This paper offers a critique of recent empirical research on the impact of labour regulation on industrial performance in India. It begins with a review of earlier studies that tried to infer the effects on manufacturing employment of amendments made by the central government to the Industrial...

This paper extends an earlier critique (Bhattacharjea 2006) of the empirical literature on labour regulation and industrial performance in India, but focuses more narrowly on the impact of legal restrictions on layoffs, retrenchment and plant closures. After summarizing the earlier paper, it...