The cost-quantity relations and the diverse patterns of "learning by doing": Evidence from India

Giovanni Dosi, Marco Grazzi and Nanditha Mathew

LEM Papers Series from Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy

Abstract: "Learning-by-doing" is usually identified as a process whereby performance increases with experience in production. The paper investigates different patterns of "learning by doing", studying learning curves at product level in a catching-up country, India. Cost-quantity relationships differ a lot across products belonging to sectors with different "technological intensities". We find also, puzzlingly, in quite a few cases, that the relation price / cumulative quantities is increasing. We conjecture that this is in fact due to quality improvement and 'vertical' product differentiation. Circumstantial evidence rests on the ways differential learning patterns are affected by firm spending on research and capital investments. Finally, our evidence suggests that "learning", or performance improvement over time is not a just by-product of the mere repetition of the same production activities, as sometimes reported in previous studies, but rather it seems to be shaped by deliberate firm learning efforts.

Keywords: Learning-by-doing; learning curves; product innovation; process innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-ino, nep-net and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Journal Article: The cost-quantity relations and the diverse patterns of “learning by doing”: Evidence from India (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2016/26

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