Resource Misallocation in India: The Role of Cross-State Labor Market Reform

Download or read book Resource Misallocation in India: The Role of Cross-State Labor Market Reform written by Mr.Adil Mohommad and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-02-26 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the macro level, productivity is driven by technology and the efficiency of resource allocation, as outcomes of firms’ decision making. The relatively high level of resource misallocation in India’s formal manufacturing sector is well documented. We build on this research to further investigate the drivers of misallocation, exploiting micro-level variation across Indian states. We find that states with less rigid labor markets have lesser misallocation. We also examine the interaction of labor market rigidities with informality which is a key feature of India’s labor markets. Our results suggest that reducing labor market rigidities in states with high informality has a net positive effect on aggregate productivity.