This paper aims to analyse the observed “jobless growth” between 1993-1994 and 2011-2012 based on structural transformation to explain why the elasticity of employment generation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the observed “jobless growth” between 1993-1994 and 2011-2012 based on structural transformation to explain why the elasticity of employment generation to gross domestic product growth has declined during this period.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the job generation and growth decomposition tool to quantify the effects of inter-sectoral mobility of workers, intra-sectoral productivity changes and demographic changes on per capita value added growth. Alternative scenarios are generated to simulate the effect of higher female labour participation rates.
Findings
Structural transformation in India between 1993-1994 and 2011-2012 was characterised by increasing labour productivity in most sectors, inter-sectoral mobility of workers and a decline in the employment rate. About 81 per cent of the increase in per capita value added was because of a rise in labour productivity; about 24 per cent was because of inter-sectoral shifts of labour; and about 9 per cent because of demographic changes. The decline in the employment rate had a negative effect of −14.20 per cent. The process of transformation was unconventional. First, labour productivity growth was the highest in the service sector and second, the bulk of the movement of labour was to the construction sector.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focusses only on the quantitative dimensions of employment and offers no new explanations why female labour force participation declined.
Originality/value
This paper offers a new perspective on the debate of jobless growth focussing on structural transformation.
Details
Keywords
K. Chandra Shekar and Manikantha Nataraj
Subcontracting is a crucial cause behind the simultaneous existence of formal and informal entrepreneurship in India. This article aims to provide an over-time comparative…
Abstract
Purpose
Subcontracting is a crucial cause behind the simultaneous existence of formal and informal entrepreneurship in India. This article aims to provide an over-time comparative analysis between the subcontracted and the non-subcontracted enterprises within the informal sector. Further, it also brings to fore the contribution of subcontracting towards ensuring sustainability of the informal enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
By constructing a panel data from two rounds of NSS Unincorporated Enterprise Survey Data (2010 and 2015), and employing a PSM-DID method, considering labour productivity and net retained earnings as two critical indicators of growth and development of the informal sector firms, this study has made some broad claims regarding the differences in immediate and long run performances between the subcontracted and non-subcontracted informal sector enterprises in India.
Findings
This study finds that subcontracted enterprises have not only been performing at a much lower level than the non-subcontracted enterprises, they are also growing much slowly than their counterparts. However, it has been observed that for the establishments, who are capital abundant and also have a larger production capacity, subcontracting is showing the prospect for deriving sustainable gains.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the existing literature in the following two ways. Firstly, it provides an over-time comparative analysis between the subcontracted and the non-subcontracted enterprises within the informal sector. Secondly, it brings to fore the contribution of subcontracting towards ensuring sustainability of the informal enterprises.