The Changing Profile of India’s Trade Relations: A Partial and General Equilibrium Analysis

This book unravels the complex spectrum of trade policy in India with the help of partial and general equilibrium models. It evaluates India’s recent trade deals with the UAE, Australia, European Free Trade Area (EFTA), and Mauritius, among others.

Using applied general equilibrium methods to analyse recent debates about the conduct of India’s trade policy, this book aims to present how the barriers to trade have been affecting trade flows. It further presents a set of large-scale computable general equilibrium simulations of the effects of changes in trade barriers. It also explores India’s need to deal strategically with China and provide different economic solutions, despite the conflicts along their international borders. Moreover, it focuses on how India, through its trade orientation, needs to manage its natural resources and deal with land scarcity.

The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of international trade and finance, business economics, and econometrics. It will also be of interest to foreign trade experts, researchers, policy makers and government officials, among others.

Somesh K. Mathur is a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. He received his PhD in economics from the International Trade division of the JNU in 2005. He has over two and half decades of teaching and research experience. His specialization lies in international trade, applied econometrics, partial and general equilibrium analysis, deep learning methodologies, growth economics, spatial economy, climate modelling of environment energy relationship and mathematical modelling. He has several books such as one on trade from Palgrave Macmillan and one in Spanish with Ecuadorian collaborators, among others. He has also published in reputed journals like Review of International Economics, Geneva papers on Risk and Insurance, Journal of Quantitative Economics, Journal of Economic Integration, Journal of Asian Economic Integration, Journal of Economic Analysis, UNESCAP ARTNeT working papers, The Business and Economics Research Journal, Public Enterprise Journal, The World Economy, Indian Economic Journal, Trade and Development Review, Prajnan, Indian Economic Review, Indian Economic Journal, Journal of World Intellectual Property Rights, EPW, Foreign Trade Review, Global Economy Journal, among others.

Prabir De is Professor at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi. He has over three decades of full-time research and teaching experiences in India and abroad. He works in the field of international economics and has research interests in international trade and development. He has been conducting policy research for the Government of India and several national and international organisations including several UN agencies and multilateral development organisations. Graduated from the Scottish Church College in Calcutta, he did his Masters in economics from the Calcutta University and PhD in economics from the Jadavpur University, Calcutta. He was a Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO), Japan; Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo; Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), Seoul; and Visiting Senior Fellow of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok. He has contributed several research papers in international journals and written books on trade and development.

Archana Srivastava is currently working as an Associate Professor in BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus. She completed her PhD from IIT Kanpur, India in 2013 on empirical testing of trade theories and their impact assessment on the Indian Economy. Since then she has worked on several papers and research projects. She has rich experience in policy-related research. She has written several research papers and is an awardee of various grants from reputed national and international institutions like National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), DVARA Research Grant, Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF), Shastri Indo-Canadian Research Institute (SICRG) and Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). Her expertise is also evident in her publications in reputed international and national journals. Her research interests include International Economics, Labour Market and Public Health.