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2768 items in total found

Working Papers | 1997

Trade Regimes and Productivity: Exploring the Impact of Tariff Policy on Firm Level technology Strategies

Rakesh Basant and Majumdar Saumen

The economic reforms initiated in 1991 were broadly based on the view that the strategy of state dominated industrialisation with high protective barriers was either a mistake of has outlived its usefulness. And this strategy should now be replaced by a more market oriented, open economy approach. However, there has been no consensus on the impact of economic liberalisation on total factor productivity in the Indian manufacturing sector. While the links between liberalisation and growth in total factor productivity at the aggregate level have been explored in the recent literature, the effect of liberalisation on firm level choices remains an under-explored area. It is important to analyse such linkage because it is only through such choices that changes in the firm level efficiency take place. The paper is an effort in this direction. It brings out empirically the complexity of strategic technology choices and the difficulties of analysing them. The analysis based on detailed firm-level data for the pre-reform period data clearly show that protectionism did not foster technological activity by Indian firms; in fact, it seems to have hampered technology related investments. Higher rates of protection discouraged firms from keeping abreast of recent technological developments through the making or purchasing of technology. It is argued that an in-depth analysis of the impact of trade on firm level choices and productivity in the pre-liberalisation phase may be useful both as a benchmark for evaluating the impact of trade liberalisation as well as for providing insights to fine tune the evolving policy instruments.

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Working Papers | 1997

Characterizing the Equal Income Market Equilibrium Choice Correspondence: Average Envy Freeness Instead of Individual Rationality from Equal Division

Lahiri Somdeb

In problems of fair division of a given bundle of resources, amongst a finite number of agents, individual rationality from equal division plays a significant role. In a society, where all resources are socially owned, one cannot argue in terms of equal ownership of the social endowment. One normally takes the position that each agents has the right to veto any allocation, which leaves him/her worse than equal division. Based on this premise, individual rationality from equal division has been proposed as a minimal requirement of distributive justice. In Thomson (1982), we find an equity criterion called average envy-freeness, which in the context of economies with convex preferences, implies individual rationality from equal division. Average envy-freeness says that no agent finds the average consumption of the other agents, superior to his/her own consumption. This concept has been developed in the Foley (1967) tradition of an envy-free allocation: no agent should find his/her consumption inferior to the consumption of any other agents. We show in this paper (the not too difficult result) that average envy-freeness does not automatically imply individual rationality from equal division. A solution concept which recurs with seeming regularity in the literature of fair division is the equal income market equilibrium solution concept. In a variable population framework Thomson (1988) provides an axiomatic characterization, using the axiom of consistency. Consistency basically says that the departure of some agents with their allocated consumption, should not affect the consumption of the remaining agents, provided they operate the same distribution mechanism as before, Lahiri (1997a 1997b) use this same axiom to characterize the equal income market equilibrium choice correspondence in convex and non-convex environments. Out main result reported in this paper is similar to a Lahir (1997b) result, although it may not extend to the non-convex economies considered there. It is thus a modest generalization of the Thomson (1988) result. We use consistency, replication invariance, efficiency and average envy-freeness to show that if a solution satisfies these properties, it must consist of equal income market equilibrium allocations. Subsequently we drop consistency and arrive at yet another characterization of subsolutions of equal income market equilibrium choice correspondence using the strict envy-freeness property due to Zhou (1992).

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Working Papers | 1997

Two Commodity Network Design: The Convex HULL

Sastry Trilochan

We study the uncapacitated and capacitated one facility versions of the two commodity network design problem. We characterize optimal solutions and show that we can restrict the search for optimal solutions to feasible solutions with at most one shared path. Using this characterization, we describe the convex hull of integer solutions to the uncapcitated problem using O(m) variables and O(n) constraints. We also describe how Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm can be used to solve the problem in a transformed graph with O(n) nodes and O(m) arcs. For the capacitated two commodity problem, we show that the problem can be solved either by using any standard shortest path algorithm or by the algorithm described for the uncapacitated case.

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Working Papers | 1997

An Exact Algorithm for the Uncapacitated Network Design Problem

Sastry Trilochan

We describe an O(n22k + n3k) algorithm for the uncapacitated network design problem where K is the number of commodities, and n the number of nodes in the graph.

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Working Papers | 1997

Revitalizing the State: S. Slimming the State for Effectiveness

Khandwalla P N

Beginning with the eighties there has been a growing perception, in developed and developing countries alike, that the modern state has extended itself beyond its governance capacity. In many countries the state is perceived as soft and ill-governed. One response to the ill-governed state has been slimming, in the form of privatization and deregulation. In the paper four forms of slimming are examined: privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), privatization of public services, privatization of the state's governance functions, and deregulation. Several cases of privatization f SOEs, both in the developed and the developing economies, point to complex compulsions, politics, motives, and consequences of such privatization. While empirical studies do not indicate that privatization strikingly improves the performance of privatized SOEs, there are other pragmatic reasons for a programme of selective privatization of non-strategic SOEs. The many modes of privatization and some considerations in its management are discussed. Privatization of public services seems to have considerable potential for cutting costs and improving the quality of services to citizens. There are many options in privatizing public services, and the problems associated with privatization of public services can be addressed effectively. Although in its infancy, selective privatization of the state's governance functions holds much promise for harnessing of society's management capabilities for effectively furthering the public interest. Certification, licensing, and justice are promising areas for selective privatization. Democratically functioning associations of organizations can play an especially important role in this sort of privatization. While neither regulation nor deregulation are panaceas, appropriate deregulation in statist societies or in over-regulated sectors can reduce corruption and black marketing, and bring down the operating and transactions cost of business. If some regulation is necessary, the institution-light alternative may be generally preferable to the institution-intensive alternative. Several effective ways of getting rid off excessive regulations are presented. It is concluded that slimming is likely to be effective when it is pursued for pragmatic rather than doctrinaire reasons, and that selective privatization is a powerful way of bringing private sector initiative and efficiency in the public domain and public purpose in the private domain.

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Working Papers | 1997

Determinants of Growth in Rice Productivity in India, 1980-95

Namboodiri N V

This paper analyses various price and non-price factors that induce rice productivity during 1980-95 using a multi-variate model. This is studied separately for states where rice is a multi-season crop and mono-season crop. The non-price factors considered here include technology, commercialization, government support programme, farm size, and rainfall. The price factors include farm harvest price, fertilizer price and wage rate. Among these explanatory factors the influence of non-price factors is more important than the price factors except that of price of fertilizer in determining rice productivity. The relative influence of these factors differed between the multi-season and mono-season states which emphasizes region specific strategies for promoting rice productivity.

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Working Papers | 1997

Personal Growth Laboratory a Personal Philosophy

Parikh Indira J

This paper focuses on the evolution and transformation of what is known as Laboratory Training or Personal growth Labs or PG Labs. The experience of the participants in the lab is for the self to explore the inner world of feelings and meanings around relationships and quest for purpose and meaning of existence. A lab needs to be anchored in the socio-cultural context and larger human existence. An individual explores the myths, epics, folklore, folktales, role models from family sagas, literature, history and other deeply embedded codings and experiences of his/her growing up. The personal growth lab provides a space to experience the individuals being by reflecting on the configuration of experiences, differentiating elements of being and non-being, positive energy and negative energy and giving direction to the unfolding of the being. The paper explores the four themes of (1) invitation versus compulsion to explore, (2) the lab space in time and movement versus the concept of ownership, (3) role of the participants and the role of the anchor person, (4) directionality versus specificity, (5) unfolding the person versus boundaries of growth. The lab space is the sacred space where encounters are with the infinity of the self and touching ones own magic and mystery of human existence.

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Working Papers | 1997

Management of Intangibles in Indian Railways

Deepti Bhatnagar, Chhokar J S, and G. Raghuram

Managing intangibles is a major challenge before organizations. Increasingly there is an appreciation that for managing hard performance parameters, the softer aspects of management need to be looked into. In fact, several management thinkers believe that understanding and managing the soft aspects, for example the feelings, attitudes, and values of people, their motivation, perceptions about organizational priorities and norms, and elements of the organizational culture, offers an important key to managing the hard and visible aspects such as output, asset utilisation, turn over, and profitability. This paper describes the efforts and outcomes of a project on Management of Intangibles (MI) iin the Indian Railways, in which it was decided to underscore the significance of managing intangibles through a multipronged approach. In the first place, therefore, it was decided to explore the perceptions about the prevalence of certain key managerial attributes among the officers of Indian Railways. At a second, we wanted to assess the prevalence of certain important attitudinal variables trough self-report measures. Appropriate surveys were conducted. Next, two case studies on “Role Models' in leadership in the Indian Railways were developed. Finally, an action research on management of intangibles was carried out through a seies of workshops held for this purpose. The most important aspect of this study was its “self-driven nature”. The action research part, which formed the heart of the study in terms of managing intangibles was completely designed, executed and written about by the participants themselves, with the researchers only playing a facilitator role. Though only tow experiences have been documented in written form, some of the other experiences are expected to have an impact in the working domain of the participants. The case studies on the two role models brings out that divergent styles can also be “successful”. They offer an opportunity to reflect on what makes a leader click in his/her environment. In terms of difference in the existing and desired level of attributes, concern for external customers, and openness to others' ideas rank at the top. This is a clear reflection of the direction in which the organization needs to move.

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Working Papers | 1997

An Axiomatic Characterization of the Equal Income Market Equilibrium Choice Correspondence in Non-Convex Economics

Lahiri Somdeb

A property of allocation rules (in problems involving fair division of infinitely divisible goods amongst a finite number of agents) that has received considerable attention in recent literature is consistency. The property may be described as follows: apply a allocation rule to a problem within a chosen class of problems. consistency would require that the restriction of any allocation chosen by the rule for that problem to any subgroup of agents is what this solution would recommend for the “reduced problem” obtained by imagining the departure of the members of the complementary group with what they receive, and re-evaluating the situation from the view point of those who remain. In Lahiri [1997] can be found axiomatic characterization of the equal income market equilibrium choice correspondence in economies characterized by convex preferences, and using the properties of consistency and converse consistency. The earliest known work in a similar direction is the one by Thomson [1988] followed by Thomson [1994] where consistency plays a fundamental role. In the Lahiri [1997] paper, the second fundamental theorem of welfare economics plays a crucial role. Young [1993] provides a generalization of a Thomson [1988] result, where a characterization of sub-correspondences of the equal income competitive equilibrium allocations are available (for convex preferences) using consistency and a property called replication invariance. Simply put, replication invariance says that if we replicate an allocation problem, the solution outcomes also get replicated. In this paper, we extend the Young [1993] result to economies where preferences may be non-convex. We invoke a property called Sigma optimality which Svennson [1994] uses rather persuasively to establish the existence of fair allocations in non-convex economies. The corresponding welfare theorem in terms of optimality is used to characterize the equal income market equilibrium choice correspondence in terms of consistency replication invariance, and a property called quasi-local independence. The last property is implied by local independence – a property used repeatedly in Lahiri [1997]. For a general survey of the literature concerning problems of fair division, the reader should refer to Thomson and Varian [1985].

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Working Papers | 1997

Globalization Work and Management

Singh J P

Major changes are occurring in the sphere of work and management. While there is emergence of new time based and information based opportunities, some traditional office and business work opportunities are shrinking. Simultaneously, there is recognition of a new type of “Permanently Temporary” Employment that is a pointer to the need for employment laws that take into account new work realities. On a larger plane, changes are also occurring in trade and business world. A few truly global organizations have emerged. However, organizations that operate in 30-40 or 10-20 countries are many, and are beginning to encounter the problem of operating in international environment. Use of values and social concerns have become the new element in protection of markets in addition to the traditional concern for quality and the recent concern for environment. There is a shifting of polluting industries to new environments resulting in environmental hazards where none existed and a major shift in the job market around the globe. National economies are also shifting from industrial to service and information economies. Another major change is linked with the development of distance learning opportunities and a move towards a universal language. This is influencing not only the way education is imparted but also nature and management of educational institutions thus forcing organizations to rethink their human resource development and learning strategies. At the core of all these changes is a major technological breakthrough – in satellite imaging, communication, computing, high speed travel and transport technologies. This explosion of Technology has resulted in new competition giving older organizations very little response time. Emergence of the new slim and trim organizations have forced unions to change focus from wages and benefits to protection of jobs. Since both work and technology are changing at a fast pace, the sphere of management has also been affected. In some ways control and unity of command are under revision and calls for a reassessment of the management theory and practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges ahead before the business world and developing societies.

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