Subcontracting Linkages in India's Informal Economy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3884038 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Surbhi Kesar (0000-0002-7967-9938, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 38-75 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Development and Change (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/dech.12817 |
| OpenAlex | W4393037118 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 52 |
Subcontracting relations have often been considered a key channel to facilitate growth in traditional informal enterprises and enable them to transition into larger, modern enterprises. Such relations are expected to strengthen with economic growth. Using nationally representative survey data for the Indian informal manufacturing sector, this article examines the nature and patterns of subcontracting linkages for informal family-based household enterprises over the high-growth period of 2001-2016. The article estimates the net accumulation fund (NAF) for these enterprises, which measures their ability to accumulate, and studies the transition possibilities of subcontracted enterprises over time. Results show that the NAFs of subcontracted enterprises remained much lower than those of non-subcontracted ones, with the disparity growing over the growth period. A vast majority of subcontracted household enterprises are embedded in relations that are akin to a traditional putting-out system, with little control over their production processes. Female-owned enterprises and those located within the household are more likely to be in such put-out relations. Average NAF for put-out household enterprises has been lower than for relatively autonomous subcontracted and non-subcontracted firms, although over time the gap in NAF between put-out and non-put-out firms, and thus their differential ability to transition, has narrowed. The prevailing nature of subcontracting relations in India's informal economy, even during the peak growth period, appears to be starkly different from the dynamic linkages that are celebrated in the literature as a channel for facilitating growth and transition
Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Informal sector · Market economy · Employment and Welfare Studies · Indian Economic and Social Development · Taxation and Compliance Studies
Contrapunto
The Informal Economy Revisited
Linking the Formal and Informal Economy
Firms, Informality, and Development
Characterising deindustrialisation
Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error
Precarity and Development
Inclusive Growth and Social Change
Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour
Do Economic Reforms InfluenceHome-Based Work? Evidence from India
Globalization and Home-Based Workers
Subcontracting in India’s Unorganised Manufacturing Sector
Dualism and Structural Transformation
Informal–Formal Linkages and Informal Enterprise Performance in Urban West Africa
Helping a Large Number of People Become a Little Less Poor’
Informal sector or petty commodity production
The Entrepreneur Makes a Difference
An exploration into the nature of informal—formal sector relationships
Constrained Gazelles
The Challenge of Upgrading in African Industries
Counting the Invisible Workforce
Firms and inequality when unemployment is high
Economic reform and informal wage—a general equilibrium analysis
Nairobi's Informal Sector
Informality Revisited
Structural Change
Determinants and Poverty Implications of Informal Sector Work in Chile
V-Goods and the Role of the Urban Informal Sector in Development
Informality and Development
The Lewis Model
Labour and Petty Production
Contradictions and Crisis in the World of Work
Next Practices
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2027 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |