Economic policy reforms and trade performance of private corporate sector in India

Abstract

After 1991-92, India has witnessed widespread policy reforms in order to integrate its economy with the rest of the world. In this fact-finding study, the balance-sheet data of 557 private sector companies are considered over the 16 years period with several ratios and indicators of performance or trade behavior. The companies are divided into exporting and non-exporting groups and annual median values of different ratios are examined fitting linear spline trend with a kink at 1991-92. On the whole, the exporting companies ae performing much better than the non-exporting companies. The policy reforms have, however, helped the non-exporting companies to improve their margins though they have been pushed to the lower end of the domestic markets. The data considered here do not seem to support the hypothesis of a significant shift in the development strategy of the government from import substitution to export promotion.