Can the boom in oil prices be explained in terms of tightened market fundamentals? Or has the oil market been distorted by the entry of financial players? This article will try to shed light on the marked increase in volatility during the latest 2008-2009 price cycle and on the role of...

This paper analyzes the effects of policy reform on the structure of India's trade in manufactures, from 1990 to 2006. It computes comparative advantage indicators on the basis of disaggregated trade flow data and assesses the effects of trade liberalization on the evolution of India's pattern...

We assess the causes and implications of the greater financial participation in commodity markets post-2003. Focusing on crude oil, we build a calibrated macro-finance model of oil prices and quantities that also determines consumer welfare. We show that shifts in the preferences and constraints...

We analyze the interaction between bank and market finance in a model where bankers gather information through monitoring and screening. We show that, if a market is established characterized by a disclosure law such that entrepreneurs wishing to raise market-finance can credibly disclose their...

We study a competitive economy where entrepreneurs seek financing to produce capital goods that serve as inputs for final good production. Due to informational imperfections, choice of investment project and monitoring activity by financial investors are both non-contractible. Such...

The main purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of OPEC models and to link this evolution to some key events in the oil market. Our main conclusion is that OPEC's pricing power varies over time. In many instances, OPEC can lose power to limit oil price movements in either direction....

This paper examines the pattern of international trade specialization in Indian manufacturing since the mid-1980s by using data on trade flows. Low-technology sectors still dominate the categories for which India exhibits the largest degree of trade specialization. By contrast, high-technology...

Using conditional quantile regression methods, we test for the existence of a non-linearity in the determinants of capital structure. We show that the size of the firm has a positive impact on the debt-equity ratio for low leverage firms and a negative impact for high leverage firms. Asset...