Summary

India is the only developing country with an extensive set of policies designed to promote and protect small enterprises. By examining Indian small enterprise development and policy in an international context, this book provides lessons for industrial policy in developing economies. The authors draw on data from new and intensive surveys of several industries in India and other countries to elucidate the relative advantages of large and small units, especially with regard to the efficiency of labor and capital use. Concluding that modern small enterprises are not reliably more labor-intensive than larger enterprises, and often use capital and labor less efficiently, they present a plan of policy reform that advocates promotion of agriculture and industrial equality in achieving adequate demand for labor.