Management Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
2-2017
Publication Source
American Economic Review
Volume
107
Issue
2
Start Page
354
Last Page
386
DOI
10.1257/aer.20141335
Abstract
An ongoing debate in employment policy is whether promoting small and medium enterprises creates jobs. We use the elimination of small-scale industry (SSI) promotion in India to address this question. For 60 years, SSI promotion in India focused on reserving certain products for manufacture by small and medium enterprises. We identify the consequences for employment growth, investment, output, productivity, and wages of dismantling India's SSI reservations. We exploit variation in the timing of de-reservation across products and also measure the long-run impact of national SSI policy changes using variation in pretreatment exposure at the district level. Districts more exposed to de-reservation experienced higher employment and output growth. Entrants into the de-reserved product spaces and incumbents that were previously constrained by the size restrictions drove the increase in growth. The results suggest that dismantling India's SSI policies encouraged overall employment growth.
Copyright/Permission Statement
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Recommended Citation
Martin, L. A., Nataraj, S., & Harrison, A. E. (2017). In With the Big, Out With the Small: Removing Small-Scale Reservations in India. American Economic Review, 107 (2), 354-386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.20141335
Embargo Date
2-2018
Date Posted: 19 February 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.