Gunjan Sharma

Assistant Professor (Teaching), Dept. of Economics, University of Missouri

 

Contact: sharmag@missouri.edu

228 Professional Building, Dept. of Economics,

University of Missouri Columbia MO 65211

Phone: 573-882-3161; Fax:

Office Hours: Tuesday 2.30-4, Wednesday 3.30-5

 

 

 

Publications

·         “India’s Mysterious Manufacturing Miracle”, (with P. Klenow and A. Bollard),  Review of Economic Dynamics (forthcoming) Link to latest version

·         “Skill Upgrading in Indian Manufacturing Industries” (with R. Chamarbagwala) , Journal of Development Economics (2011) PDF

 

·        “Price Effects of Preferential Market Access: The Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Apparel Sector,” (with C. Ozden) World Bank Economic Review, May 2006, Volume 20, No. 2, pp. 241-259. PDF

Working Papers

·        “Together we stand? Agglomeration in Indian Manufacturing Industry” (with A. Fernandes) September 2010, Revised and resubmitted, Journal of Development Economics.  PDF

Abstract: We use plant-level data from India for the period 1980-2007 to examine the impact of industrial policy reforms on the geographic concentration of manufacturing industries. First, our estimates show that while geographic concentration of overall manufacturing activity fell after 1991, relative and absolute concentration increased for the industries that were de-licensed. Secondly, as the effects of de-licensing fade over a longer time span, the effects of trade and FDI liberalization set in and raise geographic concentration. Third, all three reforms increase the divergence between the spatial distribution of private and public sector plants. Fourth, the response of spatial concentration to various mechanisms exhibits significant plant size-based differences arising from administrative details of the licensing regime. Large plants which faced the most location constraints pre-reforms respond more to the de-licensing reforms.

·        “Crime and Inequality in India”, April 2011  PDF

Abstract: We examine the relationship between crime and inequality in Indian districts in 1988 and 2004. We find that inequality increases most types of property and violent crime and that inequality within religious and caste groups drive this relationship. Our results are robust to district fixed effects as well as to controls for the costs and bene_ts of criminal activity. Geographically weighted regressions reveal substantial spatial variation in the correlation between both property and violent crime and inequality, as well as a weakening relationship between all types of crime and inequality in 2004 compared to 1988.

 

·        “Competing or Collaborating Siblings: Industrial and Trade Policies in India”. Working Paper 06- 10, University of Missouri, August 2006. PDF latest version

Abstract: We investigate the link between industrial de-regulation, trade reform and unit-level productivity using two unique microeconomic data sets from India. We use disaggregated data on the dismantling of the “License Raj” in India (operating from the 1950s onwards) and find that removal of microeconomic constraints (that accompanied a license to produce) as well a rise in the threat of potential entry raised output per worker by 8.5%-17%. We also exploit the chronology of reforms in India and find that industries and firms that were de-licensed in the 1980s tend to perform better vis productivity after trade liberalization in 1991. We use an administrative requirement of the “Licensing Raj” to identify the impact of de-licensing –size-based exemption from licensing requirements. This institutional feature provides within-industry variation as well as a specification test – we conduct the analysis for hypothetical thresholds (that is, we falsely assign firms to the treatment) and find that there is no size-based response to de-licensing around these artificial thresholds. We also create a psuedo-panel of firms and find that our results are robust to firm-fixed effects.

 

Works in Progress

·        “Sourcing and Sophistication Decisions: Input choice by Indian Manufacturing” (with E. Ghani, A. Fernandes and S. OConnell). PDF

 

·        “Determinants of Clusters in Indian Manufacturing: The Role of Infrastructure, Governance, Education and Industrial Policy” (with A. Fernandes). PDF

 

Teaching

·        Introduction to International Economics: ECON 3224

·        Theory of the Firm: ECON 3251

·        Intermediate Microeconomics: ECON 4351

·        International Trade (part II of graduate trade sequence): ECON 9427

Links

·        University of Maryland Economics

·        University of Missouri  Economics

·        Delhi School of Economics

·        Government of India

·        Annual Survey of Industries, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India

·        Census, India

·        World Bank Trade Research Group

·        Some miscellaneous personal photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                           

 

 

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