Management practices in retail, education and healthcare sectors in India

This project presents an in-depth descriptive look at the state of management practices in India. Using a unique dataset measuring the quality of management practices across countries and sectors, it finds a consistent pattern of poor management practices in India in comparison to higher income countries across all the sectors studied: manufacturing, retail, education, and healthcare. If we accept the link between good management and higher productivity, these findings suggest that poor management practices could be a factor behind the lower levels of development of many countries. Particularly in manufacturing and retail, the low average score is mainly due to a large tail of badly managed firms, which is thin or non-existent in higher income countries. Ownership structures, competition, education, and informational barriers seem to be important drivers of the quality of management practices. Finally, when looking across regions, the project also finds that management quality varies in tandem with levels of development.

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