Presented paper at the East Asian Economic Association Convention
Dr J Vineesh Prakash, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, presented a paper at the 17th East Asian Economic Association (EAEA) convention that was held on August 27-28, 2022 at Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.The theme of the convention was “Growth, Resilience and Sustainability: Asian Dynamism in an Uncertain World”.
The East Asian Economic Association (EAEA) was founded in 1987 as the first international academic organisation devoted to East Asian economics. The international convention is its annual conference where papers for publication in the Asian Economic Journal are discussed.
Dr Vineesh presented the paper titled Does Business Group Affiliation Enhance Firm-Level Profitability? Evidence from Indian Automotive Component Industry, that addresses the growing competitive and volatile nature of economic sphere by testing the persistence of profit in a highly evolving emerging country environment such as India.
Emerging economies, such as India, confront different challenges than developed economies. The country has witnessed diverse regulatory environments, varying from highly regulated to more liberal ones. The more liberal environment coupled with the entry of overseas players into this realm has a definite impact on the existing industrial structure, thereby creating a volatile, ever evolving competitive environment.
The paper aims to address this issue and seeks to validate the part played by RBV in generating inimitable capabilities in a context-specific setting of a particular industry, i.e., the Indian automotive component industry. It also analyses the part played by business group affiliation in the post-reform era and its influence on profitability.
The paper found that profitability has moderate-to-high persistence and the variables, such as business group firms with overseas investments, export intensity, firm size, labour productivity growth, and past R&D intensity, have a contributory role in enhancing a firm’s profitability. Other variables such as business group affiliation, firm’s age, firm’s leverage, capital intensity, and A&M intensity have found to exercise a detrimental impact on the firm’s profitability.
Social implications of the research
The results, as reported in this paper, have some important implications for different stakeholders like managers, regulators, policymakers, etc. The finding that past R&D intensity has a positive influence on current profitability is significant to managers so they can allocate appropriate resources to fund such projects without many apprehensions.
The proof that labour productivity growth and profitability are positively related implies that managers could further focus on various in-house skill development programs to enhance labour productivity.
The finding of a positive influence of exports on profitability indicates that managers could further explore the external markets to boost up profitability as export markets are reportedly far more rewarding.
The discovery of moderate to high profit persistence has an important implication for regulators in order to facilitate healthier competition among firms. The moderate to high profitability persistence implies that the regulators have not managed to instill a reasonable level of competition in the industry through carefully crafted interventions, thereby facilitating its growth.
- Published in Departmental News, Economics Current Happenings, Economics News, Faculty Achievements, News, Research News
‘The modern Kautilya of India’: Dr C Rangarajan on India’s economic development
The fifteenth edition of University Distinguished Lecture series on the topic “India at 75 and beyond”, was held on October 29, 2022 to celebrate the magnificent growth displayed by India. The session was addressed by Dr C Rangarajan, renowned economist and former Governor of Reserve Bank of India. The intense and inspiring lecture highlighted the importance of reflection on the past and articulation of our vision for our future to enable rapid progression on economic development.
Dr C Rangarajan gave a comprehensive outlook on the economic performance of India since independence. “India has made momentous progress on reducing multidimensional poverty. The incidents of multidimensional poverty were almost reduced by half to almost 27.5% during 2005-06 and 2015-16 period due to deeper progress among the poorest. Thus within 10 years, the number of poor people in India fell by more than 270 million, a truly massive achievement,” he stated during the lecture.
Dr Rangarajan further expounded on the importance of reform agendas and measures, the subsisting triad of economic policies and the future challenges of progressing into being a developed nation. The lecture was followed by a Q & A session moderated by Dr S Ananda Rao and Dr Erra Kamal Sai Sadharma from the Department Economics.
Prof Kamaiah Bandi, Dean-School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences applauded Dr Rangarajan on being a unique distinction of shaping and motivating five generations of intellectual cohort. “Dr C Rangarajan has successfully brought down the gap between theory and practice in his capacity as Governor of RBI and various other important positions he has held for our nation. We as SRM AP look forward to your remarkable experience and knowledge to incubate motivation in our students.”
SRM University-AP has actively promoted a cumulative intellectual ecosystem and interdisciplinary education. “The principal objective of the University Distinguished Lecture series is to impel research scholars, students from all around the world to undertake progressive measures for the holistic development of our nation”, said Honourable Vice Chancellor, Prof Manoj K Arora in his welcome address.
Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP concluded the event by addressing Dr C Rangarajan as ‘the modern Kautilya of India’ and presented a memento on behalf of the institution as a token of respect and appreciation for his esteemed presence at the fifteenth edition of the University Distinguished Lecture series.
Estimating ACEs among Young Adults in Kashmir
The Faculty of Psychology and Economics have jointly published a paper titled “Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) among young adults of Kashmir” in the Q1 Journal Child Abuse & Neglect, having an impact factor of 4.863. Dr Aehsan Ahmad Dar, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology; Dr Manzoor Hassan Malik, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics; Dr Ayesha Parveen Haroon, Lecturer, Department of Psychology; Dr Dhamodharan M, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology have worked on interpreting the emotional constraints that are harboured among the young adults experiencing the adversities in turbulent Kashmir.
Abstract
The present study estimated the prevalence of ACEs among young adults studying in the colleges and universities of Kashmir, India. Findings disclosed that 15.4 % of the students reported high exposure to ACEs, 13.4% of the participants reported high exposure to ACEs, 26.3 % of the sample reported moderate exposure to ACEs, 33.0 % of the youth reported low exposure to ACEs and 11.8 % of the respondents reported no exposure to ACEs. The prevalence of ACEs was found to be 88.2 % (females: 82.7 % and males: 90.8 %) with a mean of 4.72 adverse events during childhood. The ACEs with the highest level of prevalence were “often or very often insulted or put down” (49.8 %), followed by “often or very often hurt physically” (47.6 %), “often or very often pushed, grabbed, or slapped” (41.6 %), “lived with a mentally ill household member” (28.3%), “touched or sexually fondled” (25.3 %),” household member being into the prison” (25.0%) and “witnessed father or mother being pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at them” (24.0%).
Practical Implementation of the Research
The findings of the study will serve as a reliable source for healthcare professionals, policymakers and NGOs to better understand the impact of ACEs on the health and well-being of individuals. Since ACEs are associated with several immediate and long-term health hazards, therefore, necessary efforts in this direction are suggested to advocate the early targeted intervention to reduce ACEs and their impact as well as design effective measures to improve the health and well-being of young adults, thereby reducing the development of physical and mental disorders.
Collaborations
- Prof. Sibnath Deb, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India.
- Dr Manzoor Hassan Mali, Department of Economics, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, India
- Prof. Waheeda khan, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Budhera, Gurugram, Delhi-NCR, India.
- Dr Ayesha Parveen Haroon, Department of Psychology, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, India
- Dr Amra Ahsan, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Budhera, Gurugram, Delhi-NCR, India
- Dr Farhat Jahan, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Budhera, Gurugram, Delhi-NCR, India
- Dr Bushra Sumaiya, Faculty of Education, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Budhera, Gurugram, Delhi-NCR, India.
- Shaheen Yawar Bhat, Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
- Dr Dhamodharan M, Department of Psychology, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, India
- Mohamad Qasim, Independent Researcher
The research cohort plans to study youth’s mental health and ascertain its risk and protective factors. About 19% of the world’s children live in India, which constitutes 42% of the total Indian population, and nearly half of these children are vulnerable and need care and protection. Due to various traumatic experiences, stress has increased among young people resulting in various physical and mental disorders.
The research will focus on the pathogenic (post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, somatisation) and salutogenic (post-traumatic growth and resilience) consequences of trauma to help the youth withstand adverse experiences and develop psychological competence. The research will provide insights into the mental health of youth that would be helpful for the administration, policymakers, and other voluntary organisations to understand effective ways to devise and implement the best intervention programs for maximising mental health protective factors and minimising its risk factors.
- Published in Departmental News, Economics Current Happenings, Economics News, News, Psychology News, Research News
Market Integration of Chickpea Crop in India
Dr Ghanshyam Kumar Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics has published a paper titled “Market Integration of Chickpea Crop: An Evidence of India”, in the esteemed Q1 Journal, Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies having an impact factor of 3.50. Through this paper, Dr Pandey analyses the integration and direction of causality of prices of chickpea produce in the markets of India.
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the market integration and direction of causality of wholesale and retail prices for chickpea legumes in major chickpea markets in India.
Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors have employed the Johansen co-integration test, Granger causality test, vector autoregression (VAR), and vector error correction model (VECM) to examine the integration of markets. The authors use monthly wholesale and retail price data of the chickpea crop from select markets in India spanning January 2003–December 2020.
Findings – The results of this study strongly confirm the co-integration and interdependency of the selected chickpea markets in India. However, the speed of adjustment of prices in the wholesale market is weakest in Bikaner, followed by Daryapur and Narsinghpur; it is relatively moderate in Gulbarga. In contrast, the speed of adjustment is negative for Bhopal and Delhi, weak for Nasik, and moderate for retail market prices in Bangalore. The results of the causality test show that the Narsinghpur, Daryapur, and Gulbarga markets are the most influential, with bidirectional relations in the case of wholesale market prices. Meanwhile, the Bangalore market is the most connected and effective retail market among the selected retail markets. It has bidirectional price transmission with two other markets, i.e., Bhopal and Nasik.
Research limitations/implications – This paper calls for forthcoming studies to investigate the impact of external and internal factors, such as market infrastructure; government policy regarding self-reliant production; product physical characteristics; and rate of utilisation indicating market integration. They should also focus on strengthening information technology for the regular flow of market information to help farmers increase their incomes. Very few studies have explored market efficiency and direction of causality using both linear and nonlinear techniques for wholesale and retail prices of chickpeas in India.
- Published in Departmental News, Economics Current Happenings, Economics News, News, Research News