DescriptionThis dissertation brings together three essays investigating the changing dynamics of international trade, protection and financial flows since the mid-1980s, a period marked by the beginning of sharp increases in the worldwide flows of goods and capital. In the first essay, I study empirically the effect of Indian Antidumping (AD) cases on trade flows from other countries. India files the highest number of AD cases in the world, with an outstanding majority of such cases resulting in protection for the domestic firms. I also look at the effect of AD cases on trade diversion from countries subject to or "named" in AD investigations to non-subject or "non-named" countries and conclude that Indian AD policy is effective. I use a unique dataset combining AD data from the WTO with trade data from Comtrade. The empirical model is estimated via the Arellano-Bond procedure.
The second essay builds on the first one. Here, I use a capital market event study to empirically analyze the effects of the huge level and extent of Indian AD protection; in efficient capital markets such gains should be immediately capitalized in the protected firms' stock prices. I also perform cross-section regressions to study the influence of key firm variables on market reaction. I use a unique dataset combining AD data from the WTO with firm level stock price data from the Bombay Stock Exchange. Results indicate that there is no perceptible response from the Indian stock market to AD protection. The cross-section results corroborate this evidence.
Finally, the third essay looks at the remarkable upsurge in global capital flows since the mid-1980's and associated issues in the current account and net external position of countries. The growing divergence between the current account and changes in the net international investment position of countries is looked at empirically and investigated with the aid of a model of BoP accounting. I estimate a Probit model of currency crises using annual BoP data for a panel of 84 countries and conclude that the identity between the current account and changes in the net international investment position holds only in theory.