The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility

The Indian software industry is a prime example of globalisation. The industry has been characterised by large cross-border mobility of its skilled labour force. Using a unique survey of Indian software firms, our paper quantifies the extent and impact of mobility on firm behaviour and performance....

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Main Authors:	Commander, Simon, Chanda, Rupa, Kangasniemi, Mari, Winters, L. Alan
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Multinational Firms International Business F230 Geographic Labor Mobility Immigrant Workers J610 Information and Internet Services Computer Software L860 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5542

id	okr-10986-5542
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-55422021-04-23T14:02:22Z The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility Commander, Simon Chanda, Rupa Kangasniemi, Mari Winters, L. Alan Multinational Firms International Business F230 Geographic Labor Mobility Immigrant Workers J610 Information and Internet Services Computer Software L860 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140 The Indian software industry is a prime example of globalisation. The industry has been characterised by large cross-border mobility of its skilled labour force. Using a unique survey of Indian software firms, our paper quantifies the extent and impact of mobility on firm behaviour and performance. Cross-border labour mobility in the paper refers to both temporary and permanent labour flows by Indian software professionals. The picture that emerges is of a highly mobile world in which temporary mobility has been an important characteristic of the industry. A significant number of workers have work experience abroad in a developed country. Moreover, the share of skilled workers with such experience has been positively associated with the incidence of skilled migration from the firm. This suggests network effects are at work. In terms of the impact on performance--as measured by the change in turnover per worker and the change in the employment size of the firm--the paper finds little evidence of a robust adverse effect. Further, the evidence suggests that there have been important external effects at work, as through changes in the willingness of workers to acquire skills, as well as through increased provision of educational services. These have further abated the risk of a brain drain. However, the software industry may be rather different from other industries. Our results need to be interpreted as the outcome of a particular case of skilled migration and not one necessarily representative of all types of skilled migration and source sectors. 2012-03-30T07:33:20Z 2012-03-30T07:33:20Z 2008 Journal Article World Economy 03785920 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5542 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article India
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Multinational Firms International Business F230 Geographic Labor Mobility Immigrant Workers J610 Information and Internet Services Computer Software L860 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140
spellingShingle	Multinational Firms International Business F230 Geographic Labor Mobility Immigrant Workers J610 Information and Internet Services Computer Software L860 Industrialization Manufacturing and Service Industries Choice of Technology O140 Commander, Simon Chanda, Rupa Kangasniemi, Mari Winters, L. Alan The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
geographic_facet	India
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	The Indian software industry is a prime example of globalisation. The industry has been characterised by large cross-border mobility of its skilled labour force. Using a unique survey of Indian software firms, our paper quantifies the extent and impact of mobility on firm behaviour and performance. Cross-border labour mobility in the paper refers to both temporary and permanent labour flows by Indian software professionals. The picture that emerges is of a highly mobile world in which temporary mobility has been an important characteristic of the industry. A significant number of workers have work experience abroad in a developed country. Moreover, the share of skilled workers with such experience has been positively associated with the incidence of skilled migration from the firm. This suggests network effects are at work. In terms of the impact on performance--as measured by the change in turnover per worker and the change in the employment size of the firm--the paper finds little evidence of a robust adverse effect. Further, the evidence suggests that there have been important external effects at work, as through changes in the willingness of workers to acquire skills, as well as through increased provision of educational services. These have further abated the risk of a brain drain. However, the software industry may be rather different from other industries. Our results need to be interpreted as the outcome of a particular case of skilled migration and not one necessarily representative of all types of skilled migration and source sectors.
format	Journal Article
author	Commander, Simon Chanda, Rupa Kangasniemi, Mari Winters, L. Alan
author_facet	Commander, Simon Chanda, Rupa Kangasniemi, Mari Winters, L. Alan
author_sort	Commander, Simon
title	The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
title_short	The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
title_full	The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
title_fullStr	The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
title_full_unstemmed	The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
title_sort	consequences of globalisation : india's software industry and cross-border labour mobility
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5542
_version_	1764395427079127040

The Consequences of Globalisation : India's Software Industry and Cross-Border Labour Mobility

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