Firm Structure, Market Structure, and Firm Dynamics of the Informal
Sector in India: A Survey of Literature
- Himadrija Chakraborty,
- Saumya Chakrabarti
Abstract
Abstract
Despite the expected dissolution of the informal sector with growth, the
ongoing emergence and expansion of this sector, especially in developing
countries like India, has raised a vibrant theoretical and empirical
discussion. This paper aims to survey the vast existing literature on
the informal sector in India, focusing on sectoral and intra-sectoral
aspects such as firm structure, market structure, and firm dynamics.
From the literature, we could identify that competition, or lack of it,
happens to be a crucial issue in analyzing the above-mentioned aspects.
Contrary to this emphasis on the competition by both the orthodox and
heterodox discourses, we try to identify the role of intra and
extra-firm collaboration in the context of firm structure, market
structure, and firm dynamics. However, the role of collaboration in
these aspects is largely under-researched in the existing literature and
thus could be a potential scope of future research in the informal
sector.