American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Back on the Rails: Competition and Productivity in State-Owned Industry
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 5,
no. 1, January 2013
(pp. 136–62)
Abstract
We use a proprietary dataset on the floor-level operations at the largest rail mill in India to study the response of productivity to the threat of entry. Output per active shift increased by 28 percent over 3 years with minimal changes in physical capital and employment. By combining data on the timing of various training programs in the mill with shift-level variation in worker composition, we are able to attribute over half of the higher productivity to training specifically targeted toward improving rail output. Our work suggests high returns to knowledge-enhancing investment in emerging economies. (JEL D22, D24, J24, L23, L32, L61, O14)Citation
Das, Sanghamitra, Kala Krishna, Sergey Lychagin, and Rohini Somanathan. 2013. "Back on the Rails: Competition and Productivity in State-Owned Industry." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5 (1): 136–62. DOI: 10.1257/app.5.1.136Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D22 Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
- D24 Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- L23 Organization of Production
- L32 Public Enterprises; Public-Private Enterprises
- L61 Metals and Metal Products; Cement; Glass; Ceramics
- O14 Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
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