Research

This paper examines the links between the production of disruptive innovation and labour market outcomes in the USA to check its benefits for host counties. Combining data from the American Community Survey and data on patenting at the county-level to create a novel dataset, I use a Bartik shift-share instrument to examine the causal link between a rise in the number of disruptive patents filed in counties to wages,  employment, population and house prices. The results suggest no effects for wages, population and house prices, and a positive elasticity of 0.02 for employment rate. Testing for three mechanisms which could mediate these effects, I find the results are driven by sectoral spillovers and migration, with weak evidence of knowledge spillovers to local industries.


This paper investigates the nature of the relationship between patenting by multinational R&D laboratories and local Indian entities engaged in innovation through a model of horizontal spillovers. Using a novel data set scraped from the Indian Patent Database (InPASS) on patent applications led between 1994 and 2017, I study the impact that patenting by the R&D centres has on local patenting activity. Using an instrumental-variable approach to identification, I find that a 10 percent increase in patenting by R&D laboratories in India in a specific technology field leads to a 0.55 percent increase in domestic patenting activity in that field, and that these results are driven by non-local competition effects.


This paper examines the links in patenting between India and the USA through the activities of Indian IT firms that operate in the USA. Using the maturity of disruptive technologies, we exploit a quasi-experimental setup to find out how firm exposure to patent producing counties in the USA affects the patent applications filed by these Indian firms in India. We locate the activity of Indian firms using H1B visa application data and check if they have presence in counties which produce patents in the disruptive technologies. We use a staggered difference-in-difference specification to find that a 15.9 percent increase in the patenting activity by Indian firms on exposure to patent producing counties following the maturity.


The Impact of Media on Brexit


Politics in democratic countries is undergoing major upheavals with the rapid proliferation of media. Brexit is one of the most prominent examples of such change. This paper attempts an examination of the link between the consumption of political news from mass media sources, such as newspapers, television and the internet, and shifts in individual preferences on Brexit using data from the British Election Study. Using value-added and fixed effects model, based on a sketch framework based on rational inattention, the paper provides evidence that changes in media consumption have an impact on voter preferences.

Policy

Growth accounting revisited: digital transition and sources of growth, in EBRD Transition Report 2021-22. with Alexander Plekhanov. 

An update on the discussion on sources of growth in the Transition Report 2017-18. Following a growth accounting approach, this analysis links economic growth to changes in capital, labour and the residual, total factor productivity (which indicates the efficiency with which factors of production are combined, and can often be enhanced by the use of digital technologies). 


Empowering Labour Force in Technology Driven Era: An Indian Context. with Dr Ruth Kattumuri, 2020. LSE India Observatory Working Paper 11.

This paper focuses on the opportunities and challenges through technological advancements toward enhancing labour force in an Indian context. Through a conceptual framework of a circular model of technological development, it examines the prospects for technological advancements enhancing labour force from the perspective of productivity, accessibility, opportunity and prosperity. The paper suggests opportunities for creating an enabling ecosystem for labour force participation involving active governance and regulation, and presents some examples from India across all these contexts, discussing policies for labour force resource management.

Reserve Bank of India Report on Incentives and Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGTMSE). Internal Report, RBI, 2015.

Based on a survey conducted across commercial banks in Mumbai, this report presents a qualitative assessment of the impact of a generous credit guarantee scheme, enforced to allow SME firms smooth access to collateral free credit, on the structure of incentives to the borrowers as well as the agents of the local banks. The primary findings indicate that Indian commercial banks have avoided the creation of a moral hazard problem by aligning their internal incentive structures with those of the guarantee scheme. On the other hand, poor institutions to enforce laws and political interference have created a significant mass of bad debt for public sector banks.


Book Chapters


Co-edited with Lord Prof Nicholas Stern (OUP), 2018


Co-authored with Himanshu, Peter Lanjouw & Nicholas Stern, in How Lives Change: Palanpur, India, and Development Economics, ed. Himanshu, Peter Lanjouw & Nicholas Stern (OUP), 2018

Co-authored with Himanshu, Peter Lanjouw & Nicholas Stern, in How Lives Change: Palanpur, India, and Development Economics, ed. Himanshu, Peter Lanjouw & Nicholas Stern (OUP), 2018