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Informalization of Industrial Labour in India: Are labour market rigidities and growing import competition to blame?

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  • Bishwanath Goldar

Abstract

Since the 1980s, there has been increasing informalization of industrial labour in India. It has taken two forms: rising share of the unorganized sector in manufacturing employment and informalization of the organized manufacturing sector itself through subcontracting and use of temporary and contract workers. The paper investigates whether and how far labour market rigidities and increasing import competition are responsible for the increasing informalization on industrial labour in India. An econometric model is estimated for this purpose using unit level data of the NSS 61st round employment-unemployment survey for 2004-05. The estimated model explains the casual worker – regular worker dichotomy in manufacturing. The results show that labour market reforms tend to increase the creation of regular jobs, while import competition tends to raise casual employment among workers with education above primary. The results also show that education enhances the probability of getting a regular job.

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  • Bishwanath Goldar, 2010. "Informalization of Industrial Labour in India: Are labour market rigidities and growing import competition to blame?," Working Papers id:3125, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3125
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    1. repec:ilo:ilowps:466556 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Rathindra Nath Pramanik, 2021. "Changing Employment Conditions in the Rural Labour Market of West Bengal," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 825-841, September.
    3. Aradhna Aggarwal & Nagesh Kumar, 2012. "Structural Change, Industrialization and Poverty Reduction: The Case of India," Development Papers 1206, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) South and South-West Asia Office.
    4. BANERJI, Asit & GOTO, Jun & ISHIZAKI, Hironori & KUROSAKI, Takashi & LAL, Kaushalesh & PAUL, Shampa & SAWADA Yasuyuki & TSUDA, Shunsuke, 2018. "Entrepreneurship in Micro and Small Enterprises: Empirical Findings from Resurveys in Northeastern Areas of Delhi, India," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-65, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    5. 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.
    6. Shyam Sundar, K.R., 2011. "Non-regular workers in India : social dialogue and organizational and bargaining strategies and practices," ILO Working Papers 994665563402676, International Labour Organization.
    7. Bir Singh, 2022. "Contractualisation in India’s manufacturing industry and the economic reforms of the early 1990s: an analysis based on ASI data," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 135-157, February.
    8. Sakshi Aggarwal & Debashis Chakraborty, 2020. "Labour Market Adjustment and Intra-Industry Trade: Empirical Results from Indian Manufacturing Sectors," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 238-269, August.
    9. Pradip Kumar Biswas & Saurabh Bandyopadhyay, 2021. "Labour Market Institutions, Industry Structure and Productivity in Indian Manufacturing Sector," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 999-1021, December.
    10. Subir Bikas Mitra & Piyali Ghosh, 2022. "Engaging Contract Labour: Learnings from Landmark Judgements," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 47(1), pages 97-118, February.

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