Research Interests:
  • Primary: International Trade, Innovation, and Development Economics
  • Secondary: Finance and Labour

Working Papers: 
  • ​​Do Lenders also Respond to Import Competition? Evidence from Bank-Firm Loan Level Data (with S. K. Ritadhi) [pdf]
    • ​How do lenders respond to import competition? Using a novel bank-firm loan level database matched with balance sheet data, we study this question in the context of India following China’s accession to the WTO in 2001. We find strong evidence of endogenous financial constraints and heterogeneity in lender responses to higher import competition. Private banks connected to firms in high exposure sectors drop credit supply by around 25-57% with no effect for government-owned banks'. Drop in credit supply is overwhelmingly driven only by intensive margin. We also show that our results are not driven by other general equilibrium effects such as firm, industry, and geographical characteristics. Banks with a larger share of loans to firms in high exposure sectors suffer a drop in profitability and external borrowing thereby reducing their credit supply. The drop in credit supply also affects real outcomes of firms with economically meaningful implications in terms of sales, use of production factors (labour, capital, and raw materials), and stock of assets. To the best of our knowledge, ours is one of the first to show that shocks to the real economy can also have significant spillover effects to the financial sector.
  • ​Bank Entry, Access to Credit, and Misallocation (with N. Mitra)
  • Import Competition,  ​​Knowledge Access, and Innovation (with R. Ahsan)​​

Paper(s) Under Review:
  • ​​Chinese Import Competition and Prices: Evidence from India (with M. Henry and R. Singh) R&R (2nd Round - Minor) at Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 
  • Import Competition, Formalization, and the Role of Contract Labor (with R. Singh and V. Soundararajan) Revised & Resubmitted at The World Bank Economic Review
  • Trade Reform, M&A Activity, and Family Firms (with H. Yang) Revised & Resubmitted at IMF Economic Review
  • Import Competition, Labour Regulations, and Firm Outsourcing (with D.  Mitra and A. Sundaram) Revised & Resubmitted at Journal of Development Economics
  • Can a Trade Policy Change Increase Gender Equality? New Evidence from Chile (with U. Banerjee and L. Castro) R&R at Journal of International Economics
​
Publications: 
Journal Articles:
  • 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 2017 articles w/the most social media attention @ResearchPolicy  
  • 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]

Other Journal Articles:
  • Effect of Environmental Regulation on Firm Performance: Evidence from a Policy Experiment
    • Economic and Political Weekly 51 (24): 104-111, 2016 [pdf]
  • Standards or Hazards: Environmental Compliance and Market Access Concerns for India’s Marine and Agricultural Products
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law 12 (1): 85-116, 2009 [pdf]
  • Environmental Regulations and Indian Leather Industry (with D. Chakraborty)
    • Economic and Political Weekly 42 (19): 1669-1672, 2007 [pdf]
      • ​Reprinted in N. Kumar and V. V. Ramani (eds.), Indian Industry and Environment: Policies and Practices, pp. 216-222, ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad, 2008
  • India's Exports in the post-WTO Phase: Some Exploratory Results and Future Concerns (with D. Chakraborty)
    • Foreign Trade Review 40 (1): 3-26, 2005 [pdf]

Chapters in Books:
  • 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

​Policy Reports:
  • Spatial Gaps in Management Quality: Evidence from a Lagging Region in Croatia (with A. Grover and L. Iacovone) [pdf]
    • ​World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 9213, World Bank: Washington DC
  • Mainstreaming Gender in Trade Policy – A Case Study on Bhutan [link]
    • UNCTAD 
  • ​Asian and African Development Trajectories: Revisiting Facts and Figures (with G. Carbonnier and E. Dalle Mulle) [link]
    • International Development Policy Brief, Graduate Institute (IHEID), Geneva 
​
Media and Other Writings:
Future Research:
  • Trade and Outsourced Jobs (with L. Castro and V.  Tyazhelnikov)
  • Political Costs of Trade Liberalization: Evidence from India (with S. K. Ritadhi and A. Aneja)
  • R&D Tax Credit and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment (with S. Sircar, R. Verma, and S. Mathur)
  • Creditor Rights, Bank Lending, and Product Variety (with S. K. Ritadhi and V. Tyazhelnikov)
  • Does Gender Reform Affect Financial Behaviour of Firms? New Evidence from India (with S. Banerjee, U. Banerjee, S. K. Ritadhi)​
  • Broadband Policy and Firm Performance: Evidence from China (with W. Zhu)