Geographic Concentration in Indian Manufacturing and Service Industries: Evidence from 1998 – 2013

This paper uses a comprehensive new data source to document basic facts about geographicconcentration among industries in India from 1998 to 2013. Unlike previous studies, our dataallow us to accurately measure industrial concentration at the district level and covermanufacturing and services, as well as the formal and informal sectors. Our most strikingfinding is that average levels of industrial concentration fell dramatically between 1998 and2013, driven by steep reductions in capital-intensive manufacturing industries. We providesuggestive evidence that this increasing dispersion may be due to improvements ininterregional transportation coupled with inefficient land management policies and limitedlabor mobility.