Showing papers by "Pritee Sharma published in 2015"

Climatic effects on sugarcane productivity in India: a stochastic production function application

Abstract: The present study estimates the influence of climatic and non-climatic factors on mean yield and yield variability of sugarcane crop in different weather seasons (e.g., rainy, winter and summer) in India. Sugarcane mean-yield for fourteen major sugarcane growing states from different agro-ecological zones are delimitated in panel data during 1971-2009. Regression coefficient for mean yield and yield variability production function (i.e. risk increasing or decreasing inputs) has been estimated through log-linear regression model with the help of Just and Pope (stochastic) production function specification. Empirical results based on feasible generalise least square (FGLS) estimations shows a significant effect of rainfall, maximum and minimum temperatures on sugarcane mean yield and yield variability. Whereas, average maximum temperature in summer and average minimum temperature in rainy season have a negative and statistically significant impact on sugarcane mean yield. Sugarcane mean yield positively gets affected with average maximum temperature during rainy and winter season.

Does Employment Protection Legislation Matter in Dualistic Labor Market? Panel Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: The critics of pro-worker labor laws argue that employment protection legislation (EPL) hurts productivity and employment generation by creating rigidity in employment adjustments. The discourse on labor market rigidity has taken center stage in this neo-liberal phase of the global economy and is now being echoed by the state as well. However, the sharp growth in informal employment over the last two decades, cutting across developing as well as developed countries, puts a question mark over the tenability of the “flexibility thought” invoked by employers while demanding abrogation of job security legislation. In this study, we argue that there exists a substantial flexibility in contemporary labor markets. Using a panel dataset on twenty-eight industrial sectors across thirteen major states of India for the period 1999-2000 to 2007-2008, we find that EPL does not affect total factor productivity of industries. The impact of EPL is not significant even in highly volatile industries. The paper underlines t...

Carbon emission and global food security: A cross country analysis

Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate the influence of carbon emissions and other socio-economic factors on global food security. Also, it creates global food security index (GFSI) for thirty one cross-country with different income groups from various regions of the World. In this study, Composite Z-index technique was employed in order to generate GFSI using several key determinants of food security. Subsequently, multiple linear regression models were also employed in order to assess the impacts of carbon dioxide emission and socio-economic factors on the constructed GFSI using country-wise panel data. The descriptive results of the study show that high income countries are the most food secured due to high cereal productivity, per capita land under cereal crops, per capita arable land, and high per capita gross domestic product. Developed countries have negligible poverty, constant population growth rate and less dependency on cereal import. Low and lower income group countries are in food insecurity trap due to rapid population growth, high infant mortality, high volatility in per capita food production and incidence of food-deficit. This study emphasized that lower middle and low income countries need to increase cereal production, in order to sustain food security. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that if the world's population grows at the current rate, then food insecurity would be more alarming in the near future. Empirical results recognized that per capita CO2 emission has negative impact on global food security negatively. Therefore, this study strongly recommends the necessity of the world's economies to develop alternative scientific techniques to abate greenhouse gas

Effects of Climatic Factors on Productivity of Cash Cropsin India: Evidence from State-wise Panel Data

Abstract: The present study increases the attention of Indian policy maker for cash crops farm policies in presence of climate change. Thus this paper tries to provide an understanding about mean yield, yield variance of major cash and climate change. The study examines the climatic and non climatic effect on various cash crops in India. We analyses the effect on five major cash crops like cotton, potato, groundnut, linseed and sesamum through their mean yield and yield variation. We consider data from thirteen major agricultural intensive states during 1980-2009 for the analysis. To estimate the mean yield and yield variance production function we employed stochastic production function based on Just and Pope (1979). Our result shows that climatic factors significantly affected both mean yield and yield variance. The study thus focuses on the attention of Indian policy makers for cash crops farm policies in the wake of climate change.

Labour Regulations, Contractualization and Industrial Performance Three-dimensional Panel Evidences from Indian Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: This study analyzes the impact of spiralling growth in usage of contractual labour, in the context of stringent pro-worker labour regulations, on industrial labour productivity and employment generation. We obtain a quantitative measure of ‘stringency of labour regulations’ by applying majority rule on three different measures used in the literature. The results show that average labour productivity increases with the increase in the ratio of permanent workers to contractual workers, unless the industries are not operating in states having rigid/pro-worker labour regulations—which implies a negative impact of contractualization on labour productivity. Besides, the results show that the rigid/pro-worker labour regulations have negative impact on employment generation; it is especially discernible in labour-intensive industries.

Labour Laws and Informalisation of Employment: Panel Evidences from Indian Formal Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: Labour law is widely being cited as one of the principal factors creating rigidities in industrial business and, thereby, holding back productivity growth and employment generation. However, a substantial chunk of literature disputes the “rigidity argument” on the ground that there has been a sharp growth in informal employment, which is often considered as flexible labor input as it does not fall under the purview of what is believed to be directly related with rigidity – employment protection legislation (EPL). However, given empirical evidence showing that informal worker is less productive as compared to its formal (regular) counterpart, the question arises: what motivates the employer to employ less productive worker? Using three-dimensional panel data on 28 industrial sectors between 1999–2000 and 2007–2008 across 13 states of India, our results show that the incidence of informal employment is directly linked with EPL, volatility, and labor bargaining power. We utilize instrumental variable two stage least square (IV 2SLS) to overcome the endogeneity issues. The results are robust.