Trade Protection and Industry Wages in India

Bibliographic Data

ID4573364
AuthorsPuja Vasudeva Dutta (corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume60
Issue2
Pages268-286
Publication date2007-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/001979390706000206
OpenAlexW1916551892
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited24

This paper examines the link between trade protection and industry wage premia in India using a unique dataset combining employment survey data with industry-level data for various years between 1983 and 2000. The author finds that India's trade reforms were not distributionally neutral. The impact of protection on industry wage premia was positive and statistically significant, though modest in magnitude: workers employed in industries with high tariffs received higher wages than apparently identical workers in low-tariff industries. Because industries with high initial levels of protection were also those with the largest tariff reductions during this period and had the highest share of unskilled workers, the positive tariff-wage effect implies that the trade reforms were likely to have increased wage inequality as the relative wages of the (predominantly unskilled) workers in these manufacturing industries fell

Business · Economics · Hourly wage · Inequality · International economics · Labour economics · Manufacturing · Real wages · Tariff · Wage · Wage Inequality · Global trade and economics · Indian Economic and Social Development · International Labor and Employment Law

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