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Book Chapter•DOI•

Dualism in the Informal Economy: Exploring the Indian Informal Manufacturing Sector

Rajesh Bhattacharya1, Snehashish Bhattacharya1, Kalyan Sanyal2•
South Asian University1, University of Calcutta2
01 Jan 2013-pp 339-362
About: The article was published on 2013-01-01. It has received 16 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Informal sector & Dualism.
Citations
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Journal Article•DOI•
Pandemic, informality, and vulnerability: impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in India

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Surbhi Kesar1, Rosa Abraham1, Rahul Lahoti1, P. Nath1, Amit Basole1 •
Azim Premji University1
15 Mar 2021-Canadian Journal of Development Studies
TL;DR: This paper analyzed findings from a large-scale survey of around 5000 respondents across 12 states of India, conducted during the months of April and May 2020, to study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic conta...
Abstract: We analyze findings from a large-scale survey of around 5000 respondents across 12 states of India, conducted during the months of April and May 2020, to study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic conta...

84 citations

Cites background from "Dualism in the Informal Economy: Ex..."

  • ...…and precariatisation of jobs even within the formal sector, contributing to the overall high level of informality of the Indian workforce (Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya, and Sanyal 2013; SWI 2018).1 The persistence of high levels of informality and a failure to formalise despite growth has…...

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  • ...This informalisation of the formal sector has resulted in an increase in the proportion of regular salariedworkers with low job security in the past two decades (State of Working India 2018; Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya, and Sanyal 2013; NSSO 2019)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Determinants and impacts of subcontracting: evidence from India’s unorganized manufacturing sector

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Amit Basole1, Deepankar Basu2, Rajesh Bhattacharya3•
University of Massachusetts Boston1, University of Massachusetts Amherst2, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta3
19 Jan 2015-International Review of Applied Economics
TL;DR: This paper applied a modified Heckman selection model to Indian National Sample Survey data on informal manufacturing enterprises (2005-2006) and found that home-based, relatively asset-poor, and female-owned firms are more likely to be in a subcontracting relationship.
Abstract: There are two divergent perspectives on the impact of subcontracting on firms in the informal sector. According to the benign view, formal sector firms prefer linkages with relatively modern firms in the informal sector, and subcontracting enables capital accumulation and technological improvement in the latter. According to the exploitation view, formal sector firms extract surplus from stagnant, asset-poor informal sector firms that use cheap family labour in home-based production. However, direct, firm-level evidence on the determinants and impact of subcontracting is thus far lacking in the literature. We apply a modified Heckman selection model to Indian National Sample Survey data on informal manufacturing enterprises (2005–2006). We find that home-based, relatively asset-poor, and female-owned firms are more likely to be in a subcontracting relationship. Further, we perform selectivity-corrected Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition and calculate treatment effects to show that subcontracting benefits smalle...

16 citations

Cites background or result from "Dualism in the Informal Economy: Ex..."

  • ...…in India after the initiation of economic reforms in 1991 (Sahu 2010; Kotwal, Ramaswami, and Wadhwa 2011).1 National Sample Survey data show that, in 2005, around 30% of an estimated 17 million informal manufacturing enterprises worked on subcontract (Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya, and Sanyal 2013)....

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  • ...However, contrary to this, Sahu (2010) and Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya, and Sanyal (2013) present evidence from NSS data that productivity per worker and asset-base are higher for non-subcontracted compared with subcontracted firms....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India:

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Snehashish Bhattacharya1, Surbhi Kesar1, Surbhi Kesar2•
South Asian University1, Azim Premji University2
11 Feb 2020-Review of Radical Political Economics
TL;DR: The authors argue that the processes of precarity in the Global North and the Global South need to be analytically disting, and they take off from the recent critiques of pre-arity as an emerging global phenomenon.

15 citations

Cites background from "Dualism in the Informal Economy: Ex..."

  • ...Working on the fringes of legality, they also actively “commonize” various resources by subverting private property rights by encroaching on public spaces, illegaly hooking electricity connections, etc. (Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya, and Sanyal 2013)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Dualism and Structural Transformation: The Informal Manufacturing Sector in India

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Surbhi Kesar1, Snehashish Bhattacharya1•
South Asian University1
01 Jul 2020-The European Journal of Development Research
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a traditional/non-capitalist segment, comprising family-based household enterprises that constitute the vast majority of the IMS, and a segment of modern/capitalist enterprises employing wage labour.
Abstract: We identify a basic dualism within the informal manufacturing sector (IMS) in India between a ‘traditional’/non-capitalist segment, comprising family-based household enterprises that constitute the vast majority of the IMS, and a segment of ‘modern’/capitalist enterprises employing wage labour. We focus on the high-growth decade of 2000–2001 to 2010–2011 to analyse whether there has been a marked tendency of this ‘traditional’ segment to transform into a ‘modern’ segment. We construct a variable, the net accumulation fund, which indicates the ability of an enterprise to accumulate and grow, and explore its evolution, over time and across industries, for enterprises with different production structures and firm-level characteristics. We show that while, on one hand, the average ‘traditional’ enterprise has been able to economically reproduce itself rather than withering away, the dualism between the ‘traditional’/non-capitalist and the ‘modern’/capitalist segments has been reproduced and further reinforced during this period of high economic growth, raising questions about the process of economic transformation as envisaged in much of development literature.

14 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Possibilities of Transformation: The Informal Sector in India:

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Snehashish Bhattacharya1, Surbhi Kesar2, Surbhi Kesar1•
South Asian University1, University of Massachusetts Amherst2
26 Sep 2018-Review of Radical Political Economics
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify a basic dualism between capitalist and non-capitalist spaces within the vast informal sector in India, and show that this dualism has been reproduced and reinforced during the past decad...

13 citations

Cites background from "Dualism in the Informal Economy: Ex..."

  • ...…all unincorporated private enterprises owned by individuals or households engaged in the sale and production of goods and services operated on a proprietary or partnership basis and with less than ten total workers” (NCEUS 2007: 48). and Sen 2016; Basole et al. 2015; and Bhattacharya et al. 2013)....

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  • ...On the other hand, the net surplus generated (net of the distributions to various outside 6See S. Bhattacharya (2017), Bhaduri (2017), S. Chakrabarti (2016), and R. Bhattacharya, Bhattacharya, and Sanyal (2013) for recent engagements with Sanyal (2007)....

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References
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Book•
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action

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Elinor Ostrom1•
Indiana University1
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: In this paper, an institutional approach to the study of self-organization and self-governance in CPR situations is presented, along with a framework for analysis of selforganizing and selfgoverning CPRs.
Abstract: Preface 1. Reflections on the commons 2. An institutional approach to the study of self-organization and self-governance in CPR situations 3. Analyzing long-enduring, self-organized and self-governed CPRs 4. Analyzing institutional change 5. Analyzing institutional failures and fragilities 6. A framework for analysis of self-organizing and self-governing CPRs Notes References Index.

16,852 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
The Possibility of Cooperation@@@Cooperation: The Basis of Sociability.@@@Cooperation and Prosocial Behavior.@@@Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.

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Peter Kollock, Michael Argyle, Robert A. Hinde, Jo Groebel, Elinor Ostrom 
01 Sep 1992-Contemporary Sociology

3,028 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges

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Elinor Ostrom1, Joanna Burger2, Christopher B. Field3, Richard B. Norgaard4, David Policansky5 •
Indiana University1, Rutgers University2, Carnegie Institution for Science3, University of California, Berkeley4, National Research Council5
09 Apr 1999-Science
TL;DR: New insights about the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources are discussed.
Abstract: In a seminal paper, Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons are caught in an inevitable process that leads to the destruction of the resources on which they depend. This article discusses new insights about such problems and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources. Some of the most difficult challenges concern the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation, such as fresh water in international basins or large marine ecosystems. Institutional diversity may be as important as biological diversity for our long-term survival.

2,463 citations

Book•
The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World

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Hernando de Soto
01 May 1989

2,275 citations

Report•DOI•
The Unofficial Economy and Economic Development

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Rafael La Porta, Andrei Shleifer
01 Jan 2009-National Bureau of Economic Research
TL;DR: The authors found that informal firms are small and extremely unproductive compared with even the small formal firms in the sample, and especially relative to the larger formal firms, which supports the dual economy theory of development, in which growth comes about from the creation of highly productive formal firms.
Abstract: In developing countries, informal firms account for up to about half of all economic activity. Using data from World Bank firm-level surveys, we find that informal firms are small and extremely unproductive compared with even the small formal firms in the sample, and especially relative to the larger formal firms. Formal firms are run by much better educated managers than informal ones and use more capital, have different customers, market their products, and use more external finance. Few formal firms have ever operated informally. This evidence supports the dual economy (“Wal-Mart”) theory of development, in which growth comes about from the creation of highly productive formal firms. Informal firms keep millions of people alive but disappear as the economy develops.

648 citations

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