WORKING PAPERS
Pendyal K, Rajan A & Jha A. “IP Disputes and its Impact on Firm Performance: A Multi-Country Comparison of Mobile Handset Markets Using DID Method”
The nature of standards and the market power enjoyed by owners of SEPs leads to a situation where it is almost essential for a mobile phone manufacturer to have a strong patent portfolio for it to be a dominant player. This strong portfolio would give the phone manufacturer strong leverage when negotiating patent licenses/royalties with SEP owners. Xiaomi is probably one of the handful of companies that are dominant players in the market but do not have a strong SEP portfolio (IIPTA, 2017; Schindler, 2022; LexisNexis, 2023; Taylor, 2023). In this paper, we are studying the business impact that a company might face due to not having a strong patent portfolio as compared to competitors. India is emerging as an important jurisdiction for SEP litigation. We use sales performance of Xiaomi versus its competitors in South Africa as our control and India as our treatment group.
Rajan A, Mohanty M. “Dynamics of Employment Generation in India: A View from the Standpoint of Social Groups”
This paper views the process of structural change in employment from the perspective of social groups in India and therefore analyses the social dimensions of an economic transformation. The social groups analyzed in this paper are Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC), Other Backward Class (OBC), UCH and Other religions (the Others category of NSSO surveys is classified on the basis of religion to form Upper Class Hindus (UCH) and Other religions) based on NSSO EUS 55th to 68th rounds and PLFS rounds 2017-18 to 2021-22. We analyze the changes in population composition, employment composition, consumption expenditures, educational attainment to arrive at conclusions on how diverse the process of structural change is among different social groups. This essay highlights the systemic nature of backwardness among social groups and how they are manifested in educational attainments, consumption expenditure and employment compositions. Based on statistical analysis, we find that in rural farm employment the likelihood of self-employment is significantly higher than the likelihood of a casual employed among ST/UCH. The likelihood of casual employment among SC/OBC is significantly higher than the likelihood self-employment among SC/OBC. The stability and consistency of the likelihoods illustrates disadvantages that social groups face despite improvements in levels of education and average MPCE.
Rajan A, Mohanty M. “Structural Change in India: A State Level Analysis”
In this paper, we study structural change in output and employment to state-level in India. Using the NSSO unit level data, we aim to explore the gender and social group dynamics of employment composition at state-level. We narrow down 18 major states (accounting for 95 percent of the total population) for the state level analysis. To understand the nature of structural transformation among various states, we primarily categorize the states based on per-capita income (PCY) and relative surplusness (L/O ratio) of labour in farm sector (Mohanty, 2009). There is little movement among states from low PCY to high PCY with the notable exception of Andhra Pradesh (undivided). However, movements occur in terms of relative surplusness. Increase in PCY can occur with or without convergence in productivities. The impact of PCY growth without convergence in productivities would lead to higher inequality as demonstrated by diverging ratio of urban to rural MPCE in states with high PCY and no convergence. We find no evidence of convergence (measured by σ (sigma) – standard deviation of log PCY) at state level. Also, the gap between low PCY and high PCY states is increasing. We find that differences in agrarian productivity drive differences in per-capita income at the state level which is reflected in the significant rank correlation between PCY and agricultural productivity (1993-94 to 2011-12, also 2017-18). We also find that the growth in agricultural productivity feeds the growth in non-agricultural productivity.
Rajan A, Mohanty M & Reddy N. “An Investigation into the Caste Dynamics of Income Effect in Rural Female Workforce Participation in India: A Disaggregated View”
This paper investigates the association between income, education, social groups (caste), and female workforce participation (FWP) in rural India. We employ multinomial logistic regression on data from NSSO surveys (rounds 66 and 68) and PLFS surveys (2017-18 to 2021-22) to analyze FWP in farm and non-farm sectors. The findings challenge the conventional universal negative income effect on FWP. We observe no systematic negative association across all rounds in farm or non-farm sectors. However, a nuanced income effect emerges, with an inverted U-shape in the farm sector for later rounds. Caste plays a critical role in structuring female participation levels. The income effect in farm sector seems mediated by caste. In the non-farm sector, a U-shaped association between income and FWP is observed only during rounds with a rise in regular employment. Lower caste women participate more in casual and self-employment opportunities, leading to no significant U-shaped association in other rounds. Education exhibits an inverted U-shaped association with FWP in the farm sector and a U-shaped association in the non-farm sector. While education attainment levels improved across social groups, lower caste women are concentrated in casual work within the non-farm sector. These findings highlight the complex interplay of factors influencing FWP and emphasize the need for factoring in caste while studying FWP.
Pendyal K, Rajan A & Balakuamar K. “Public Health Policy and Governance in the Covid Era: Results from a Natural Experiment”
COVID-19 brought into focus issues of state capacity, preparedness, and governance mechanisms globally. Large countries like India had sub-nationalities differing in policy making, implementation, and outcomes. Studying these differences raises challenges due to difficulty in controlling for differences between states because of socio-economic and demographic differences. In this paper, we compare how the differences in political structures have influenced state’s response to a public health crisis. state governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh handled COVID-19. Since Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were formed from the erstwhile state of undivided Andhra Pradesh, we study the difference in COVID-19 induced hospitalization rates, mortality rates, and recovery rates of these states in a natural experiment setting. We study these differences using Regression Discontinuity in Time (before and after a specified event – the ‘Unlock’ in India). Our analysis reveals no statistically significant difference in Telangana before and after the treatment of ‘Unlock’ while Andhra Pradesh exhibited significant difference in the progress of COVID-19 parameters. We explain the results using Principal – Agent theory in the context of governance & accountability showing the presence of a credible opposition party is instrumental in ensuring proper collection & reporting of health statistics thereby reducing monitoring costs for principals (citizens). This has a direct impact on public health outcomes.
Research in Progress
Pendyal K & Rajan A. “Understanding the Motivations of Political Regimes in Perpetuating Regulatory Uncertainty: A Case Study Analysis”
Rajan A, Achari G, Pendyal K. “Are Insurance Markets Disappearing? Impact of Extreme Weather Events on US Home Insurance Market:”
Pendyal K, Rajan A, Balakumar K & Achari G. "Language and Merit: A Critical Investigation into the Antecedents of Merit in Medical Entrance Exams in India"