Purpose

According to the Government of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment Report (2015), almost 90% of the Indian workforce can still be categorized as informally employed, generating approximately 50% of the national product. Challenges with data availability have made a rigorous analysis of the informal economy in India often difficult and inadequate for policy formulations. This study aims to fill the gap by providing an empirical analysis of the informal economy in India using micro-data from the World Bank’s Informal Enterprise Surveys.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors contribute by empirically testing the association between the adoption of digital technology (payments) and firm performance proxied by firm sales. Matching models are used to mitigate sample selection bias arising out of simultaneous sample selection.

Findings

The results suggest that the participation in digital platforms, namely, use of digital payment instruments, is associated with higher sales for firms. The results of this study also show that adoption of digital payments helps in both situations – whether a firm has been using digital technology or has just started using it since the outbreak.

Research limitations/implications

More in-depth data over time, spanning across more cities of India, is needed to conduct a further detailed investigation.

Social implications

The results should allow policymakers in India to reconsider youth-centric and women-centric business needs, even within the informal sector, which does not often enter the purview of the government but remains responsible for the growth and sustenance of 90% of the country’s workforce. If further research on this issue could engage with the impact of demonetization of currency in 2016 as a lagged shock on sales and reestimate subsequent growth, it would perhaps offer a wider spectrum of how the performance of the informal economy in India affects the entire economy, which has over the last four years and before the onset of Covid reported slower growth.

Originality/value

Productivity is measured in terms of sales of informal firms in India in a regular month or in recent period like last month. Adoption of technology such as making payments using digital platforms can enhance productivity of firms by lowering standard transaction costs and time spent for visiting banks or financial institutions. Albeit not extensively, the literature has investigated digital technology adoption in the context of firms achieving comparative advantage (D’Ippolito et al. 2019; Scuotto et al. 2017), firms generating value creation (Magistretti, Dell’Era and Petruzzelli, 2019), and in helping with strategic initiatives and agility of firms (Ghezzi and Cavallo, 2018; Piccoli and Ives, 2005). Nonetheless, it would incur certain fixed costs, including acquiring skills and awareness, to manage digital platforms. In addition, physical access to instruments such as smartphones or computers and internet connectivity are prerequisites for productivity enhancements. Firms belonging to the informal sector in India generally face these challenges but may also benefit significantly following successful adoption. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a preliminary empirical analysis of the impact of digital technology adoption on the performance of informal sector firms in India.

中文翻译：

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印度的非正规部门和数字技术的采用

目的

根据印度政府劳动和就业部报告（2015），近90%的印度劳动力仍可归类为非正规就业，创造了约50%的国民生产总值。数据可用性方面的挑战使得对印度非正规经济的严格分析往往变得困难且不足以制定政策。本研究旨在利用世界银行非正式企业调查的微观数据对印度的非正规经济进行实证分析，从而填补这一空白。

设计/方法论/途径

作者通过实证检验数字技术（支付）的采用与公司销售额所代表的公司绩效之间的关联来做出贡献。匹配模型用于减轻因同时样本选择而产生的样本选择偏差。

发现

结果表明，参与数字平台，即使用数字支付工具，与企业更高的销售额相关。这项研究的结果还表明，采用数字支付对这两种情况都有帮助——无论是一家公司一直在使用数字技术还是自疫情爆发以来才刚刚开始使用。

研究局限性/影响

随着时间的推移，需要跨越印度更多城市的更深入的数据来进行进一步的详细调查。

社会影响

研究结果应使印度的政策制定者能够重新考虑以青年为中心和以女性为中心的商业需求，即使是在非正规部门，该部门通常不属于政府的职权范围，但仍然负责该国 90% 劳动力的增长和维持生计。如果对这个问题的进一步研究能够将 2016 年货币废止对销售的影响视为滞后冲击，并重新估计随后的增长，那么它可能会提供更广泛的信息来了解印度非正规经济的表现如何影响整个经济。在过去四年和新冠疫情爆发之前，该公司的增长速度较慢。

原创性/价值

生产率是根据印度非正规企业每月或最近一段时间（如上个月）的销售额来衡量的。采用数字平台支付等技术可以降低标准交易成本和访问银行或金融机构所花费的时间，从而提高企业的生产力。尽管并不广泛，但文献研究了企业实现比较优势（D'Ippolito等人， 2019 年；Scuotto等人， 2017 年）、企业创造价值（Magistretti、Dell'Era 和 Petruzzelli，2019 年）背景下数字技术的采用情况。，并帮助企业实施战略举措和敏捷性（Ghezzi 和 Cavallo，2018 年；Piccoli 和 Ives，2005 年）。尽管如此，它仍会产生一定的固定成本，包括获取技能和意识来管理数字平台。此外，对智能手机或计算机等仪器的物理访问以及互联网连接是提高生产力的先决条件。印度非正规部门的企业通常面临这些挑战，但在成功采用后也可能受益匪浅。据作者所知，这是第一项对数字技术采用对印度非正规部门企业绩效影响进行初步实证分析的研究。