demanded by job markets; and (3) gender discrimination in job search, hiring, and promotion processes. Further, the analysis provides a comparison of women’s experience of the labor market between the years leading up to the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war (2006†“09) and the years following the civil war (2010†“15). The study recommends priority areas for addressing the multiple supply- and demand-side factors to improve women’s labor force participation rates and reduce other gender gaps in labor market outcomes. It also offers specific recommendations for improving women’s participation in the five private sector industries covered by the primary research: commercial agriculture, garments, tourism, information and communication technology, and tea estate work. The findings are intended to influence policy makers, educators, and employment program practitioners with a stake in helping Sri Lanka achieve its vision of inclusive and sustainable job creation and economic growth. The study also aims to contribute to the work of research institutions and civil society in identifying the most effective means of engaging more women— and their untapped potential for labor, innovation, and productivity—in Sri Lanka’s future.

Sri Lanka's Development Since Independence

Sri Lanka's Development Since Independence
Author: W. D. Lakshman
Publisher: Nova Publishers
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781560727842

Social, political, economic and constitutional developments are considered as well as the evolution of science and arts in the development process. This is in accordance with the Sri Lankan tradition of seeing the world as a connected whole."--BOOK JACKET.

Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka

Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka
Author: Deborah Winslow
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2004-09-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780253216915

"Will be of interest to those working on conflict and peace studies, economic development, cultural studies, and women in the modern world. A key new publication." --Chandra R. de Silva, Old Dominion University ..". offers a superb overview of how a civil war, driven by ethnicity, can engender a new culture and a new political economy... Highly recommended." -- Choice Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka provides a lucid and up-to-date interpretation of Sri Lankan society and its 20-year civil conflict. An interdisciplinary examination of the relationship between the economy, broadly defined, and the reproduction of violent conflict, this volume argues that the war is grounded not just in the goals and intentions of the opposing sides, but also in the everyday orientations, experiences, and material practices of all Sri Lankan people. The contributors explore changing political and policy contexts; the effect of long-term conflict on employment opportunities and life choices for rural and urban youth; life histories, memory, and narratives of violence; the "economics of enlisting" and individual decisions about involvement in the war; and nationalism and the moral debate triggered by women's employment in the international garment manufacturing industry. Contributors are Francesca Bremner, Michele Ruth Gamburd, Newton Gunasinghe, Siri T. Hettige, Caitrin Lynch, John M. Richardson, Jr., Amita Shastri, Deborah Winslow, and Michael D. Woost.

Sri Lanka's Remittance Economy

Sri Lanka's Remittance Economy
Author: Matt Withers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-08
Genre: Economic development
ISBN: 9781032401508

This book demonstrates how cumulatively causal processes at structural, institutional and agency levels have forged a precariously remittance-dependent economy in Sri Lanka.

The Challenge of Youth Employment in Sri Lanka

The Challenge of Youth Employment in Sri Lanka
Author: Ramani Gunatlilaka
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2010-05-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0821381180

Sri Lanka has long been regarded as a model of a successful welfare state in a low-income setting, yet it has not succeeded in creating a sufficient number of good jobs for the increasing number of young people. Hence, young Sri Lankans perceive their country as an unjust and unequal society, in which mainstream institutions have failed to address inequalities in the distribution of resources, as well as of benefits deriving from economic growth. Against this background, 'The Challenge of Youth Employment in Sri Lanka' aims to identify ways to improve the opportunities available to new job market entrants by addressing existing inequalities and to help young people more fully realize their potentials. Drawing from original research and a review of existing studies, the authors use the 4Es conceptual framework to analyze four key aspects of labor markets employment creation, employability, entrepreneurship, and equal opportunity identifying main issues and results, current trends, and possible new approaches.

The Political Economy of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

The Political Economy of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
Author: Nikolaos Biziouras
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2014-03-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317805526

At the point of independence in 1948, Sri Lanka was projected to be a success story in the developing world. However, in July 1983 a violent ethnic conflict which pitted the Sinhalese against the Tamils began, and did not come to an end until 2009. This conflict led to nearly 50,000 combatant deaths and approximately 40,000 civilian deaths, as well as almost 1 million internally-displaced refugees and to the permanent migration abroad of nearly 130,000 civilians. With a focus on Sri Lanka, this book explores the political economy of ethnic conflict, and examines how rival political leaders are able to convince their ethnic group members to follow them into violent conflict. Specifically, it looks at how political leaders can influence and utilize changes in the level of economic liberalization in order to mobilize members of a certain ethnic group, and in the case of Sri Lanka, shows how ethnic mobilization drives can turn violent when minority ethnic groups are economically marginalized by the decisions that the majority ethnic group leaders make in order to stay in power. Taking a political economy approach to the conflict in Sri Lanka, this book is unique in its historical analysis and provides a longitudinal view of the evolution of both Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic drives. As such, this interdisciplinary study will be of interest to policy makers as well as academics in the field of South Asian studies, political science, sociology, development studies, political economy and security studies.

A History of Underdevelopment and Political Economy of Inflation in Sri Lanka

A History of Underdevelopment and Political Economy of Inflation in Sri Lanka
Author: Dhanusha Gihan Pathirana
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2020-08-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789811556630

The book provides a new conceptualisation of inflation in underdeveloped economies, through Sri Lanka’s historical experience. It outlines a general theory of nationalisms in their diverse manifestations across the world, within a historical perspective of capitalist development and underdevelopment. The book, therefore, seeks to capture the production mode holistically, within both its infrastructural and superstructural levels probing their interactions. The theoretical structure through which inflation is analysed synthesises the theory of unproductive labour and Marxian theory of prices of production with labour surplus theory of late Dr. S. B. D. De Silva in the context of underdevelopment. In this light, Professor David Laibman’s Allocation Problem is resolved within a Marxist framework to provide an operational significance to the theory and its application. In the same vein the book also provides a new theoretical interpretation of Sri Lanka’s historical development from the British period onwards through application of theories of capitalist development and surplus labour.

Globalisation, Employment and Education in Sri Lanka

Globalisation, Employment and Education in Sri Lanka
Author: Angela W. Little
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2014-05-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136189939

Since the late 1970s, Sri Lanka has undergone a socio-economic transformation, from protectionism towards economic liberalisation and increasing integration into the world economy. Through a systematic comparison of these periods of economic change (1956–1977, and 1977 to the present), Angela W. Little and Siri T. Hettige examine the impact of this transformation on education, youth employment and equality of opportunity in Sri Lanka. The book charts Sri Lanka’s shift from a predominantly agricultural economy to one dominated by services and manufacturing, a reduction in unemployment, rising educational and occupational levels, expectations and achievements, and a reduction in poverty. In turn, it reveals a growing role for the private sector and foreign interests in post-secondary education and a modest growth in private education at the primary and secondary levels, as well as widening social disparities in access to qualifications, training and skills. The Sri Lankan experience of, and engagement with, globalisation has been tempered by a long-running ethnic conflict that hindered economic and social development and diverted considerable public funds into defence and war. Now that the war is ‘won’, the challenge is how to invest in human resource development and the fulfilment of the expectations of youth from all ethnic and social groups. This challenge requires serious policy analysis, the generation of more state revenues, the reallocation of existing public resources, and a political commitment to the winning of a sustainable peace and stability. This book makes an important contribution to the broader international literature on the implications of globalisation for education policy and practice, and to the interaction of exogenous and endogenous forces for educational change. It deals with the tension between the high social demand for education and the growing demand for specialised skills in a changing economy. As such, it has a wide interdisciplinary appeal across education policy and politics, Asian education, South Asian society, youth policy, sociology of education, political economy of social change, and globalisation.