The Center for Research in Emerging Economies, or CREE, (formerly Centre for Asia Pacific Business Research, Economics and Innovation) aims to serve the business and academic communities by bringing together researchers and industry leaders to conduct high quality research on current and emerging issues globally. It aims to facilitate constructive dialogues to have a significant impact in the economic and business advancement. In addition to engaging in research activities, CREE is also expected to serve as a discussion forum for advancement of business research, economics, and innovations in this region.
In Fall 2020, in the inaugural instalment of the Inspiration series, the Center for Research in Emerging Economies organized 17 Inspiration Lectures on a diverse array of topics, ranging from social networks and productivity to universal basic income, from optimum urban reopening policy post-COVID-19 to the increasing ubiquity of artificial intelligence across multiple domains, from comprehending pillars of responsible business to relating our present financial decision-making with our future self. To learn more about the Fall 20 Inspiration lectures, please visit the “past events” section.
The speakers in the Spring ‘21 Inspiration lectures are* –
Updated speaker list and detailed information about the lectures will be updated here.
*schedule may be subject to change
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Spring ’21 Inspiration Lecture 1
Intermediary good pricing in production networks: Equality and inequality in a theory of value
Professor Robert Gilles
Professor of Theoretical Economics & Economics Subject Group Leader
Management School, The Queen’s University of Belfast
Tuesday, March 2, 7:00PM-8:30PM (New Delhi)
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Abstract:
This presentation considers the role of intermediary commodities in a network model of an economy in which production is conducted through a social division of labour. We may refer to this configuration as a production network economy. First, the nature and special role of intermediary goods is discussed founded on commodity conceptions of Marx, Debreu and Sraffa. Subsequently, it is argued that a broad class of general equilibria in a production network economy can be based on the general equilibrium concept of Roemer (1980,1981) in which economic agents in the production network are partitioned into reference classes and agents in each reference class are assumed to have equality of opportunities. This introduces considerations of equality as well as in-equality within these equilibria. Within the context of such equilibria in a production network economy one can also analyse the impact on wealth creation of various services and institutional processes.
About the speaker:
Professor Rob Gilles is a theoretical economist with a PhD from Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Professor Gilles was a lecturer of mathematical economics at Tilburg University, prior to joining the Department of Economics at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Since 2009 he has been a Professor of Economics at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, UK. His research interests have always been focussed on how institutions and social structures affect economic wealth creation. Currently, Professor Gilles’ work focusses on building an alternative theory of value through the hypothesis that all economic wealth comes from a social division of labour. He has published a two-volume book on Economic wealth Creation and the Social Division of Labour at Palgrave-Macmillan on this perspective. This theory has been expanded to include public and collective goods in recent journal publications.
Moderator: Prof. Saumya Dey, Associate Professor, (Economics), JGBS
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Spring ’21 Inspiration Lecture 2
Is Financial Inclusion beneficial for Banks?
Prof. Sushanta Mallick, PhD (Warwick)
Professor of International Finance
School of Business and Management
Queen Mary University of London
Tuesday, March 16, 6:30PM-8:00PM.
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Abstract:
This paper investigates whether inclusive banking can boost bank-level performance, using an international sample of 1,740 banks over the period 2004-2015. We find that there is a significant positive association between financial inclusion and bank efficiency. Greater financial inclusion helps banks in reducing the volatility of their deposit-funding share as it provides more stable long-term funds for banks, while also mitigating the adverse effects of their return volatility. The association is stronger in countries with limited restrictions on banking activities or more capital regulation stringency as the deposit channel enables greater flow of low-cost funds for high-return investments. The results are robust to instrumental variable analysis, multiple dimensions of financial inclusion (supply, demand, and pro-access policy), and a difference-in-differences estimator that exploits cross-country and temporal variations in actively promoting an inclusive agenda, further confirming that inclusive financial development can be beneficial for banks.
About the speaker:
Professor Sushanta Mallick is a Professor of International Finance at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, UK. Also, since January 2015, he has been the Co-editor-in-Chief of ‘Economic Modelling’ – a leading 35-year-old scholarly journal published by Elsevier. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Warwick, UK. Before joining Queen Mary in October 2006, he held positions at the Department of Economics, Loughborough University, UK [2003-2006]; Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London, UK [2001-2003]; JPMorgan Chase (previously Chase Manhattan Bank) based in Hong Kong [1999-2001], and Institute for Social and Economic Change (with a year at Indian Statistical Institute), Bangalore, India [1991-1995] where he began his research career followed by a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for a Ph.D. in economics [1995-1998] at the University of Warwick, UK. In addition to publishing a book from his Ph.D. research (Ashgate Publishing, 1999), he has contributed articles to 14 edited volumes along with publishing widely in many international refereed journals. He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, focused on issues in the areas of international macroeconomics, banking & finance, and innovation & development. He has researched different aspects of international finance and development at both the macro and micro-economic levels. As well as monetary and financial issues, his published research includes issues connected with growth, development, and poverty. He has also carried out a substantial amount of work on various aspects of macroeconomic modelling. His work has been published in journals such as: Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of International Money and Finance, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Cambridge Journal of Economics, IMF Economic Review, Economic Inquiry, World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Industrial Relations, Review of Income and Wealth, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Journal of Macroeconomics, Physical Review E, Europhysics Letters (EPL), Physica A, and many others.
A list of his published research can be found here: http://skmallick.busman.qmul.ac.uk]
[Email: s.k.mallick@qmul.ac.uk]
Moderator: Dr. Palka Chhillar, Assistant Professor, (Finance and Accounting), JGBS
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Spring ’21 Inspiration Lecture 3:
Distinguished lecture in Finance
Using and Abusing Factors
Professor Kenneth R. French
Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance
Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth College
Thursday, March 25, 6:30PM (New Delhi)
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Abstract:
The number of asset pricing factors has grown in the last two decades from a handful to hundreds if not thousands. In this talk, Professor French explains this proliferation and discusses tradeoffs in the design of factors. He also explores how asset pricing models should be assessed and how they can be used by corporate managers, investment managers, and individual investors.
About the Speaker:
The number of asset pricing factors has grown in the last two decades from a handful to hundreds if not thousands. In this talk, Professor French explains this proliferation and discusses tradeoffs in the design of factors. He also explores how asset pricing models should be assessed and how they can be used by corporate managers, investment managers, and individual investors.
Professor Kenneth R. French is the Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is an expert on the behavior of security prices and investment strategies. He and co-author Eugene F. Fama are well known for their research into the value effect and multi-factor asset pricing models, including articles such as “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns” and “Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds.” His recent research focuses on tests of asset pricing and the tradeoff between factor exposures and expected returns in U.S. and international financial markets.
Professor French is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an Advisory Editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies, and a former President of the American Finance Association. Professor French is also a Fellow of the American Finance Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of Grassroots Soccer’s Board of Directors and the International Rescue Committee’s Board of Advisors, and Chairman of the Global Board of Directors of the Valpo Surf Project.
Before joining Dartmouth, Professor French was on the faculty of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the Yale School of Management, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Professor French received his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Rochester in 1983. He also earned an M.S. and an MBA from the University of Rochester (1983) and a B.S. from Lehigh University (1975).
Moderated by: Dr. Chitrakalpa Sen, Associate Professor, JGBS
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Spring ’21 Inspiration Lecture 4
Does Interaction on Social Media Drive Extremeness or Moderation?
Professor Devin Shanthikumar
Associate Professor
Paul Merage School of Business
University of California, Irvine
Wednesday, March 31, 6:30PM-8:00PM (New Delhi)
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Abstract:
Using comment streams on Seeking Alpha articles, we examine whether interacting on social media increases or moderates the extremeness of investors’ opinions. Unlike findings from political science and platforms in which users select a subset of other users to “follow,” such as Twitter and Facebook, we find that interaction on Seeking Alpha moderates extremeness. Comments become less extreme over the sequence of comments for a given article, within individual comment sub-threads, and over a single user’s comments for a given article. Extremeness reduction is stronger when the article itself is more moderate, and when more users are self-identified (i.e., not anonymous). Results also suggest that the extremeness reduction triggered by Seeking Alpha articles has market implications. Differences of opinion captured by stock-based measures decrease significantly after Seeking Alpha articles with comments, but not after analyst forecast days or high-news days. Our results provide the first evidence of the influence of social media interaction on the updating of individuals’ opinions.
About the speaker:
Professor Devin Shanthikumar is an Associate Professor at the University of California Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, and is the head of the Accounting Area. She teaches undergraduate, MBA, and executive-level courses in Managerial Accounting, and conducts research focusing on Financial Market participants. Prof. Shanthikumar’s research focuses on the investing decisions of individual investors and the impact that these investors have on the market, as well as on the role of financial intermediaries and information sources, such as analysts, the press, and the Internet. Her research has been published in top journals, including The Accounting Review, the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Management Science. Prof. Shanthikumar was named to Poet and Quant’s Best 40 Under 40 Business Professors in 2019, and she has won numerous awards.
Prof. Shanthikumar earned her BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California Berkeley. She earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration with a focus in Finance from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining The University of California Irvine, Shanthikumar served as a Professor at Harvard Business School.
Moderated by: Sakshi Malik, Lecturer, JGBS
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Spring ’21 Inspiration Lecture 5
Wednesday, April 14, 6:30PM (New Delhi)
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Capital Structures in developing countries around the world: Are small firms different?
Professor Kate Phylaktis
Professor of International Finance
Director, Emerging Markets Group (EMG)
Cass Business School
City, University of London
Abstract:
This study uses firm level survey data to assess whether the capital structure theory is portable to small firms in developing countries and whether country characteristics play a role in their financing decisions. Using a sample of both small companies and large firms from 24 developing countries covering all regions of the world, our main results show (i) The size of the firm is an important factor in the level of leverage; (ii) Profitability has no bearing in the capital structure decisions of small firms in contrast to large firms, and thus do not follow the pecking order; (ii) The country of incorporation is an important determinant for the debt financing decisions of small firms; (iv) The financing decisions of small firms are sensitive to institutional characteristics, and the macroeconomic and financial environment variables of the country; and (v) The impact of these variables varies with the size of the firm.
About the speaker:
Kate Phylaktis is Professor of International Finance and Director of the Emerging Markets Group at Cass Business School, City, University of London. She previously held research and analyst positions at the London School of Economics and the National and Commercial Banking Group (now Royal Bank of Scotland).
Kate’s main research and teaching interests are in international finance and emerging
markets finance. She is also interested in the development of financial markets, the interaction of corporate governance and asset pricing, and the interaction of capital flows and corporate finance. She is the author of 45 articles published in top finance and economics journals including the Journal of Corporate Finance, Financial Management, Journal of International Money and Finance, Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Development Economics. She has authored three books including “The Banking System of Cyprus: Past, Present and Future”, (Macmillan Press 1995), a seminal book on the development of the banking system of Cyprus and was the guest editor of four special issues of the Journal of International Money and Finance on “Emerging Markets Finance” (Elsevier, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016).
In addition to teaching and doing research Kate has been involved in policy advising, training, research and consulting projects for a number of institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, Export Guarantees Advisory Council, University of Bordeaux, the Warsaw University, Crown Agents, Commonwealth Secretariat and the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission. She has also acted as a consultant to the Ministry of Education and Religious Studies in Greece and Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus advising on the development of tertiary education.
Kate has set up The Emerging Markets Group (EMG) in 2001, a forum for academic research on foreign exchange and financial markets with particular reference to emerging economies. EMG through a series of workshops and conferences has established a network of internationally respected finance academics, professionals and policymakers. EMG events have had extensive financial support by the ESRC, the Journal of International Money and Finance, the ECB, IMF, EBRD, the Stock Exchange, and various banks.
Kate has served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of International Money and Finance (2002- 2013), International Journal of Financial Analysis (2013-), Emerging Markets Review (2002-present), Pacific-Basin Finance Journal (2006-present), Financial Review (2004-2010), Multinational Finance Journal (2002-2008), Greek Economic Review (2002-2008) and Ekonomia (2000-2014).
Moderator: Dr. Aghila Sasidharan, Assistant Professor, JGBS
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Spring ’21 Inspiration Lecture 6
Distinguished Lecture in Economics
The Samaritan’s Curse: Group Behavior, Morality, and the Role of the Leader
Friday, April 30, 7:00PM (New Delhi)
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Professor Kaushik Basu
Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies
Cornell University
Abstract:
When a group behaves badly, how should we apportion moral responsibility across the individuals? The lecture will examine this age-old problem and try to shed new light on it. It will investigate the sources of power of a leader, and the leaders’ responsibility for the behavior of their followers, as happened during the storming of the Capitol in Washington D. C. on 6 January, 2021. Using elementary game theory, the lecture will also highlight some paradoxical results, such as the Samaritan’s Curse game, and leave the audience with new, open-ended problems to resolve.
About the speaker:
Kaushik Basu is Professor of Economics and the Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He is currently President of the International Economic Association, serving a term 2017-2020. He was formerly Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, 2012-16, and, prior to that, Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government, 2009-2012.
Basu received his PhD and M.Sc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and BA (Hons) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He has received honorary doctorates from several institutes and universities, including IIT Bombay, Fordham University New York, and the University of Bath U.K.
Kaushik Basu has published widely in the areas of Development Economics, Industrial Organization, Game Theory and Welfare Economics. His two most recent books are An Economist in the Real World: The Art of Policymaking in India (MIT Press and Penguin Random House, 2015) and The Republic of Beliefs: A New Approach to Law and Economics (Princeton University Press, 2018. His books have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Russian and French.
Professor Basu has contributed popular articles to magazines and newspapers, such as The New York Times, Scientific American, India Today, Business Standard and BBC News Online.
In May 2008 he was awarded one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padma Bhushan, by the President of India. Kaushik Basu has held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the London School of Economics, Harvard University, Princeton University and M.I.T. He was Professor of Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, where in 1992 he founded the Centre for Development Economics and was its first Executive Director. He is also a founding member of the Madras School of Economics.
Moderator: Prof. Rajesh Chakrabarti, Dean, JGBS
Global Lecture Series, Fall 2020
Inspiration Lecture Series, Fall 2020
Pandemic Lecture Series
Blog link: https://capbrei.blogspot.com/
