Agglomeration Economies and Productivity in Indian Industry
Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher:
Published: 2016
Total Pages: 35
ISBN-13:
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Agglomeration Economies and Productivity in Inidian Industry
Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13: 0915040026
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →August 2001 The benefits to Indian manufacturing firms of locating in dense urban areas do not appear to offset the associated costs. Improving the quality and availability of transport infrastructure linking smaller urban areas to the rest of the interregional network would improve manufacturing plants' access to markets and would give standardized manufacturing activities a chance to move out of large, costly urban centers to lower cost secondary centers. "New" economic geography theory and the development of innovative methods of analysis have renewed interest in the location and spatial concentration of economic activities. Lall, Shalizi, and Deichmann examine the extent to which agglomeration economies contribute to economic productivity. They distinguish three sources of agglomeration economies: * At the firm level, from improved access to market centers. * At the industry level, from enhanced intra-industry linkages. * At the regional level, from inter-industry urbanization economies. The input demand framework they use in analysis permits the production function to be estimated jointly with a set of cost shares and makes allowances for nonconstant returns to scale and for agglomeration economies to be factor-augmenting. They use firm-level data for standardized manufacturing in India, together with spatially detailed physio-geographic information that considers the availability and quality of transport networks linking urban centers--thereby accounting for heterogeneity in the density of transport networks between different parts of the country. The sources and magnitudes of agglomeration vary considerably between industrial sectors. Their results indicate that access to markets through improvements in interregional infrastructure is an important determinant of firm-level productivity, whereas the benefits of locating in dense urban areas do not appear to offset the associated costs. Improving the quality and availability of transport infrastructure linking smaller urban areas to the rest of the interregional network would improve market access for manufacturing plants. It would also give standardized manufacturing activities a chance to move out of large, costly urban centers to lower cost secondary centers. This paper--a product of Infrastructure and Environment, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the role of economic geography and urbanization in the development process. The authors may be contacted at [email protected], zshalizi @worldbank.org, or [email protected].
The Impact of Business Environment and Economic Geography on Plant-level Productivity
Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 53
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"The authors' analysis of manufacturing plants sampled from India's major industrial centers shows large productivity gaps across cities. The gaps partly reflect differences in agglomeration economies and in market access. However, they are also explained to a greater extent by differences in the degree of labor regulation and in the severity of power shortages. This is an indication that governments can help narrow regional disparities in industrial growth by fostering the "right business environment" in locations where industry might otherwise be held back by powerful forces of economic geography. There is indeed a pattern in the data whereby geographically disadvantaged cities seem to compensate partially for their natural disadvantage by having a better business environment than more geographically advantaged locations. "--World Bank web site.
The Impact of Business Environment and Economic Geography on Plant-Level Productivity
Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The authors' analysis of manufacturing plants sampled from India's major industrial centers shows large productivity gaps across cities. The gaps partly reflect differences in agglomeration economies and in market access. However, they are also explained to a greater extent by differences in the degree of labor regulation and in the severity of power shortages. This is an indication that governments can help narrow regional disparities in industrial growth by fostering the "right business environment" in locations where industry might otherwise be held back by powerful forces of economic geography. There is indeed a pattern in the data whereby geographically disadvantaged cities seem to compensate partially for their natural disadvantage by having a better business environment than more geographically advantaged locations.
Business Environment, Clustering, and Industry Location
Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13: 0508031036
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Abstract: How do differences in the local business environment influence location of industry within countries? How do the benefits of a good business environment compare with those from good market access and agglomeration economies from industry clustering? The authors examine these questions by analyzing location decisions of individual firms. Using data from a recently completed survey of manufacturing firms in India, they find that both the local business environment and agglomeration economies significantly influence business location choices across cities. In particular, excessive regulation of labor and of other industrial activities reduces the probability of a business locating in a city. The authors ' findings imply that in order to attract industrial activity, smaller or remoter cities need to offer even more attractive policy concessions or reforms to offset the effects of their relatively adverse (economic) geography. Their methodology pays special attention to the identification of agglomeration economies in the presence of unobserved sources of natural advantage.
Agglomeration Economies and Productivity Growth in India
Author: Astha Agarwalla
Publisher:
Published: 2011
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Agglomeration economies have been analyzed in the literature as drivers of economic growth, as these contribute to productivity enhancement. The primary objective of this paper is to ascertain the existence of agglomeration economies, and to examine the extent to which these have contributed to productivity growth in India. Two sources of agglomeration economies are distinguished (i) at the industry level localization economies of intra-industry linkage; and (ii) at the regional level inter-industry urbanization economies. Growth accounting framework is used with agglomeration parameters included in the shift term of a general production function, coefficients of which are estimated through panel data regression. I employ state level data for 25 state economies in India for the period 1980-81 to 2006-07. There is evidence that urbanization economies tend to exist; however, there is considerable variation in the sources and magnitude of agglomeration economies across sectors. Results indicate that for service sector, the economies of urbanization exist on a lower level of urbanization, whereas for manufacturing, these economies are present at higher levels. Results support regional diversity more than localization, even if some differences can be seen across sectors.
Business Environment, Clustering, and Industry Location
Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →How do differences in the local business environment influence location of industry within countries? How do the benefits of a good business environment compare with those from good market access and agglomeration economies from industry clustering? The authors examine these questions by analyzing location decisions of individual firms. Using data from a recently completed survey of manufacturing firms in India, they find that both the local business environment and agglomeration economies significantly influence business location choices across cities. In particular, excessive regulation of labor and of other industrial activities reduces the probability of a business locating in a city. The authors' findings imply that in order to attract industrial activity, smaller or remoter cities need to offer even more attractive policy concessions or reforms to offset the effects of their relatively adverse (economic) geography. Their methodology pays special attention to the identification of agglomeration economies in the presence of unobserved sources of natural advantage.
Agglomeration Economics
Author: Edward L. Glaeser
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2010-04-15
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 0226297926
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →When firms and people are located near each other in cities and in industrial clusters, they benefit in various ways, including by reducing the costs of exchanging goods and ideas. One might assume that these benefits would become less important as transportation and communication costs fall. Paradoxically, however, cities have become increasingly important, and even within cities industrial clusters remain vital. Agglomeration Economics brings together a group of essays that examine the reasons why economic activity continues to cluster together despite the falling costs of moving goods and transmitting information. The studies cover a wide range of topics and approach the economics of agglomeration from different angles. Together they advance our understanding of agglomeration and its implications for a globalized world.
AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES IN INDIAN STATES: AN ASSET TO PRODUCTIVITY?
Author: Lorenz Noe
Publisher:
Published: 2015
Total Pages: 108
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →India, like many countries in the Global South finds itself in the midst of a demographic transition. Though lagging behind some nations like China, India is rapidly urbanizing and is set to cross the majority-urban mark in 2050 according to the UN. For a nation of 1.1 billion people, this movement into and growth of cities will bring with it great challenges but also great promise. As the growth of cities worldwide draws the attention of policymakers, theoretical explanations for how cities work also deserve a revisit. Much of the current urbanization movement is heralded as a sign of the maturation of developing country economies, emulating the urbanization movements that preceded the industrialization and modernization phenomena of Europe and North America. However, increasingly, it is becoming apparent that many developing economies face "urbanization without industrialization"(Gollin et al 2013), in which the movement into cities happens more because of marginally higher incomes in urban areas, instead of productivity gains in rural areas that free up labor. This alternate phenomena is feared to contribute to congestion, countering many of the positive agglomeration effects that should result from urbanization, as predicted by the literature so far. In order to ground this argument in evidence, I am examining returns to scale and total factor productivity of manufacturing firms at the Indian state level across variously urbanized states using Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data, using Lall et al 2003 as inspiration. The results of my analysis do not lend themselves to parsimonious conclusions, yet overall, agglomeration economies do not seem to have a net positive effect on returns to scale and total factor productivity, which supports existing research by Lall and underscores the need to conduct further research into returns to scale and productivity in Indian cities. Depending on the robustness of these results, investments in transportation, enabling firms to more efficiently allocate resources, and making labor markets more efficient should be the first priorities of policymakers.
Productivity Growth in Indian Industry
