International economics

What happen to children’s education when their parents emigrate? Evidence from Sri Lanka (with Vengadeshvaran Sarma), International Journal of Educational Development, 46, 94-102, 2016. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

We examined the effects of parental emigration on the education of the children left behind in Sri Lanka. Using access to foreign employment agencies as a source of exogenous variation in parental migration, we estimated two-stage least squares models of the children's school enrolment, access to private tuition, class-age gap (the difference between a child's school year and the child's age), and educational spending. Overall, parental migration had no statistically significant effect on any of the outcomes; however, analyses by migrant gender show that the effects of parental migration were heterogeneous. When the mother migrates and the father stays behind, the education of the children worsens; when the father migrates and the mother stays behind, it improves. There is also some evidence that boys, younger children, and children of less-educated parents gain more from parental migration.

Electronics industry in Malaysia (with Shandre M. Thangavelu). In: Findlay, C., ed., ASEAN and regional free trade agreements. Routledge, 256-296, 2015. Amazon; Website; Description

Efforts to use existing trade agreements to build a larger regional agreement face many challenges. This book considers this problem with reference to ASEAN’s current agreements with key partners and the interest to build the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The analysis of the options is framed by a focus on the use of supply chains in international business. Issues considered include those related to reductions in tariffs, trade facilitation, the treatment of investment and of services and the definition of rules of origin. The work is informed by case studies of supply chains in automobile and electronics, and in a professional service sector. The book provides a set of priority actions for better progress in taking a bottom-up approach to building RCEP.

Children and maternal migration: Evidence from exogenous variations in family size (with Vengadeshvaran Sarma), Applied Economics Letters, 22(15), 1184-1187, 2015. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

Both theoretically and empirically, childbearing decreases labour supply of females, but few papers examine the effect of children on whether women emigrate to work. Using exogenous variations in family size induced by parents’ preferences for mixed sibling-sex composition in instrumental variable estimations, we find that, in Sri Lanka where most migrants are women and mothers, children decrease labour participation of females in the domestic market but they increase the likelihood of females working abroad.

Married men with children may stop working when their wives emigrate to work: Evidence from Sri Lanka (with Vengadeshvaran Sarma), MPRA Paper No. 60752, 2014. Download; Abstract

We examine what happens to Sri Lankan men’s labour supply when their wives emigrate to work and leave the husbands and children at home—the effects of maternal migration on the husbands’ labour supply. Using sibling sex-composition of a household as an instrumental variable for the household’s number of children in three-stage least-square estimations, we find maternal migration reduces the husbands’ labour supply. The husbands are more likely to exit the labour market and become unemployed; the employed are less likely to moonlight and have lower wages; those that exit the labour market are more likely to become stay-at-home dads.

Trade liberalization, FTAs and the value of firms: Stock market evidence from Singapore (with Shandre M. Thangavelu), Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, 22(6), 924-941, 2013. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

We examine the effects of the United States–Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on the value of firms listed in the Singapore Exchange using event study analysis. Despite the predictability of the FTA negotiations, we find that one event – the removal of the last obstacle to the free trade deal in January 2003 – increases the value of firms in some industries by 1–11% on average. These results indicate that trade liberalization and FTAs do increase the value of firms.

Growth volatility and trade: Evidence from the 1967-1975 closure of the Suez Canal, MPRA Paper No. 39040, 2012. Download; Abstract

This paper examines the effects of trade on economic growth and growth volatility. Using the 1967-1975 closure of the Suez Canal as an instrument for trade, I find that trade leads to higher economic growth, and lower probability of recession or economic slowdown. There is no evidence that trade reduces growth volatility, however.

Cross-border M&A inflows and quality of country governance: Developing vs. developed countries (with Jung Hur and Yohanes E. Riyanto), Pacific Economic Review, 16(3), 638–655, 2011. Download; Working Paper; Abstract

This paper provides an empirical explanation to the observed disparity in cross-border merger and acquisition inflows to developing and developed countries over the past two decades. We show two main results. First, the disparity can be attributed to the difference in the quality of institutions between the two groups of countries. Second, the gain from reforming institutions in developing countries is smaller than that in developed countries. These findings suggest that, with the current speed of institutional reforms in some developing countries, the disparity in cross-border merger and acquisition inflows is likely to persist.

Exchange rate, monetary and financial issues and policies in Asia (with Ramkishen S. Rajan and Shandre M. Thangavelu), World Scientific, 2008. Google Book; Amazon; Website; Description

A decade has passed since the Asian crisis of 1997–1998 which decimated many of the regional economies. While the crisis itself led to severe economic and political consequences, its primary cause was an inappropriate mix of policies, as regional economies attempted to simultaneously maintain fairly rigid exchange rates (soft US dollar pegs) and monetary policy autonomy in the presence of large-scale capital outflows. The chapters in this volume focus on selected exchange rate, monetary and financial issues and policies that are of contemporary relevance and importance to Asia, including choice of exchange rate regimes, causes and consequences of reserve accumulation, international capital flows, macroeconomic synchronization, and regional monetary and financial cooperation.