Learning across policy regimes: The impact of protection vis-à-vis competition in the Indian automotive industry

Learning has been recognized as an important factor in explaining the growth of firms in both industrial organization theory and literature. However, few models have attempted to relate the learning and growth literature with the industrial policy regime, especially in economies heavily regulated by government policies. The present study attempts to apply one such model of growth and learning of firms across three different industrial policy regimes in the Indian automotive industry. It tries to analyze whether learning is promoted by a competitive or a protective policy regime. It also tries to decompose learning into several types to understand the mechanism underlying the growth process. In doing so, it relies on the growth-size distribution literature.