Labor regulation and employment in India's retail stores
Abstract
A new dataset of 1948 retail stores in India shows that 27% of the stores find labor regulations as a problem for their business. Using these data, we analyze the effect of labor regulations on employment at the store level. We find that flexible labor regulations have a strong positive effect on job creation. Our estimates show that labor reforms are likely to increase employment by 22% of the current level for an average store. We also address the issue of informality in India's retail sector. Our findings suggest that more flexible labor laws can encourage firms to operate in the more efficient formal retail sector. According to our estimates, labor reforms could reduce the level of informality by as much as 33%. Journal of Comparative Economics 37 (1) (2009) 47-61.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Comparative Economics.
Volume (Year): 37 (2009)
Issue (Month): 1 (March)
Pages: 47-61
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Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:37:y:2009:i:1:p:47-61
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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622864
For corrections or technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Jeroen Loos).
Related research
Keywords: Labor regulations India Employment Retail Informality;Other versions of this item:
- Amin, Mohammad, 2007. "Labor regulation and employment in India's retail stores," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4314, The World Bank.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Ahsan, Ahmad & Pagés, Carmen, 2008.
"Are All Labor Regulations Equal? Evidence from Indian Manufacturing,"
IZA Discussion Papers
3394, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Ahsan, Ahmad & Pagés, Carmen, 2009. "Are all labor regulations equal? Evidence from Indian manufacturing," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 62-75, March.
- Kaplan, David S., 2008.
"Job creation and labor reform in Latin America,"
Policy Research Working Paper Series
4708, The World Bank.
- Kaplan, David S., 2009. "Job creation and labor reform in Latin America," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 91-105, March.
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