اصلاحات اقتصادی و رشد بهره وری در صنایع تولیدی هند: اثر متقابل تغییر فنی و حرفه جویی نسبت به مقیاس

This paper studies the effects of the economic reforms of 1991 on the Indian manufacturing industries. A translog cost function was used to analyze the production structure in terms of biased technical change and economies of scale. A panel consisting of 121 Indian manufacturing industries from 1981 to 1998 was used in our estimation. We have shown that key industries have experienced capital-using technical change, and the scale effects have been exploited more intensively since the 1991 economic reforms. We also observe total factor productivity (TFP) improvements for most of the industries after the 1991 reform initiatives, which support the evidence of improvements in economic efficiency in key Indian manufacturing industries.

At the time of independence in 1947, India's main industrial policy was import-substitution strategy of development. India's industrial policies were designed to protect its domestic industries through import tariffs and infant industry subsidies. The principal instruments used were an elaborate industrial licensing scheme under the Industries Development and Regulation Act (IDRA) of 1951 and a protective foreign trade regime. It controlled not only entry into an industry and capacity expansion, but also technology output mix and import content. Concentration of economic power was within the control of Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act of 1970, and the foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) of 1973 was used to regulate foreign investment in India. This period also witnessed considerable expansion of public sector enterprises (PSUs) either through nationalization or setting up of new enterprises.

This paper has analyzed the effects of liberalization on the Indian manufacturing industries initiated by the 1991 economic reforms. The results suggest that the key industries have experienced capital-using technical change and increase in total factor productivity growth. The study also suggests that the industries in our sample have experienced economies of scale, and the scale effects have been exploited more intensively since the 1991 economic reforms.