Skill Sorting and Production Linkages: Evidence from India

Yoko Asuyama

The Developing Economies, 2019, vol. 57, issue 2, 125-158

Abstract: Contrary to the theoretical predictions of most studies, this paper empirically shows that high‐skilled workers in India are sorted into industries with weaker production linkages. I hypothesize that such a reverse sorting pattern (negative sorting) occurs because the returns to skill become lower in industries with stronger production linkages as a result of substantial quality deterioration. Such substantial quality deterioration as the size of production linkages grows is likely to occur in developing countries such as India, which is characterized by a large pool of low‐skilled labor, poor infrastructure, and less‐advanced technology. Using both individual‐ and industry‐level data from the National Sample Surveys and input–output tables for India in 1999 and 2009, I find consistent evidence in favor of this hypothesized mechanism. The results are robust when accounting for possible endogeneity and selection biases and controlling for alternative reasons.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/deve.12193

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:deveco:v:57:y:2019:i:2:p:125-158

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0012-1533

Access Statistics for this article

The Developing Economies is currently edited by Katsuji Nakagane

More articles in The Developing Economies from Institute of Developing Economies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().