Research

This paper examines the effect of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) imposed by India on firms’ sourcing decisions and innovation investments. Using a comprehensive database of TBT measures raised as concerns at the WTO (Specific Trade Concerns –STCs) matched with detailed panel data on Indian firms from 1991–2006, this paper focuses on restrictive TBTs. The analysis shows that these measures reduce reliance on imported intermediates and increase the use of domestic inputs, consistent with substitution toward domestic sourcing. At the same time, firms cut back on in-house R&D while increasing payments for royalties and technical know-how, reflecting a shift toward external technologies. The contribution of this paper is to provide firm-level evidence from a large developing economy on how restrictive TBTs alter sourcing decisions and reshape firms’ innovation investments.

A public development bank (PDB), like any other bank, serves as a financial intermediary, but with a strong developmental role. This paper provides an overview of PDBs in Egypt. The latter is of particular interest for two reasons. First, while PDBs have a long history in the Egyptian economy, their roles and interventions are rather limited. This applies to banks that were created during the socialist era of Former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Second, the largest share of PDB-related projects implemented in Egypt is undertaken by government-owned commercial banks, namely the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, and Banque du Caire. Thus, the objective of this paper is twofold: first, to analyze how and why the role of PDBs can be played by public banks; and second, to highlight the lessons that can be learned from the resilience of the Egyptian financial systems to the succession of crises/disruptions. 

• Fouad, J., Said, M., Sherif, W., & Zaki, C. (2022) . Public Banks and Development in Egypt: Overview, Issues and the Way Forward. Economic Research Forum (ERF)