The Missing Middle

Anne O. Krueger
Additional contact information
Anne O. Krueger: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations

Macroeconomics Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract: Though recent economic growth in India has increased productivity and living standards significantly, the need for more growth and more reform remains. Rapid growth of unskilled labor-intensive manufacturing combined with growth of productivity in agriculture is necessary to enable a more inclusive growth that raises living standards in rural areas and in non-agricultural employment of relatively unskilled labor. Indias comparative advantage in services does not preclude the need for a rapid-manufacturing growth phase of development due to the service sectors low contribution to output and its demand for educated and skilled, as opposed to unskilled, workers. The failure of manufacturing output and employment to grow more rapidly can be attributed to (1) regulations governing enterprises in the private sector and (2) regulations covering conditions of employment of labor. Reducing the barriers to entry of unskilled labor into manufacturing and relaxing some of the most restrictive labor laws would increase prospects for even faster growth than current high rates.

Keywords: India; economic growth; Labour Regulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.eaber.org/node/22171 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 301 [REDIRECT LOOP] Moved Permanently (http://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22171)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Missing Middle (2009)
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:eab:macroe:22171

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Macroeconomics Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shiro Armstrong ().