Research

Working Papers:

This paper estimates the impact of credit constraints on firms' export. I use detailed panel data from Indian manufacturing and service firms that provide a firm-specific measure of credit access based directly on firms' annual financial statements. I was able to map these firms with the kind of banks they were borrowing. I find that firms borrowing from state-owned banks are less likely to exit the export market than those not borrowing from them. After controlling for liquidity and other relevant firm attributes and accounting for the endogeneity of firms borrowing from state-owned banks, the highly leveraged firm has a 1.6% lower probability of leaving the export sector—and it decreases by a further 2.6% if borrowing from at least one of the state-owned banks missing their priority sector lending target. The analysis didn't find any significant effect of policy change on firms trying to enter the export market. There was no significant effect of the policy change on non-exporting small and medium enterprises.

  • "Corporate Taxation, Monitoring and Innovation" with Raoul Minetti and Maurizio Iacopetta (Draft available on request)

We are trying to see the effect on corporate governance when government taxes a firm's profit. The effect can be two-fold; firstly, it has a stake in the current and future cash flow. Secondly, it can have a monitoring role on the activities of the delegated managers through the surveillance of the tax authority. We try to study the consequences of the substitution of tax authority vs. internal monitoring on the firm's investment plan and productivity. We also contrast the long and short-run monitoring horizons of external and internal monitoring in a model of industry dynamics and growth. We add a governance structure in the model in the form of government and managers, which act as a substitute for monitoring where earnings for both are contrasting in nature.

Work in Progress:

  • "Food Inflation and Monetary Policy in India"

This paper looks at the importance of looking at headline inflation and the effect of food inflation on core inflation in a feedback mechanism. It is a widely held belief that central banks should only respond to changes in the underlying core inflation and second-round effects on core inflation of commodity price shocks. There is growing evidence that the dynamics of food price inflation can be very different in emerging economies. I am trying to see the second-round effect of food inflation on core inflation; along with this, the analysis will also examine the persistence of food inflation on core inflation due to its effect on expected inflation.

  • "Demonetization, Indian Industries and their Exports" with Anup K Jha

This paper looks at the effect of demonetization on exports among various industries. We are trying to see the changes in exports for various industries depending on their short-term cash flow requirements.