Research Interests:
Working Papers:
Publications:
Journal Articles:
- Primary: International Trade, Innovation, and Development Economics
- Secondary: Finance
Working Papers:
- R&D Tax Credit and Product Quality vs. Scope (with S. Sircar, R. Verma, and S. Mathur)
- Do firms with heterogeneous in-house R&D capacity respond discordantly in terms of product development to an industrial policy aimed at boosting R&D expenditure? We utilize an R&D tax credit policy introduced in 1998 by the Indian Govt. which was aimed at firms with in-house R&D units in certain groups of industries. We find that the policy led to increase in R&D expenses for all firms, but the effect on product development is quite different. Small and medium-sized firms spend their new R&D investments to expand product scope, while large firms invest in upgrading the quality of the products. These effects are largely driven by exporters and firms producing differentiated products. We rationalize our findings using a heterogeneous firm model in which a firm maximizes output along three dimensions: product scope, scale, and quality. Lastly, our results show significant welfare gains as the aggregate price index decreased by about 93%. To our knowledge, ours is one of the first to show that the R&D tax credit policy can promote industrial development through gains from increased product quality and variety.
- Import Competition, Knowledge Diffusion, and Innovation (with R. Ahsan)
- Successful innovation depends on the stock of knowledge that innovators have access to. Yet, empirical analysis of the impact of trade on innovation abstracts from such knowledge diffusion. We address this gap in the literature by drawing upon the universe of Indian patent applications between 1995 and 2006, which we map to a spatially granular level. We use this original dataset to provide the first evidence of how knowledge diffusion shapes the innovation response of firms facing import competition. We find that, on average, import competition lowers innovation. However, firms that are close to other patenting firms (knowledge access) innovate more: a firm with the 80th percentile knowledge access increases its patents by 3.28% after experiencing a 10% increase in imports. These results suggest that the pre-existing spatial distribution of innovators is an important determinant of how import competition will affect overall innovation.
- War and Trade Diversion (with Anindya S Chakrabarti and Avi Dutt)
- Wars affect international trade flows, often due to changes in trade routes and partners of firms. While trade diversion by countries affected by a war is observable, evidence on the export destination choices of firms from non-participating countries are rare. Following the onset of the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war, a demand shock originated in Russia for multiple products, including leather. Using granular bills of lading data, we show that Indian leather exporters redirected their sales to Russia relative to Oceania, South-East Asia, Africa and the Caribbean while leaving the US and European markets unperturbed. Sales to Russia nearly doubled due to both quantity and price increase, driven by incumbent exporters exporting non-sanctioned products using air-route, comparatively more than sea-route. Effects were significantly higher in the first six months of the war, but persisted till one and half years suggesting a longer term but waning trade diversion phenomenon. Similar export patterns of medicine and surgical products verify for external validity.
- Wars affect international trade flows, often due to changes in trade routes and partners of firms. While trade diversion by countries affected by a war is observable, evidence on the export destination choices of firms from non-participating countries are rare. Following the onset of the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war, a demand shock originated in Russia for multiple products, including leather. Using granular bills of lading data, we show that Indian leather exporters redirected their sales to Russia relative to Oceania, South-East Asia, Africa and the Caribbean while leaving the US and European markets unperturbed. Sales to Russia nearly doubled due to both quantity and price increase, driven by incumbent exporters exporting non-sanctioned products using air-route, comparatively more than sea-route. Effects were significantly higher in the first six months of the war, but persisted till one and half years suggesting a longer term but waning trade diversion phenomenon. Similar export patterns of medicine and surgical products verify for external validity.
- Ethnic Politics and the Distributional Effects of Trade Liberalization: Evidence from India (with A. Aneja and S. K. Ritadhi) (Under Revision)
- Bank Entry, New Loans, and Misallocation (with N. Mitra) (Under Revision)
- Import Competition and Heterogeneous Responses of Banks (with S. K. Ritadhi) (Under Revision)
Publications:
Journal Articles:
- Can a Trade Policy Change Gender Equality? New Evidence from Chile (with U. Banerjee and L. Castro) [pdf]
- Journal of International Economics 157: 104143, 2025 [pdf]
- Chinese Import Competition and Prices: Evidence from India (with M. Henry and R. Singh)
- Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 86(6): 1484-1510, 2024 [pdf]
- Import Competition, Formalization, and the Role of Contract Labor (with R. Singh and V. Soundararajan)
- The World Bank Economic Review 38 (4): 708-740, 2024 [pdf]
- Import Competition, Labour Regulations, and Firm Outsourcing (with D. Mitra and A. Sundaram)
- Journal of Development Economics 168: 103272, 2024 [pdf]
- Bank Ownership and Firm Performance
- Economica 91 (361): 238-267, 2024 [pdf]
- Cross-border Environmental Regulation and Firm Labor Demand (with A. Chakrabarti and C. Chatterjee)
- Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 117: 102753, 2023 [pdf]
- Intellectual Property Regimes and Wage Inequality (with S. Bhattacharya and C. Chatterjee)
- Journal of Development Economics 154: 102709, 2022 [pdf]
- Chinese Competition and Product Variety of Indian firms (with M. Henry)
- Journal of Comparative Economics 47 (2): 367-395, 2019 [pdf]
- Input-trade Liberalization and the Demand for Managers: Evidence from India (with O. Raveh)
- Journal of International Economics 111: 159-176, 2018 [pdf]
- The Great Trade Collapse and Indian Firms
- World Economy 41 (1): 100-125, 2018 [pdf]
- Environmental Standards, Trade and Innovation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
- Environment and Development Economics 22 (4): 414-446, 2017 [pdf]
- Does Environmental Regulation Indirectly Induce Upstream Innovation? New Evidence from India (with C. Chatterjee)
- Research Policy 46 (5): 939-955, 2017 [pdf]
- Top three articles in 2017 w/the most social media attention @ResearchPolicy
- Research Policy 46 (5): 939-955, 2017 [pdf]
- Judicial Quality and Regional Firm Performance: The Case of Indian States
- Journal of Comparative Economics 44 (4): 902-918, 2016 [pdf]
- Does Openness Affect Inequality? A Case Study for India (with A. Barua)
- Review of Development Economics 14 (3): 447-465, 2010 [pdf]
- Trade Reform, Managers, and Skill Intensity: Evidence from India [pdf]
- in M. Bacchetta and M. Helble (eds.), Trade Adjustment in Asia: Past Experiences and Lessons Learned, pp. 229-275, 2019
- Trade and Industrial Performance since the WTO Reforms: What Indian Evidences Suggest? (with A. Barua and D. Chakraborty) [pdf]
- in R. M. Stern and A. Barua (eds.), India and the WTO: Issues and Negotiating Strategies, pp. 121-144, 2010
- Environmental Service Negotiation and India: Priorities and Concerns (with O. De) [pdf]
- in B. DebRoy et al. (eds.) the trade game: negotiation trends at WTO and concerns of developing countries, pp. 203-214, 2006
- Creditor Rights, Firm Credit, and Product Scope (with V. Tyazhelnikov)
- Input Tariffs, Roads, and Female Employment: Evidence from Ethiopia (with W. Gebre)
- Divided by Skill, Driven by Competition: Outsourcing Decisions at the Firm Level (with L. Castro and V. Tyazhelnikov)
- Trade Reform, M&A Activity, and Family Firms (with H. Yang)
- TBTs and Domestic Firms' Performance (with A. de Pirro)
- GST, Inputs Use, and Quality Upgrading (with Yogeshwar Bharat)
- Cotton and Conflict: How the U.S. Civil War Revolutionized India's Industrial and Social Hierarchy (with U. Banerjee)
- Does Gender Reform Affect Financial Behaviour of Firms? New Evidence from India (with S. Banerjee and U. Banerjee)
