Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
How much do changes in the fragmentation of production contribute to growth? Using detailed plant-level data on the manufacturing sector in India between 1990 and 2014, we study Smithian growth, the link between greater fragmentation of production and productivity. We propose a measure of a plant’s vertical span, which corresponds roughly to the number of stages in a supply chain that the plant performs in-house; when plants have smaller vertical spans, production is more fragmented. We find that fragmentation increases with development in both the cross-section and time series. Further, within locations at a point in time, larger plants tend to have smaller vertical spans, and those that increase sales tend to decrease vertical span. Using changes in demand during the tariff liberalization in the 1990s, we provide evidence that increased size causes specialization. We find evidence from economies of scale in specialization. A model serves to rationalize these findings and as a basis for quantitative work.
With Ezra Oberfield (Princeton)
