Trade Policy, Inequality and Performance in Indian Manufacturing

The relationship between trade policy and economic performance is one of the oldest controversies in economic development. In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in the debate on the implications of trade reforms for productivity growth and domestic pricing behaviour due in part to the current phase of wide-spread trade liberalisation in developing countries and in part to developments in economic theory, notably endogenous growth theories and theories of imperfect competition. Also, there has been considerable interest in whether trade reforms can lead to higher wage inequality and regional inequality in developing countries. Both in academic and policy arenas the interest in international trade as a powerful positive force for reducing poverty in low-income countries has increased. The Indian manufacturing sector is particularly suitable to analyse and understand the relationship between trade policy and economic development. In this book, the author examines the implications of trade reforms with specific reference to the 1991 reforms for India's manufacturing sector. The gradualist nature of the reform process, the move from a highly restrictive policy regime to a relatively open one, and the uneven-ness of the reforms across sectors and over time make the Indian economy a highly relevant context for understanding the welfare implications of trade reforms. In this book, specific points of analyses include the effects of the reforms on total factor productivity growth in the Indian manufacturing sector, the effect of trade reforms on domestic pricing, on the job market and on wage inequality in the Indian manufactoring sector. It also takes into account the effects the trade reforms have had on regional inequality in India. Economists in general and South Asian scholars in particular will find this thorough study interesting and useful.Sen, Kunal is the author of 'Trade Policy, Inequality and Performance in Indian Manufacturing ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780415413350 and ISBN 0415413354.