This thesis investigates various aspects of productivity. In the first chapter I investigate the role of consumer demand in generating productivity dispersion. In particular, I study how differences in consumer preferences across the household income distribution generate dispersion in markups across the Indian manufacturing sector. I find that this consumer demand-driven markup channel accounts for at least 8 percent of the observed productivity dispersion across the Indian manufacturing sector. In the second chapter I study how large but temporary aggregate shocks trigger long-run adoption in financial technologies such as electronic payment systems. Specifically, using Indian Demonetization of 2016, I show that coordination frictions can explain 60 percent of long-run adoption due to network-based nature of electronic payment systems. In the third chapter, I study the effect of information on technology adoption and productivity in agriculture. Using an empirical strategy exploits the expansion of the mobile phone network in previously uncovered areas of rural India coupled with the availability of call centers for agricultural advice, I find that information frictions can explain around 25 percent of the agricultural productivity gap between the most productive and the least productive areas in India.

Creator

• Gupta, Apoorv

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-chbf-8q04

Subject

• Economics
• Finance

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:15092
• etdadmin_upload_742465

Keyword

• Productivity
• Financial Technology
• India
• Consumer Demand
• Information Frictions
• Misallocation

Date created

• 2020-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright