Aradhna Aggarwal

Liberalisation, Multinational Enterprises and Export Performance: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing

This article tests two empirical hypotheses: one, MNE affiliates perform distinctly better than their local counterparts in the export markets in a globalised economy, and two, the MNE affiliates have greater comparative advantages in high-tech than in low- and medium-tech industries. Tobit estimates of a large data set of Indian manufacturing firms for the late 1990s provide relatively weak support to the first hypothesis. A disaggregated industry-group-wise analysis indicates that MNE affiliates perform no better than their local counterparts in high-tech industries. Thus, even with a higher level of integration with the global economy in the 1990s India appears to have failed in attracting efficiency-seeking FDI on a significant scale, particularly in high-tech industries. R&D and efficiency of manpower emerge as two significant determinants of international competitiveness in technology-based sectors (high- and medium-high tech sectors). Imports of raw materials enhance the export competitiveness of firms in all industry groups. Finally, large firms are found to be more export oriented, implying the need for creating large flagship companies in the country.

Impact evaluation of India's ‘Yeshasvini’ community‐based health insurance programme

Using propensity score matching techniques, the study evaluates the impact of Indias Yeshasvini community-based health insurance programme on health-care utilisation, financial protection, treatment outcomes and economic well-being. The programme offers free out-patient diagnosis and lab tests at discounted rates when ill, but, more importantly, it covers highly catastrophic and less discretionary in-patient surgical procedures. For its impact evaluation, 4109 randomly selected households in villages in rural Karnataka, an Indian state, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. A comprehensive set of indicators was developed and the quality of matching was tested. Generally, the programme is found to have increased utilisation of health-care services, reduced out-of-pocket spending, and ensured better health and economic outcomes. More specifically, however, these effects vary across socio-economic groups and medical episodes. The programme operates by bringing the direct price of health-care down but the extent to which this effectively occurs across medical episodes is an empirical issue. Further, the effects are more pronounced for the better-off households. The article demonstrates that community insurance presents a workable model for providing high-end services in resource-poor settings through an emphasis on accountability and local management.

Deregulation, technology imports and in-house R&D efforts: an analysis of the Indian experience

Abstract This paper analyses the effects of the deregulation policy introduced in India in the mid-1980s on the relationship between technology imports and in-house R&D efforts. Using appropriate statistical techniques, it examines the interactions between policy regime, economic environment and the determinants of inter-industry variation in technology imports in Indian manufacturing. In doing so, it introduces R&D efforts as one of the main determinants. Literature suggests that there is simultaneity in the relationship between technology imports and R&D efforts. To tackle this problem, lagged R&D expenditure intensity is adopted as a proxy for in-house R&D efforts. The empirical results reveal that technology imports were only weakly related with the past in-house R&D efforts in the protective regime. Deregulation promoted complementarity between technology imports and R&D efforts significantly. The results also suggest that after deregulation, the impact of product differentiation, demand conditions and technology-related factors increased significantly in determining the inter-industry patterns of technology imports. Thus, unlike in a regulated regime where technology imports are viewed important for filling gaps in domestic technological capabilities, in a deregulated regime technology upgradation seems to be the major role of technology imports.

Social and economic impact of SEZs in India

This book provides a comprehensive review of the evolution and performance of SEZs from a historical and comparative perspective by tracing the experiences of SEZs in 23 developing countries, including Korea, Taiwan, and China. Using a framework that integrates the basic tenets of the industrial cluster approach with existing theories, it proposes a set of evaluation criteria for SEZs. Analysing quantitative data provided by the Ministry of Commerce and qualitative evidence based on field surveys conducted during 2004-9, the book assesses the economic contribution in the pre- and post-SEZ Act periods in India. Exploring the impact of SEZs on employment, trade, foreign exchange earnings, government revenue, and technology transfers, it also examines evidence of social effects vis-a-vis land acquisition, human development, regional inequities, and environmental protection. Discussing the impact of internal dynamics and external forces on future prospects of SEZs, it offers constructive suggestions to make policy investor-friendly and successful. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780198077275/toc.html

The Anti-Dumping Agreement and Developing Countries: An Introduction

Gains from globalization are threatened by pressures of protectionism among countries. In this context, anti-dumping has emerged as a critical area. This book analyses the importance of anti-dumping agreement from a developing countries perspective and examines their roles and concerns. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780195689273/toc.html

Technology Policies and Acquisition of Technological Capabilities in the Industrial Sector: A Comparative Analysis of the Indian and Korean Experiences

This paper reviews the science and technology policy of India and Korea in a comparative perspective to draw relevant lessons for India. It shows that policies, strategies and struc tures of science and technology evolved under a planned development approach in both Korea and India. However, while Korea created a strong national innovation system and acquired phenomenal technological capabilities, India had vital links missing that weak ened the performance of this system and resulted in a poor R&D performance of firms in the industrial sector. Four conditions need to be satisfied for building an effective national innovation system: (a) strong competitive pressures on domestic firms; (b) the presence of high-quality human capital; (c) well-developed industry-institutes-academia links; and (d) access to foreign technologies. While Korea tailored its policies to accommodate these conditions in each stage of its development, India failed to evolve an appropriate mix of these critical ingredients. The paper proposes to adopt a more focused but a multidimen sional integrated approach to create technological dynamism within the country.

Achieving Equity in Health through Community-based Health Insurance: India's Experience with a Large CBHI Programme

Abstract This article analyses equity in enrolment, renewal of enrolment, and utilisation of community-based health insurance with special reference to the Yeshasvini health care programme. The analysis employs a primary survey conducted in rural Karnataka using a random sample of 4109 households. The study identifies quantifiable variables covering various dimensions of vulnerability and assesses their relationship with enrolment, renewal of enrolment, and utilisation using logistic regression techniques. The results demonstrate that inequities do exist even though they are less pronounced in utilisation than in enrolments and renewals. While community-based health insurance (CBHI) may be used as a mechanism to reach the disadvantaged population, they can not be considered as substitute for government-created health infrastructure.

Education and labour market outcomes : evidence from India

The impact of education on labour market outcomes is analysed using data from various rounds of the National Sample Survey of India. Occupational destination is examined using both multinomial logit analyses and structural dynamic discrete choice modelling. The latter approach involves the use of a novel approach to constructing a pseudo-panel from repeated cross-section data, and is particularly useful as a means of evaluating policy impacts over time. We find that policy to expand educational provision leads initially to an increased takeup of education, and in the longer term leads to an increased propensity for workers to enter non-manual employment.

Trade Effects of Anti-dumping in India: Who Benefits?

This article assesses the trade effects of anti-dumping (AD) duties levied on 177 (8-digit) products by India during the period 1994 to June 2001. A panel regression has been applied to quantify the effects of AD actions on import volumes, values, and prices. It finds that the investigation effects of AD actions are not substantial. The imposition of AD duties restrains trade (both volume and value) and raises import prices. While trade effects start dissipating in subsequent years, import prices from both named and unnamed countries rise significantly in the post-duty years. There is little evidence that trade is diverted from unnamed to named countries. Thus, the domestic industry is benefited due to the price rise. Their financial position improves at the expense of both consumers and downstream industries. Since anti-dumping is an expensive form of protection, only large and dominant producers in concentrated industries emerge as the major beneficiaries of this protection. Finally, the developing trade partner countries suffer significant import losses when named. However, the trade destruction effect is insignificant for developed countries. Even though the unit value of their imports rises, there is no evidence of decline in trade from these countries.

Productivity Dynamics in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: Evidences from Plant-level Panel Data

This article investigates the effects of plants’ dynamics on productivity growth in the Indian pharmaceutical industry across five regions, north, northwest, west, south, and the rest of India, during the period from 2000–01 to 2005–06, using the unit-level panel database drawn from the Annual Survey of Industries. The selected regions differ in the degree and age of agglomeration of the pharmaceutical industry. The empirical analysis is based on the decomposition methodology of aggregate productivity growth. This methodology decomposes productivity growth between two points in time into the contribution from four broad factors: improvement in incumbents’ productivity (within effect), reallocation of resources from less productive to more productive producers (reallocation effect), entry of more productive firms (entry effect), and exit of less productive firms (exit effect). Our empirical findings reveal that productivity growth is relatively higher in the agglomerated regions. Furthermore, the effects of plant dynamics on productivity growth differ with the age of the agglomeration. Rather large positive entry effects are found in the region where the formation of agglomeration is a recent phenomenon. In the mature region, reallocation effects of surviving plants are large and robustly positive. In other areas, however, ‘within effects’ of surviving plants are robustly positive.