IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v66y2023i3d10.1007_s41027-023-00450-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enterprise Informality in India: The Blind Spots in Public Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Santosh Mehrotra

    (IZA Institute of Labour Economics)

  • Tuhinsubhra Giri

    (Research and Information System for Developing Countries)

Abstract

An essential characteristic of firm size distribution patterns in developing countries including India, is a bimodal distribution with a “missing middle”, which is widely accepted in development economics. We analyse data from the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), National Sample Survey (NSS) and Economic Census to assess the firm size structure of the whole non-farm sector. The contribution of the paper is that for the first time a comprehensive database is constructed to enable analysis of the size structure of India’s non-farm enterprises. The second contribution is that we find a deep distortion in India, with even a “small”-scale sector being very small, relatively. We examine briefly the policy-related causes that make India an outlier even among Asian economies in respect of size structure of enterprises. Finally, we argue that the historically policy-induced informality of enterprises is being entrenched by the current hiatus in state policy in even recognising the true nature of the problem of micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs), which holds back both their growth and employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Santosh Mehrotra & Tuhinsubhra Giri, 2023. "Enterprise Informality in India: The Blind Spots in Public Policy," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(3), pages 687-710, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:66:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-023-00450-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-023-00450-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-023-00450-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-023-00450-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2014. "Informality and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 109-126, Summer.
    2. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    3. James R. Tybout, 2000. "Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well Do They Do, and Why?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 11-44, March.
    4. Amrit Amirapu & Michael Gechter, 2020. "Labor Regulations and the Cost of Corruption: Evidence from the Indian Firm Size Distribution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 34-48, March.
    5. Yao Wang, 2016. "What are the biggest obstacles to growth of SMEs in developing countries? – An empirical evidence from an enterprise survey," Borsa Istanbul Review, Research and Business Development Department, Borsa Istanbul, vol. 16(3), pages 167-176, September.
    6. Leslie A. Martin & Shanthi Nataraj & Ann E. Harrison, 2017. "In with the Big, Out with the Small: Removing Small-Scale Reservations in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(2), pages 354-386, February.
    7. Kathuria, Vinish & Rajesh Raj, S.N. & Sen, Kunal, 2013. "The effects of economic reforms on manufacturing dualism: Evidence from India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 1240-1262.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammad Amin & Cedric Okou, 2020. "Casting a shadow: Productivity of formal firms and informality," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1610-1630, November.
    2. Golam Rabbani & S N Rajesh Raj, 2024. "The role of financial constraints in firm transition—Evidence from Indian manufacturing," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 2193-2228, May.
    3. Posti, Lokesh & Kholiya, Mamta & Posti, Akhilesh Kumar, 2022. "Returns on Informal and Formal finance for Indian Informal firms: A Pseudo panel data analysis," MPRA Paper 115550, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Tamberi, Massimo, 2020. "Productivity differentials along the development process: A “MESO” approach," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 99-107.
    5. Usman Khalid & Mohammad Amin, 2023. "The impact of ethnic fractionalisation on labor productivity: Does firm size matter?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 2213-2249, October.
    6. Natalie Chun & Soohyung Lee, 2015. "Bonus compensation and productivity: evidence from Indian manufacturing plant-level data," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 47-58, February.
    7. Rosa Abraham, 2017. "Informality in the Indian Labour Market: An Analysis of Forms and Determinants," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(2), pages 191-215, June.
    8. Saibal Ghosh, 2022. "Firm Performance and Productivity: Is Labour an Obstacle?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 709-728, September.
    9. Grover,Arti Goswami & Kahn,Matthew Edwin, 2024. "Firm Adaptation to Climate Risk in the Developing World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10797, The World Bank.
    10. Ufuk Akcigit & Harun Alp & André Diegmann & Nicolas Serrano-Velarde, 2023. "Committing to Grow: Privatizations and Firm Dynamics in East Germany," Working Papers 685, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    11. Johannes Boehm & Swati Dhingra & John Morrow, 2019. "The Comparative Advantage of Firms," Sciences Po publications 2019-07, Sciences Po.
    12. Alistair Dieppe, 2021. "Global Productivity," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 34015, August.
    13. Nihar Shembavnekar, 2019. "Economic Reforms, Labour Markets and Formal Sector Employment: Evidence from India," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-42, April.
    14. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2017. "The Causes and Costs of Misallocation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 151-174, Summer.
    15. Natalie Bau & Adrien Matray, 2020. "Misallocation and Capital Market Integration: Evidence from India," Working Papers 263, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    16. Lopez-Martin, Bernabe & Perez-Reyna, David, 2021. "Contracts, firm dynamics, and aggregate productivity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    17. Julio Cesar Leal Ordonez, 2014. "Tax collection, the informal sector, and productivity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(2), pages 262-286, April.
    18. Cassey Lee, . "The Exporting and Productivity Nexus: Does Firm Size Matter?," Chapters, in: Chin Hee Hahn & Dionisius A. Narjoko (ed.), Globalization and Performance of Small and Large Firms, chapter 8, pages VIII-1 - , Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    19. Mano, Yukichi & Iddrisu, Alhassan & Yoshino, Yutaka & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2012. "How Can Micro and Small Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa Become More Productive? The Impacts of Experimental Basic Managerial Training," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 458-468.
    20. Grace Carolina Guevara‐Rosero, 2021. "Determinants of manufacturing micro firms' productivity in Ecuador. Do industry and canton where they operate matter?," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 1215-1248, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:66:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-023-00450-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.