Are labor regulations driving computer usage in India's retail stores ?
Abstract
A recent survey of 1,948 retail stores in India conducted by the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys shows that 19 percent of the stores use computers for their business. In some states like Kerala, computer use is as high as 40 percent. Using this data the author finds labor regulation as an important determinant of computer use. His estimates suggest that when faced with burdensome labor regulations, the probability of using a computer rises by over 36 percentage points for an average store. These findings formally confirm a commonly held but untested view that labor regulation may be responsible for the spread of labor saving modern technology.Download Info
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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 4274.Length:
Date of creation: 01 Jul 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4274
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Related research
Keywords: Labor Markets; Regulatory Regimes; Public Sector Regulation; Urban Economics; Public&Municipal Finance;Other versions of this item:
- Amin, Mohammad, 2009. "Are labor regulations driving computer usage in India's retail stores?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 45-48, January.
- NEP-ALL-2007-07-20 (All new papers)
- NEP-CWA-2007-07-20 (Central & Western Asia)
- NEP-DEV-2007-07-20 (Development)
- NEP-ICT-2007-07-20 (Information & Communication Technologies)
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Nidhiya Menon, 2010.
"Got Technology? The Impact of Computers and Cell-phones on Productivity in a Difficult Business Climate: Evidence from Firms with Female Owners in Kenya,"
Working Papers
21, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Businesss School.
- Menon, Nidhiya, 2011. "Got Technology? The Impact of Computers and Cell Phones on Productivity in a Difficult Business Climate: Evidence from Firms with Female Owners in Kenya," IZA Discussion Papers 5419, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Nidhiya Menon, 2010. "Obstacles to Business, Technology Use, and Firms with Female Principal Owners in Kenya," Working Papers 20, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Businesss School.
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