Deepraj Mukherjee

Foreign Direct Investment and Export Performance in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Indian IT Firms

The effects of FDI on export behavior of both recipients and non-recipient competing firms in the same sector often guides economic development policy. We estimate a Logit model of the probability of export and Pooled Tobit and Fixed and Random Effects Tobit models of the volume of exports using a large sample of Indian Information Technology firms in 2000-2006 that focus on the role of FDI. For FDI recipients the probability of exporting and the volume of exports is greater. In addition, there is clear evidence of a spillover of the effects of FDI to non-recipient firms as their probability of exporting also increase. In a random effects Tobit model spillover also exists for the volume of exports.

Re-examining the relationship between domestic investment and foreign aid: does political stability matter?

While past studies had conflicting conclusions regarding the impact of foreign aid on growth and development of a nation, recent studies have tried to delve deeper into the question, ‘what makes aid work?’ (see, Dutta, Leeson, and Williamson, 2013; Burnside and Dollar, 2000, 2004; Svensson, 1999). This paper tests how political stability (vis-à-vis political instability) affects the relationship between domestic investment and foreign aid. Applying dynamic panel estimators, our results show that political stability affects aid’s effectiveness on domestic capital formation. The paper considers alternative measures of political stability (vis-à-vis instability), focusing on the political characteristics of a system that have the potential to make a nation stable. Political stability affects policy selection by the government positively and, thus, public resources such as foreign aid are put to the desired use. The estimated marginal impacts show that foreign aid enhances domestic investment in the presence of a stable political climate, but there is a diminishing return to aid.

Foreign Capital, Spillovers and Export Performance in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Indian it Firms

The role of foreign capital inflow, foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI), on export behavior of both recipients and non-recipient competing firms in the same sector often guides economic development policy. By using panel data of Indian IT firms over 2000–2006, we show that FDI reduces the sunk costs of entering foreign markets and therefore positively effects both the decision to export and the export propensity of recipient firms. Foreign portfolio investment has no effect on the decision to export, but it does marginally increase the volume of exports. Further, these positive FDI and FPI recipient effects do not spill-over to non-recipients.

Corruption in International Business: Does Economic Globalization Help?

While many studies have shown that increased levels of economic globalization diminish the level of corruption among trading partners, there are studies that have raised doubts against this claim. In this article, we explore this relationship in a large sample of 138 countries and find that the effect of economic globalization on the level of corruption is not significant. The findings, however, are not indicative of the undesirability of economic globalization. In fact, we find that greater levels of economic development are associated with lower levels of corruption. Nevertheless, it does call for some precaution and monitoring as trade openness alone may not be the panacea for controlling corruption and other factors, for example, the importance of building of relevant institutions to curb corruption may need to be considered. Additionally, it is important to identify moderator and mediator variables that may change the strength and direction of the aforementioned relationship. We conclude by explaining the implications of our findings for international business (IB).

Cultural traits and stock market development: an empirical analysis

Purpose – During recent times, the stock market has emerged as a major financial institution of an economy. Yet, cross-country differences, in size and role of stock market, persist. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlation between cultural traits and the development of the stock market in a country. Considering multiple dimensions of culture, identified in the literature by Hofstede (1980/2001) and World Value Survey, the authors construct the hypotheses: trust, a key cultural trait, should positively influence stock market development; uncertainty avoidance, Hofstede’s cultural dimension should negatively influence the development of the stock market; and individualism, an alternate cultural dimension of Hofstede’s measures, should be positively correlated with stock market development. The cross-country empirical analysis supports the hypotheses. The results hold for multiple measures of stock market development. Design/methodology/approach – This paper investigates the correlation b...

Do Political Institutions and Culture Jointly Matter for Financial Development? A Cross-Country Panel Investigation

Abstract This article investigates the role of political institutions and culture in creating an efficient financial infrastructure for a country. It further delves into this relationship and addresses the question: do both types of institutions mentioned above affect financial development of a country, jointly? Our findings support the established notion in the literature that institutions matter for financial development. We show both these types of institutions – political institutions and culture – jointly promote financial development. Further, our result stresses that these two types of institutions behave as complements – the presence of efficient political institutions augment the effectiveness of culture and, thus, financial development is enhanced. Our results are robust to various proxies of institutions and alternate estimation models.