An empirical evidence of structural change in production parameters of MSMEs under economic reforms in India

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of economic reforms on structural change in production function of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India. The paper examines the effect of economic reforms on parameters of production of MSMEs located in the eastern region of Uttar Pradesh, a province in India. This study is based on the analysis of primary data collected from small firms located in the region. It has used neutral and non-neutral technical change constant elasticity of substitution production function for the analysis. The results indicate that the efficiency of the production process has increased and MSMEs have become more independent and capital intensive during economic reforms. Further, the result shows that the value of the elasticity of substitution between factors of production decreases in non-neutral technical change while it has increased in neutral technical change under reform process. Finally, the study reveals that the production function is reflecting a negative return to scale and downsizing is the natural repercussion of the reform process.