Malathy Duraiswamy

This paper analyzes total factor productivity growth of the unorganized manufacturing sector in India using several rounds of the large scale national sample survey state level data for 15 major Indian states for the period 1978-1979 to 2000-2001. Data envelopment analysis is used to compute Malmquist total factor productivity index and its components. The impact of economic reforms on efficiency and productivity is examined. Evidence suggests that total factor productivity registered a positive growth during the period in the country as a whole. Most states in the country witnessed higher total factor productivity growth in the post 1990s reforms period than in the pre-reforms period. Decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index shows that improvement in technical efficiency rather than technical progress had contributed to the observed acceleration in the growth rate. Econometric analysis of the determinants of total factor productivity growth demonstrates that ownership, literacy, farm growth and infrastructure availability significantly influence total factor productivity growth in the sector. © Springer-Verlag 2008.

This paper examines the changes in the size, composition and growth of the workforce in Kerala during the years 1993-94 to 2004-05, using the aggregate National Sample Survey data. Comparable estimates are also presented for India. The average annual employment growth rate in Kerala is lower than that in India. The primary sector's share in total employment has declined more sharply in Kerala than India. The secondary and tertiary sectors together accounted for 63.31 per cent of the workforce in Kerala in 2004-05 as compared to only 42.6 per cent in India. The available data also reveals a sharp growth in regular salaried employment and a reduction in the share of casual labour in Kerala and India during the given period. The employment elasticity of output is computed and the projections of employment growth are made for Kerala.

This article explores the role of human capital in determining labour productivity and earnings in the unorganised manufacturing sector by focusing on the coir yarn manufacturing units in the Indian state of Kerala. The study is based on primary survey data collected from 188 co-operative, private and household enterprises. By using an augmented Cobb-Douglas production function, the impact of education and firm level characteristics on labour productivity has been examined. The influence of education and experience on labour earnings has also been analysed by estimating an earnings function from the reported wages of workers in household enterprises. The study has established that there is a positive relationship between education, labour productivity and earnings and the sector would stand to benefit from a more educated labour force.

This paper analyses the regional differences in returns to education by gender in India using the nation wide NSSO "Employment and Unemployment" survey data. Quantile regression and ordinary least squares methods are used for estimating wage functions. The results show evidence of wide variation in the wage gains to differenct levels of education across the states. In general, in most states, the premia are lowest for primary level, ranging from 2 per cent to 10.6 per cent, and highest for secondary education where it varies between 12 to 24.3 per cent. Wage primum to primary education, particularly for males is higher in the less developed states and regions where the level of poverty is high than in the more developed ones. There is a negative correlation between primary school enrolment and returns to primary education suggesting that educational expansion acts to lower the market reward to education.

Indian higher education has witnessed a massive expansion over the past two decades. The phenomenal expansion of Indian higher education can be attributed to surge in demand for higher education as a result of increase in income levels of the population and augmented supply of private providers. The share of private-unaided institutions has steadily increased while the share of private aided and government colleges declined in this century. The enrolment in private-unaided institutions has increased during the same period and the enrolment in private aided and government colleges declined. This chapter analyses implications of the rapid growth of private sector for quality, disciplinary balance, disparity between regions and inequality among social groups. The chapter shows that growing participation of private sector has direct bearing on sharing of costs of higher education through cost recovery measures in public institutions and in unaided self-financing institutions. These measures which moved from state to the market reforms have increased financial burden of the households.

Existing studies on caste-and religion-based wage discrimination in the Indian labour market have mainly focused on the wage gap between broadly classified social groups at the mean ignoring the gap at various points on the wage distribution. Using four rounds of unit level data from the National Sample Survey covering the period 1983 to 2011-12, this study shows that the wage gap and discrimination against socially disadvantaged groups vary markedly across the entire distribution. Further the wage discrimination against the two historically disadvantaged groups, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, is underestimated when the comparison is with other communities. The wage inequality among social groups has widened for Muslims and remained more or less the same for STs and SCs during the post-reform period (1994-2012) and there is an increase in wage discrimination against SCs, STs and Muslims. A strong message that emerges is that social identity-based wage disparity and discrimination have not disappeared despite affirmative actions.

Women’s participation in the Indian labour market is not only low but they are also engaged in low-productivity and low-paying jobs. Further, the labour market is segmented by gender, type of employment, sector and location of residence. This study makes an important contribution by examining gender wage gap in India across different segments of the labour market over the wage distribution using national-level representative data spanning the period 1983 to 2012. The empirical results suggest that (i) the male–female raw wage gap has declined over time across the wage distribution, (ii) the gender wage gap attributable to differing returns to characteristics has increased over time and there is evidence of convergence of productive characteristics of men and women, (iii) sticky floor rather than glass ceiling phenomenon is observed in all segments of the labour market and (iv) the adjusted wage gap suggests that women at the bottom of the distribution face higher discrimination than those at the top and this has increased over the years.

The present study evaluates efficiency of a sample of engineering and polytechnic institutions in Kerala, a southern state of India, from the period 2003–2004 through 2005–2006. The efficiency is measured through a non-parametric approach, namely, data envelopment analysis (DEA). The study uses multistage DEA assuming input-oriented approach, and the efficiency scores of these institutions are computed and compared across various types of institutions. The study finds that diploma level polytechnic institutions are technically more efficient compared to engineering degree institutions, while the converse holds true for scale efficiency in Kerala. It is also found that all the large-sized engineering degree and most diploma institutions have exhausted scale economies and are operating under decreasing returns to scale. Further, the government institutions in the sample score over the other types of institutions in terms of technical efficiency and, in most cases, student enrolment as well, which suggests better utilisation of public resources.