Occupational concentration and specialized knowledge: evidence from census of India

This paper examines the occupational concentration in India using locational Gini, estimated from the Census of India 2001 and 2011 dataset, which has district-level information on more than 400 occupations. The concentration of employment is generally assessed with respect to industries. The paper shifts the focus to occupational concentration, as occupations provide another perspective on the distribution of economic activity through the lens of human capital, skills, and tasks. It furthers the literature by assessing the spatial distribution of occupation, i.e., what workers do rather than what workers make (industry) in a developing country. Using a highly disaggregated dataset and different statistical techniques, the study analyses the determinants of occupational concentration in India. It finds that occupations with specialized knowledge, i.e., a knowledge base higher or lower than an average Indian occupation, also an indicator of labor market pooling, are more geographically concentrated. These findings hold good against various robustness tests. The results are also significant for male and female workers, despite their dissimilar occupational distribution. The importance of evaluating the distribution of occupations stems from its impact on various labor market outcomes, namely skills distribution, earnings, and regional development. Thus, this study is also relevant to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 8, which focuses on decent work and productive employment.