Exogenous technological change and wage inequality in rural India: a theoretical note

Arindam Banik (), Pradip K. Bhaumik and Sunday Osaretin Iyare

International Journal of Social Economics, 2007, vol. 34, issue 10, 735-740

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to explore the economic consequences of an exogenous skill‐biased technological change. Design/methodology/approach - The paper develops a theoretical model based on assumptions and conditions that replicate those of a government‐sponsored poverty reduction programme in India. Findings - The paper finds that, under certain stated conditions, wage inequality between artisans with improved toolkits and those without is likely to increase, while, under a different set of conditions, this is likely to decrease. Research limitations/implications - Actual wage inequality implications of specific exogenous skill‐biased technological changes need to be studied to take the theoretical model further. Practical implications - One major implication is that, when government help is provided by way of an exogenous skill‐biased technological change to a fraction of workers, it may have the unintended consequence of increasing wage inequality between the beneficiary and the non‐beneficiary workers. In extreme cases, it may even lower the equilibrium wages of the non‐beneficiary workers. Originality/value - The paper brings out the critical role of efficiency units of workers with skill‐biased technology (artisans with improved toolkits) and those without these in determining the wage inequality between these categories of workers (artisans) based on a theoretical model of the trajectory along which the rural economy moves.

Keywords: Change management; India; Skills; Labour efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:ijsepp:v:34:y:2007:i:10:p:735-740

DOI: 10.1108/03068290710816865

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Social Economics is currently edited by Professor Terence Garrett

More articles in International Journal of Social Economics from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().