Local financial development and growth

Using a unique sample of net domestic product data for districts in India, I investigate the connection between banking sector development, human capital, and economic growth at the sub-national level. Using disaggregate data avoids many of the omitted variable problems that plague cross-country studies of the finance-growth connection and facilitates an instrumentation strategy. The findings show that the growth of many districts in India is financially constrained due to lack of banking sector development, and that the relationship between finance and growth may be non-linear. For the districts in the sample, moving from the 75th percentile of credit/net domestic product to the 25th percentile implies an average loss of 4 percent in growth over the 1990s. This indicates that the gains from increased banking sector outreach may be large. The analysis shows that human capital deepening can reduce the effect of the financial constraint and help decouple growth from financial development. In a district at the 25th literacy percentile, the implied growth loss due to a constrained banking sector is twice as large as in a district at the 75th literacy percentile. Thus, higher levels of human capital may activate alternative growth and production channels that are less finance intensive.Banks&Banking Reform,Access to Finance,,Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets

Measuring financial access around the world

This paper introduces a new set of financial access indicators for 139 countries across the globe and describes the results of a preliminary analysis of this data set. The new data set builds on previous work using a similar methodology. The new data set features broader country coverage and greater disaggregation by type of financial product and by type of institution supplying the product -- commercial banks, specialized state run savings and development banks, banks with mutual ownership structure (such as cooperatives), and microfinance institutions. The authors use the data set to conduct a rough estimation of the number of bank accounts in the world (6.2 billion) as well as the number of banked and unbanked individuals. In developed countries, they estimate 3.2 accounts per adult and 81 percent of adults banked. By contrast, in developing countries, they estimate only 0.9 accounts per adult and 28 percent banked. In regression analysis, they find that measures of development and physical infrastructure are positively associated with the indicators of deposit account, loan, and branch penetration.Access to Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,E-Business

Analyzing and exploiting biomass thermal deconstruction

The study of biomass thermal deconstruction most often focuses on its fina lproducts while neglecting the non-volatile condensed phase intermediate species. Furthermore, given the often short reaction durations, time-resolution is also rarely achieved. This dissertation aims to correct these two omissions by developing and utilizing multiple methods of truncated thermal deconstruction of biomass or its constituent biopolymers (namely cellulose). The results demonstrate that final product yields result from the myriad of reactions occurring primarily within the condensed phase intermediate species. Analyzing this overlooked aspect of thermal deconstruction will assist others when building more accurate predictive models. Additionally, once better understood, these reactions can be exploited to produce higher product yields of desired chemicals

Indian Capital Control Liberalization: Evidence from NDF Markets

This paper analyzes the extent to which the effectiveness of capital controls in India have changed over time. We begin by calculating deviations from covered interest parity utilizing data from the 3-month offshore non-deliverable rupiah forward (NDF) market. Then, using the self-exciting threshold autoregression methodology, we estimate a no-arbitrage band whose boundaries are determined by transactions costs and by the effectiveness of capital controls. Inside the bands, small deviations from CIP follow a random walk process. Outside the bands, profitable arbitrage opportunities exist and we estimate an adjustment process back towards the boundaries. We identify three distinct periods, and estimate the model over each sub-sample in order to capture the de facto effect of changes in capital controls over time. We find that de facto capital control barriers: (1) are asymmetric over inflows and outflows, (2) have changed over time from primarily restricting outflows to effectively restricting inflows; (3) arbitrage activity closes deviations from CIP when the threshold boundaries are exceeded in all sub-samples. In recent years, capital controls have been more symmetric over capital inflows and outflows and the deviations from CIP outside the boundaries are closed more quickly.capital controls; India; arbitrage; non-deliverable forward markets; covered interest parity; self-exciting autoregressive threshold model

Indian Capital Control Liberalization : Evidence from NDF Markets

The Indian government has taken a number of incremental measures to liberalise legal and administrative impediments to international capital movements in recent years. This paper analyses the extent to which the effectiveness of capital controls in India, measured by the domestic less net foreign interest rate differential (deviations from covered interest rate parity) have changed over time. We utilise the 3-month offshore non-deliverable forward (NDF) market to measure the effective foreign interest rate (implied NDF yield). Using the self exciting threshold autoregression (SETAR) methodology, we estimate a no-arbitrage bandwidth whose boundaries are determined by transactions costs and capital controls. Inside of the bands, small deviations from CIP follow a random walk process. Outside the bands, profitable arbitrage opportunities exist and we estimate an adjustment process back towards the boundaries. We allow for asymmetric boundaries and asymmetric speeds of adjustment (above and below the band thresholds), which may vary depending on how arbitrage activity is constrained by capital controls. We test for structural breaks, identify three distinct periods, and estimate these parameters over each sub-sample in order to capture the de facto effect of changes in capital controls over time. We find that de facto capital control barriers : (1) are asymmetric over inflows and outflows, (2) have changed over time from primarily restricting outflows to effectively restricting inflows (measured by bandwidths and positions); (3) arbitrage activity closes deviations from CIP when the threshold boundaries are exceeded in all sub-samples. In recent years, capital controls have been more symmetric over capital inflows and outflows and the deviations from CIP outside the boundaries are closed more quickly.capital controls, non-deliverable forward markets, India, economic reform, liberalization

Indian capital control liberalization: Evidence from NDF markets.

The Indian government has taken a number of incremental measures to liberalise legal and administrative impediments to international capital movements in recent years. This paper analyses the extent to which the effectiveness of capital controls in India, measured by the domestic less net foreign interest rate differential (deviations from covered interest rate parity) have changed over time. We utilise the 3-month offshore non-deliverable forward (NDF) market to measure the effective foreign interest rate (implied NDF yield). Using the self exciting threshold autoregression (SETAR) methodology, we estimate a no-arbitrage bandwidth whose boundaries are determined by transactions costs and capital controls. Inside of the bands, small deviations from CIP follow a random walk process. Outside the bands, profitable arbitrage opportunities exist and we estimate an adjustment process back towards the boundaries. We allow for asymmetric boundaries and asymmetric speeds of adjustment (above and below the band thresholds), which may vary depending on how arbitrage activity is constrained by capital controls. We test for structural breaks, identify three distinct periods, and estimate these parameters over each sub-sample in order to capture the de facto effect of changes in capital controls over time. We find that de facto capital control barriers: (1) are asymmetric over inflows and outflows, (2) have changed over time from primarily restricting outflows to effectively restricting inflows (measured by bandwidths and positions); (3) arbitrage activity closes deviations from CIP when the threshold boundaries are exceeded in all sub-samples. In recent years, capital controls have been more symmetric over capital inflows and outflows and the deviations from CIP outside the boundaries are closed more quickly.

The Internationalization of Venture Capital and Private Equity

This paper investigates the internationalization of venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investments. We derive flows between countries of VC and PE investments worldwide, relying on comprehensive firm-level data sources, covering three decades and about 100 countries. A gravity analysis indicates that distance, common language, and colonial ties are significant factors in directing these flows. Additionally, the presence of high-end human capital, a better business environment, high levels of military expenditure, and deeper financial markets are important local factors that attract international venture capital. There is also evidence of path dependency and persistence in VC and PE flows, indicating network effects and fixed costs of entry may be at work. Further analysis suggests the internalization of VC and PE is an ongoing story. Prior to the 1990s, VC was primarily a US-only phenomenon. The globalization of IT activities induced the US venture capital industry to mature, and to start exporting its unique skills as VC managers. The US is now a dominant net exporter of deals, though most crossborder deals are still either to or from the US. China has emerged as the dominant net importer, followed by Sweden, Canada, the UK, France and India. For deals outside the US, cross-border participation has been the norm, while US-located deals have been almost exclusively domestic, involving a higher percent of international participation only after 2001. In the past few years, domestic VC capacity has begun to emerge in many countries where it did not exist previously.

Internet Kiosks in Rural India: What Influences Success?

In this paper we investigate an example of a very widely applied model for the delivery of IT services to rural and poor populations. The model is one where limited intervention to support infrastructure and coordinate resources is combined with market-based delivery of IT services to the end user (what we call here the "sustainable franchise model"). Though this model has been deployed world-wide by governments, NGOs, and development institutions in the past few years, few researchers have studied the determinants of success in such a model. In this paper we examine the example of n-Logue, a franchise of over 1000 locally-owned, internet kiosks in rural villages in India. We seek to assess how this new sustainable franchise model has worked in practice by analyzing data from 74 of n-Logue's kiosks. Among other things, we find that gender and education do not affect success, while location and other measures of social standing (age and caste) do. We also find that the uses that villagers have for IT services are not so different from those which first world users have. The lessons we draw from this example are that while local customs and practices must be taken into account (e.g. the caste system), it is not a foregone conclusion that social biases (e.g. against women) cannot be mitigated by good program design

Indian Capital Control Liberalization: Evidence from NDF Markets

The Indian government has taken a number of incremental measures to liberalize legal and administrative impediments to international capital movements in recent years. This paper analyzes the extent to which the effectiveness of capital controls in India, measured by the domestic less net foreign interest rate differential (deviations from covered interest rate parity) have changed over time. We utilize the 3-month offshore non-deliverable forward (NDF) market to measure the effective foreign interest rate (implied NDF yield). Using the self exciting threshold autoregression (SETAR) methodology, we estimate a no-arbitrage band width whose boundaries are determined by transactions costs and capital controls. Inside of the bands, small deviations from CIP follow a random walk process. Outside the bands, profitable arbitrage opportunities exist and we estimate an adjustment process back towards the boundaries. We allow for asymmetric boundaries and asymmetric speeds of adjustment (above and below the band thresholds), which may vary depending on how arbitrage activity is constrained by capital controls. We test for structural breaks, identify three distinct periods, and estimate these parameters over each sub-sample in order to capture the de facto effect of changes in capital controls over time. We find that de facto capital control barriers: (1) are asymmetric over inflows and outflows, (2) have changed over time from primarily restricting outflows to effectively restricting inflows (measured by band widths and positions); (3) arbitrage activity closes deviations from CIP when the threshold boundaries are exceeded in all sub-samples. In recent years, capital controls have been more symmetric over capital inflows and outflows and the deviations from CIP outside the boundaries are closed more quickly