Robin Burgess (joint with Philippe Aghion, Stephen Redding et al): ''The Unequal Effects of Liberalization: Evidence from Dismantling the License Raj"

A paper by Robin Burgess (joint with Philippe Aghion, Stephen Redding and Fabrizio Zilibotti) "The Unequal Effects of Liberalization: Evidence from Dismantling the License Raj in India," has recently been accepted for publication in the American Economic Review 2008

The authors study whether the effects on registered manufacturing output of disman- tling the License Raj - a system of central controls regulating entry and production activity in this sector - vary across Indian states with different labor market reg- ulations. The effects are found to be unequal across Indian states with different labor market regulations. In particular, following delicensing, industries located in states with pro-employer labor market institutions grew more quickly than those in pro-worker environments.