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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Competition And Demographics In Large Indian Cities, Mohammad Amin
Competition And Demographics In Large Indian Cities, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Recent studies suggest that consumer-household attributes may be as important in determining the level of competition in certain markets as firm characteristics and the number of firms. However, evidence on which consumer-household attributes matter for competition is limited, especially for developing countries. Focusing on India’s retail sector, the present paper contributes to this literature by showing that the number of adult non-workers per household in the city, a proxy for shopping time opportunity cost, has a strong effect on competition between retailers. Policy implications of our findings in light of the ongoing dramatic reductions in non-workers in India are discussed.
Challenges Of Retailing In India (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Challenges Of Retailing In India (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Using Enterprise Surveys data on 1,948 retails stores in India, this note highlights the key problems and challenges faced by retailers in 41 large cities of India. Inadequate power supply, access to finance, corruption, tax rates and land related problems are the most important obstacles to further growth. Competition in the sector also appears to be low, reducing labor productivity. Differences in the severity of these problems across regions and retail stores of various sizes are discussed.
Consumer Behavior And Competition In Retailing (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Consumer Behavior And Competition In Retailing (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
Drawing on a small but growing literature, this note argues that consumer behavior may be as important as firm behavior for the level of competition in consumer industries such as retailing. We use data on 1.948 retail stores in India and contribute to the literature in three ways. First, we find that the number of non-workers in the household, a proxy for time cost of shopping, has a large effect on competition. Moving from the city with the least to the most number of non-workers increases competition by 84% of its mean level. Second, as suggested in the literature, we …
Retailing In India: Assessing The Investment Climate, Mohammad Amin
Retailing In India: Assessing The Investment Climate, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
An overview of the business climate for the retail sector in India is provided using micro data on retail stores collected by the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys.
Labor Regulation And Employment In India’S Retail Stores, Mohammad Amin
Labor Regulation And Employment In India’S Retail Stores, Mohammad Amin
Mohammad Amin
A new dataset of 1,948 retail stores in India shows that 27% of the stores find labor regulations as a problem for their business. Using these data, we analyze the effect of labor regulations on employment at the store level. We find that flexible labor regulations have a strong positive effect on job creation. Our estimates show that labor reforms are likely to increase employment by 22% of the current level for an average store. We also address the issue of informality in India’s retail sector. Our findings suggest that more flexible labor laws can encourage firms to operate in …