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Structural change in employment in India since 1980s: How Lewisian is it?

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  • Roy, Satyaki

Abstract

Indian economy shows high levels of growth and per capita income in recent years accompanied by an unprecedented shift of labour from agriculture to non-agriculture during the last decade. Reallocation of labour from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ segments in an economy having large surplus labour was conceived in the Lewisian framework as the process by way of which both accumulation of capital and exhaustion of surplus labour takes place. This paper argues that the structural change in employment in India that results from the exclusionary nature of the growth process hardly approximates the Lewisian trajectory. Finally, in the context of globalisation this paper explains the responses of firms of various size categories in non-agriculture and argues that the shift in employment basically expands the ‘reserve army of labour’ in the Marxian sense instead of exhaustion of surplus labour conceived in Lewisian conjectures.

Suggested Citation

  • Roy, Satyaki, 2007. "Structural change in employment in India since 1980s: How Lewisian is it?," MPRA Paper 18009, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:18009
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kirkpatrick, Colin & Barrientos, Armando, 2004. "The Lewis Model After Fifty Years," Development Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 30550, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    2. Cooper, Charles, 1995. "Technological Change and Dual Economies," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 1995-10, United Nations University - INTECH.
    3. Ranis, Gustav & Stewart, Frances, 1999. "V-Goods and the Role of the Urban Informal Sector in Development," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(2), pages 259-288, January.
    4. Sukti Dasgupta & Ajit Singh, 2006. "Manufacturing, Services and Premature De-Industrialisation in Developing Countries: A Kaldorian Empirical Analysis," Working Papers wp327, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Lewis, W Arthur, 1979. "The Dual Economy Revisited," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 47(3), pages 211-229, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mungase, Sachin & Nikam, Supriya & Kothe, Satyanarayan, 2024. "Structural Change and Labour Productivity in BRICS," MPRA Paper 121607, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Krichewsky, Damien, 2014. "The socially responsible company as a strategic second-order observer: An Indian case," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Bhattacharya, Tulika & Bhandari, Bornali & Bairagya, Indrajit, 2020. "Where are the jobs? Estimating skill-based employment linkages across sectors for the Indian economy: An input-output analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 292-308.
    4. Krichewsky, Damien, 2011. "Crise et modalités d’élaboration d’un compromis social dans le nouveau capitalisme indien," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 9.
    5. Sonal Ann D’souza & Panchendra K. Naik, 2018. "Trade Liberalisation, Capital-Intensive Export and Informalisation: A Case Study of India’s Manufacturing Sector," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(2), pages 377-399, June.
    6. Paramjit Singh & Surinder Kumar, 2021. "Demographic Dividend in the Age of Neoliberal Capitalism: An Analysis of Employment and Employability in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 595-619, September.
    7. Damien Krichewsky, 2010. "Negotiating the Terms of A New Social Contract: Private Companies, Civil Society and the State in India," Working Papers id:2394, eSocialSciences.
    8. Mazumdar, Surajit, 2015. "The Low Wage Trap of Indian Manufacturing," MPRA Paper 93163, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    growth; employment; non-agriculture; structural change; reserve army of labour;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E11 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Marxian; Sraffian; Kaleckian
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

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