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Tag Search: “firms”

Contract labour and firm growth in India

There is considerable evidence indicating that the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947 – which made it illegal for large companies to downsize – had a powerful disincentive effect for entrepreneurs in...

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Alleviating financial concerns to enhance worker productivity

Financial constraints can have psychological consequences and affect productivity by making workers more distracted during work. Based on an experiment among small-scale manufacturing workers in Odish...

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Dealing with worker absenteeism in labour-intensive industries

Worker absenteeism in labour-intensive industries causes productivity losses for firms, and reduced potential for productivity-based incentives for workers. Based on a study in Karnataka, this article...

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India’s trade protectionism and low-productivity vicious cycle

Amid rising populism and anti-globalisation movements across the world, Atmanirbhar Bharat represents India’s adoption of trade protectionism. While the country’s inward-oriented economic policies ten...

  • Perspectives

Business sentiments and labour markets

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have had a significant adverse impact on jobs and livelihoods. Using 2006-2021 data from a survey on business sentiments, this article examines fluctuati...

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From abundant global liquidity to selective lending: How corporate finance has changed

Global credit has experienced significant changes in the last two decades. Analysing data on 1,160 Indian firms for the 2000-2017 period, this article shows that in the period following the global fin...

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Rising industrial accidents: Fallout of boosting ‘Ease of Doing Business’?

India has witnessed a surge in severe fire and explosion-related accidents in industrial and commercial establishments, in recent years. In this post, R Nagaraj contends that perhaps the dilution – or...

  • Perspectives

Environmental relocation and firm outcomes

Industrial relocation policies have become increasingly popular as a policy tool to combat pollution in the developing world. Using Economic Census data from 2005 and 2013, this article examines the i...

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How effective are unenforced mandates for corporate social responsibility?

By enacting the Companies Act in 2013, India became the first country in the world to mandate spending by large corporations on socially responsible initiatives. Using firm data from 2010 and 2016, th...

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India’s new labour codes: A pre-condition for long-run growth

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has recently notified four new labour codes, which are expected to be implemented from April 2021. Assessing the impact of the policy changes around hiring-and-fi...

  • Perspectives

‘Outside’ managers’ productivity, firm dynamics, and economy growth

In developed countries, many industrial giants have humble beginnings as small, family-owned businesses, but nonetheless expand to hundreds of thousands of employees over time by relying on professio...

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Import competition, formalisation, and role of contract workers

Given the recent expansion in the participation of developing countries in global trade, it is important to understand the role of trade in the composition of employment in these countries. Analysing ...

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