 Domestic Infrastructure and the Regional Effects of Trade LiberalizationMaarten Bosker and Megan Haasbroek Janeway Institute Working Papers from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge Abstract: We use detailed historical data on India’s domestic infrastructure to show how its high domestic transport costs have conditioned the local labour market consequences of its drastic import tariff liberalization in the early 1990s. We find that districts located farther away from the country’s main international gateways are better shielded from the resulting increased foreign import competition: their non-agricultural employment falls less than in otherwise similarly exposed districts located closer to India’s major ports. At the same time, they also benefit less from improved access to foreign intermediates: non-agricultural employment increases less than in districts with a similar input-output structure but located closer to the country’s main ports. These employment responses also vary across firms of different sizes: employment in small to medium sized firms is hit hardest by increased import competition, whereas employment in medium to large firms benefits most from better access to foreign intermediates. This difference between small and large firms is also most pronounced in districts best-connected to India’s major ports. Keywords: Words Gains from Trade; Domestic Infrastructure; Local Labour Demand; India (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cam:camjip:2512 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Janeway Institute Working Papers from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge |
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