This paper examines the relationship between labor market flexibility and matching function efficiency in India. With state-level disaggregated data, the matching function in India is estimated to investigate differences in the matching function efficiency across regions of different labor market flexibility. In addition, matching parameters are estimated in the respective regions that categorized by the degree of labor market flexibility. It is the first original work that uses state-level data to estimate matching function in India. The data are drawn from Employment Exchange in India, the only public job centre in this country. The results show that there is no link between labor market flexibility and matching function efficiency. The evidence indicates that regions having inflexible labor markets reveal entirely vacancy-driven job matching process, which implies lack of labor demand. For these regions, it is recommended that policies to boost labor demand such as employment subsidies are appropriate to create more employment.

Executive Summary

I. Introduction

II. Literature Review

III. Brief Overview of Labor Market Regulations in India

IV. Overview of Matching Function

V. Employment Exchange in India and its Data
1. Public Employment Services in India
2. Data Description

VI. Labor Market Flexibility and Matching Functions in India
1. A Simple Explanation on Labor Market Flexibility in Search-Matching Model
2. Econometric Specifications
3. Matching Function with all States
4. Matching Function with Labor Market Flexibility
5. Robustness Checks
6. Matching functions by Groups in terms of labor market flexibility

VII. Concluding Remarks

References

Appendix