Correlation dynamics in equity markets: evidence from India

This study is aimed at understanding the correlation dynamics of the equity markets from a developing country perspective using daily data from July 1997 to August 2006. A simple unconditional correlation estimate and dynamic time varying correlation estimate from a DCC-MVGARCH of Engle and Sheppard (2001) are derived for S&P CNX Nifty and other 10 world indices that includes four developed and six Asian country indices. The results show low correlation across S&P CNX Nifty with both Asian and developed nations. In addition a Logistic Smooth Transition Regression (LSTR) model is implemented and finds that the S&P CNX Nifty index is moving towards a better integration with other world markets but not at a very noteworthy phase. The low correlation provides space for the global funds to diversify risk in Indian markets.     

A MODEL OF INTERACTION BETWEEN THE VIRTUAL AND THE REAL ECONOMY

This paper demonstrates through a formal model how the wealth effect created by a stock market boom leads to the expansion of demand and output mostly through debt‐financed private consumption. However, inherent in this expansion is the threat of a subsequent contraction caused by the rising burden of servicing debt and falling creditworthiness. The formal analysis captures more precisely these conditions; it shows that, even in the medium run, the growth rates of the wealth in the stock market and of the real economy may move in opposite directions.     

Legal and Illegal Production and Trade Under Monopoly with Transaction Cost

Using illegal trade in narcotics as an example, where regular seizure of part of the merchandise by the law‐enforcing authorities imposes a transaction cost on the monopolist supplier, this paper demonstrates the result that a higher transaction cost might increase the volume supplied for trade. The result of the formal model also applies to the opposite situation, e.g. when trade is legal, as in seventeenth‐ and eighteenth‐century maritime trade, but pirates illegally seize part of the merchandise to impose a transaction cost on the traders. The more general implications of this analysis are also discussed.     

Effective demand and the terms of trade in a dual economy: a Kaldorian perspective

Along the line suggested by Nicholas Kaldor, the paper incorporatesinto the analysis of a dual economy effective demand as a problemof generation of agricultural surplus and its realisation intopurchasing power for industrial goods. Through this approach,it is shown how one obtains empirical predictions about unevensectoral growth rates, as well as an effect of the movementin the terms of trade on long-term industrial growth which iscontrary to that suggested by Lewis. The paper also specifiesthe process of dynamic adjustment of industrial growth in aself-reinforcing circular flow under conditions of sufficientlyhigh agricultural growth, extending the effective demand argumentin a dual economy.