EconStor Collection:
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/53156
2024-03-19T01:24:33ZBehind the numbers: Exploring caste inequities in entrepreneurial success
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/283850
Title: Behind the numbers: Exploring caste inequities in entrepreneurial success
Authors: Raj, Rajesh S. N.; Sen, Kunal
Abstract: The documented under-representation of marginalized groups in business ownership and the labour market is a concerning issue. This study explores how caste disparities in small-firm entrepreneurship impact on firm performance in India, focusing on the informal sector. Our examination shows a significant productivity gap between firms owned by disadvantaged castes and others, including Other Backward Classes and Forward Castes, across the productivity distribution. The results of our decomposition exercise provide evidence for the importance of both differences in observables and returns to these observables in explaining the caste gap in productivity. This implies that even with improvements in firm attributes for Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe businesses, the productivity disadvantage of firms owned by marginalized groups may persist. Pervasive market and non-market discrimination against marginalized groups suggests that the significant caste disparities in entrepreneurship and business performance will continue to impede the economy, presenting serious challenges for public policy.2024-01-01T00:00:00ZMining spillovers and the formal-informal duality in manufacturing and services
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/283852
Title: Mining spillovers and the formal-informal duality in manufacturing and services
Authors: Paul, Saumik; Raju, Dhushyanth
Abstract: This study examines the effects of mining productivity shocks on the formal-informal duality in manufacturing and services. Using firm census data from 2014 for Ghana, we measure the rates of informality along extensive (unregistered firms) and intensive (registered firms hiring labourers 'off the books') margins. We find that the changes in the rates of informality along both margins across sectors following mining shocks are heterogeneous. We also find that the lack of duality between informal and formal firms across the development phases of mining is driven by increasing heterogeneity in productivity and skilled employment within informal and formal firms, and less by the incidence of firms sorting into the formal and informal sectors. The lack of duality was most noticeable among heavy manufacturing firms established after the start of oil and gas production in 2010, driven by more-productive newly established unregistered firms with lower labour and energy cost shares than newly established registered firms.2024-01-01T00:00:00ZDoes it matter who you ask for time-use data?
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/283847
Title: Does it matter who you ask for time-use data?
Authors: Sharma, Deepti; Swaminathan, Hema; Lahoti, Rahul
Abstract: Time-use statistics are sensitive to measurement error, especially errors that might be introduced based on whether the informant is reporting on herself or reporting on others in the household. In this paper, we use the nationally representative time-use survey in India and propensity score matching methods to investigate how self- and proxy reporting impact the reported time spent on various activities by men and women. Theoretically, we examine the mechanisms underpinning the differences in reporting and empirically test our hypothesis. Proxy informants tend to report higher time use for both men and women on employment activities (14- 26 per cent) and lower time use on production for self-consumption, unpaid domestic work, and care work (5-33 per cent) as compared to self-reports. On average, female proxies differ more from self-reports when reporting about both men and women in their households as compared to male proxies. Investigating the mechanisms, we find that the self-proxy differences are not due to random error but are systemic. Information asymmetry between the self and proxy respondents plays a key role-spouses and self-proxy respondents with similar characteristics have smaller reporting differences than non-spouses and other respondents. Gendered perception of what activities are classified as work also play a key role in the differences.2024-01-01T00:00:00ZSheepskin effects and heterogenous wage-setting behaviour: Evidence from Mozambique
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/283851
Title: Sheepskin effects and heterogenous wage-setting behaviour: Evidence from Mozambique
Authors: Jaeger, David A.; Jones, Sam
Abstract: Using a unique panel survey of final-year undergraduates at six of the largest universities in Mozambique, we study the wage premium associated with completing an undergraduate degree. Conditional on a very rich set of controls, including pre-degree earnings, objective measures of ability, and academic performance, we find heterogeneity in 'sheepskin effects' across different kinds of firms. We propose a simple model of wage-setting in which productivity is only partially observable in some firms and fully observable in others. In this setting, education serves both to enhance productivity and as a productivity signal. Consistent with the theory, positions where productivity is likely to be less observable offer larger sheepskin effects.2024-01-01T00:00:00Z