Economic reforms and their impact on the manufacturing sector: lessons from the Indian experience

This paper analyses the impact of the Indian reforms of the early 1990s on exports and employment by using indicators of competitiveness and comparative advantage. These indicators are unit cost ratios, which differ by using domestic prices, international or export prices and shadow prices. They are broken down into cost components which show the sources of competitiveness or the lack of it, such as productivity or price and cost distortions. The changes in competitiveness following the reforms are then used to examine whether the export and employment performance of the manufacturing industries can be attributed to the reform-induced cost changes.