An Econometric Appraisal of the Impact of Economic Reforms on the Growth Performance of Assam

Abstract

In the year 1991, India had undertaken the Economic reforms in the country which necessarily laid considerable impact on every state of the country and every economic sector. There are many studies on the impact of India's economic reforms on economic growth performance, but the focus has been largely on the performance of the economy as a whole or of individual sectors. The performance of individual states in the post-reform period has not received comparable attention so this study is an attempt to cover this area of interest. Further balanced regional development has always remained on top of the agenda in the national policy of India and it is necessary to evaluate whether economic reforms have promoted this objective or not. In this regard, considering the growth performance of the Assam economy in the pre-reform and post-reform period we have tried to evaluate the impact of the reforms on the Gross State Domestic Product of the state. In this paper, we have tried to evaluate the impact based on a comparison between GSDP of Assam in the pre reform and post reform period. The paper uses simple statistical or econometric tools like mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and most importantly a Paired T test for the GSDP in the Pre and Post reforms period in the state. In this way, the study makes an attempt to evaluate the impact of economic reforms on the growth performance of the state of Assam.