Suchergebnisse

What is more conducive to economic development of a nation-specialisation or diversification? Are regions within a developing economy experiencing divergence or convergence as they embark on high growth path? The learnings from the India story has valuable lessons on such aspects for other developing countries and so this book is a deep dive into the regional economy of India. A region's ability to experience growth is to a large extent determined by its ability to attract either industry or people. This phenomenon is known as agglomeration and affects concentration of firms, development of industrial hubs, policies towards special economic zones, flows of labour and capital, formation and growth of cities.

The large share of the service sector and its status as a net exporter raise concerns about the sustainability of such growth for a developing economy like India. Given the context, the present article attempts to examine the productivity dynamics of the service sector in India at the industry level. We use the India KLEMS dataset to identify the trends in total factor productivity (TFP) growth and the growth in factor inputs. By uniquely combining the India KLEMS dataset with the trade values in the Extended Balance of Payments Services classification, we examine the dynamics between TFP growth and exports of services using panel vector autoregression technique. The trends in factor inputs show that there is capital deepening within services and the growth in employment remained comparatively lower. The results indicate a feedback effect of exports and productivity growth within the service sector. Additionally, we note that the use of more skilled labour that is better equipped to handle new technology also contributes to growth in the service sector, both in terms of productivity and exports.

This article studies the degree of sectoral diversity across regions in India and examines its determinants. We construct a diversity index to represent sectoral diversity using information on the industry of work of the individuals across 14 industry sectors for 2011–2012 and compare with values for 2004–2005. We examine the relationship of diversity and indicators related to scale economies and skill intensity using ordinary least squares at a cross-sectional level as well as pooled estimates over the two time periods both at the state and the NSS region level. We argue and establish that the Indian regional economy is characterized by a trend towards high levels of sectoral diversity. Contrary to many strands of the literature, we provide empirical evidence that scale economies, as represented by the traditional parameters of size, cannot be used as a proxy for sectoral diversity. Skill intensity, on the other hand, emerges as a significant determinant of sectoral diversity particularly in the case of coastal regions. Regions with high sector diversity are characterized by a move towards higher skill levels, greater share of regular employment and a move away from labour-intensive production, thus clearly highlighting the importance of the labour and technology matching process.JEL Classification: R12, R32

There is a large concentration of chemical firms around Mumbai, and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has been actively monitoring them. Such monitoring is likely to have an impact on the productive efficiency of these firms. The firms argue that additional costs to minimise environmental damage have reduced their efficiency. We try to find out whether these water-polluting firms in the chemical industry around Mumbai are actually unable to cope with the additional cost of pollution abatement, or whether by using cleaner practices, are able to improve their efficiency, and support the 'win-win' opportunities as claimed by the Porter Hypothesis. The study is carried out by estimating an Output Distance Function using a stochastic production function. The panel data of fifty water-polluting small-to medium-scale firms for three-year period of 2004–06 was collected in a primary survey of chemical industries around Mumbai. We find that the polluting firms are technically more efficient than those firms which adhere to pollution norms. Thus, the Porter Hypothesis does not hold for the sample.