Economic Reforms and the Evolution of Productivity in Indian Manufacturing Firms

• Start date: 01 April 2010
• End date: 30 April 2011

In 1991, the Indian economy underwent major economic reforms, after several decades of following an inward looking development strategy. This project will examine whether the reforms have contributed to the productivity performance of the Indian manufacturing sector.  The overall objectives of the project are:

1. To understand how the economic reforms affects the performance of manufacturing firms in the context of an emerging economy, and to find out who benefits and who loses from economic reforms. 
2. To create capacity in the analysis of firm-level data using state-of-the-art methodologies among early career researchers based in India.
3. To develop a network among academics, statistical agencies and policy makers in the UK and India with the specific objectives of improving the quality of firm level data and to contribute to the making of evidence based policies in the areas of industrial and regulatory economics.

The specific research objectives are: 

• To estimate the levels of and changes in technical/productive efficiency of manufacturing firms in India  in the post-reform period.
• To assess whether the evolution of productivity has differed across firms of different sizes, age and ownership structures, and whether the firm was in the formal or informal sector.