Mostly Economics

A team of FDIC researchers have released this research on the deposit flight in the 2023 US banking crises: In the spring of 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank all failed following broad-based deposit runs. We use granular data from the banks’ core systems to study the types of deposits and […]

Interesting research on Indian Multinationals: For decades, the dominant assumption in international business has been that if a foreign market is strategically important, firms should commit capital to it by setting up subsidiaries, acquiring local firms or otherwise establishing ownership and control. But our research suggests this misses an important reality in emerging markets. Some Indian multinationals have built […]

C.S. Venkiteswaran a film critic on the state of Hindi cinema in TheIndiaForum: Stereotyping of communities and regions—the “Madrasi”, the “Punjabi”, the “Goan”—is nothing new in Bollywood. But never before has a region been demonised in this way, and with the active support of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led governments across the country. That children and […]

In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) amidst huge hype and expectations. 25 years later, the world trade system and role of CHina in tha world trade system have undergone sea changes. My piece in Financial Express on the 25th anniversary of China joining the WTO.

Noah Smith on his substack post: ….I think scoffing at RCTs and urging development economists to tackle the Big Questions more often will have a negligible effect. There’s really not a lot more that can be done, in terms of generating Big Theories of Why Countries Get Rich, or in terms of testing those theories. […]

Alex Chan, Ayush Gupta & Yetong Xu on whether default opt-in for organ donations works or not:  Cadaveric organ shortages leave thousands without life-saving transplants each year. Countries differ in using opt-in (informed consent) or opt-out (presumed consent) systems for donor registration. Using newly assembled cross-country panel data and an event-study design, this paper provides evidence that presumed-consent […]

Bengal and Assam elections have led to a new low in Indian politics. How India’s political leaders are using hate speeches both before and after elections is outright unconstitutional. What is shameful is nothing happens to purveyors of these hate speeches and instead they are rewarded with highest constitutional positions. Talk about ironies. India Hate […]

Minneapolis Fed economists in this paper on how mass education shaped US as a land of opportunity: How did the US become a land of opportunity? We show that the country’s pioneering role in mass education was key. Unlike previous research, which has focused on father-son income correlations, we incorporate both parents in a new […]

Claudia Goldin’s biographical essay on the Nobel Prize website is titled as The Economist as Detective: I have always wanted to be a detective. As a young child in New York City, I was determined to uncover the secrets of the mummies at the Museum of Natural History. I grew up in the Parkchester section […]

The Wire has an article on how the once corrupt opposition politicians who were mocked and abused by the ruling party are now chief ministers in the ruling party.   I mean not any random politicians but chief ministers! Extraordinary events and complete absence of morality in Indian politics.

Bulgaria transitioned to Euro in Jan 2026. What has been the impact on economy so far? Ginevra Aguiari, Matteo Falagiarda, Christine Gartner and Ema Ivanova in this ECB blog post: As in other countries that have introduced the euro, public support for adoption of the new currency in Bulgaria was affected in the run-up to the […]

Isabel Schnabel of European Central Bank in this speech points to quiet erosion of central bank independence: Central bank independence is at risk. That was the key message conveyed by Jerome Powell at his final press conference, explicitly referring to the “legal attacks” on the Federal Reserve.[1] That a sitting Fed Chair felt compelled to make […]