The dynamics of market structure and firm-level adjustment to India's pro-market economic liberalizing reforms, 1988-2006: A Time Varying Panel Smooth Transition Regression (TV-PSTR) approach

This paper for the first time employs the Time Varying Panel Smooth Transition Regression (TV-PSTR) approach to model the dynamic adjustments of firms and the evolution of industrial structure in the bigger setting of decades against the backdrop of India's dramatic liberalizing reform starting from 1991. Using Indian manufacturing firm data, it finds that the transition of market structure and productivity after liberalization did follow a smooth transition process. Instead of the previously assumed instantaneous 'big-bang' shift just after reforms, it actually took years for the Indian manufacturing industries start to react to the reforms, and the transitional impact of reforms took approximately four to eight years to complete. There is strong evidence of increased competition after the transition, with shrinked returns to scale (RTS) in most industries except for leather and chemical industries. The results on total factor productivity (TFP) are mixed: most import-competing industries, which suffer most from the shrinking of market size experienced no change or decreasing TFP growth; whereas the export-oriented industry, as the industry which benefits most from economy of scale, enjoyed a huge TFP growth following the reforms.