Research

Working Papers

Can Special Economic Zones reduce India's gender employment gap? (Revising)

Abstract: I assess the impact of Special Economic Zones established in India between 2006-18 on the gender gap in employment at the local level. Comparing dynamic changes between districts where zones became operational with those where they at least reached the approval stage, I observe no impact on the incidence of employment among males and females in the former. Zones have an effect on employment composition - female workers in districts which had an operational zone later experience an increase in the incidence of formal-sector employment, especially those in younger age brackets. In the same districts, the likelihood of high-school educational attainment increases disproportionately among females. SEZ policy may have facilitated an education-driven transition out of the informal sector for women.

Note: Distribution of SEZs across Indian districts, based on timing of the first operational SEZ.

Disclaimer: International borders shown do not imply agreement or endorsement by the author.

Effects of labour-market deregulation on workers: Insights from state-level amendments in India (Article available on request)

Abstract: In 2014, the state of Rajasthan in India passed significant labour-law amendments, spearheading labour reforms in India. It increased size-based thresholds for the applicability of employment protection and factory registration provisions such that many firms will no longer remain in their coverage. This paper uses cross-sectional labour force survey data from 2009-20 to investigate the impact of these reforms on the incidences of paid employment, unemployment, as well as, formal and temporary employment of workers. A robust finding is that the reforms increased substitution of permanent workers for temporary, without any corresponding change in paid employment. Reforms that reduced restrictions on hiring of temporary workers drove the increase in share of temporary employment. On the other hand, reforms that reduced workplace safety requirements and restrictions on firing permanent workers had little effect.

Rajasthan‘s Labour Reforms: A New Era of Reforms in Broad Daylight? [Paper]

Work-in-progress

Borrowing constraints, college choice and mobility (with Sujan Bandyopadhyay)

Abstract: We use the context of India to explain college choice (whether to enrol and the discipline to pursue) when households face borrowing constraints and high initial costs for the pursuit of more lucrative college majors like engineering and business. We aim to test a novel dynamic structural model incorporating borrowing constraints, costs and diverse abilities to test if the model can explain persistently low rates of intergenerational mobility. The research contributes to the literature on social mobility in developing countries, an area less explored within economics (Iversen et al. 2017).

Fig: Predicted college enrolment by household income and grades

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