Home-based Work in India: A Disappearing Continuum of Dependence?

In India, the recent decade has seen particularly dynamic changes in the economy due to the economic reforms. This might have had a significant impact on the labour markets and also led to expansion of markets. The growth of home-based work is viewed within the context of expansion of markets due to trade liberalization and increase in co-ordination costs of skilled workers within a firm. We empirically explore whether the expansion of markets and growth have led to the disappearance of home-based work, a particular form of production system, or changed the relationships of dependence of the home-based workers in different sectors of the economy? Further, we explore whether the nature of dependence within home-based work differed in different segments of the product markets such as in the high-growth versus low-growth industries.