Land Rezoning and Structural Transformation in Rural India: Evidence from the Industrial Areas Program

David Blakeslee, Ritam Chaurey, Ram Fishman and Samreen Malik

The World Bank Economic Review, 2022, vol. 36, issue 2, 488-513

Abstract: Zoning laws that restrict rural land to agricultural production pose an important institutional barrier to industrial development. We study the effects of the Industrial Areas (IA) program in Karnataka, India, which rezoned agricultural land for industrial use, but without the economic incentives common with other place-based policies. We find that the program caused a large increase in firm creation and employment in villages overlapping the IAs. Moreover, the surrounding areas experienced spillover effects, with workers shifting from agricultural to non-agricultural employment, and entrepreneurs establishing numerous small-scale service sector and agricultural firms.

Keywords: industrial areas; place-based policies; spillovers; labor market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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