PhD Programme
Semester II*
Course No. O01
Course title: International Trade and Investment
Number of Credit: 2 | Course Type: Optional
Instructors: Reji K Joseph, Isha Chawla, Ramaa Arun Kumar
This course is designed to familiarize students with theories in international trade, investment and global value chains (GVCs) and expose them to key empirical issues, recent discussions and negotiations on these topics.
International Trade Theory
- Introduction: Gains from trade, Pattern of Trade, Terms of Trade
- Trade Theories based on: Absolute Advantage (Adam Smith), Comparative Advantage (Ricardian Model) and Factor Endowment (Heckscher-Ohlin, Factor Price Equalisation, Stolper-Samuelson, Rybczynsky)
- New Trade Theories: Role of Monopolistic Competition and Returns to Scale and Intra-Industry Trade
- Firm Level Heterogeneity in Trade Theories: Bernard, Eaton, Jensen, Kortum Model and Melitz Model
Multilateral Trading System and Free Trade Agreement
- Instruments of trade policy: Tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and their effects
- Political economy of trade policy: Arguments in favour and against free trade, trade and industrial policy, and trade policies for developing countries
- Multilateral Trade Regime: Evolution of multilateral regime on trade; ITO, GATT and WTO; and key features of WTO
- India and WTO: India’s negotiation strategy in the WTO on key issues
- Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
- Arguments and for and against FTAs
- New generation FTAs: Key Features
- India’s FTAs
- India’s Foreign Trade Policy
FDI and Development
- The multinational enterprise: Theory and evidence-role of MNEs in the global economy, horizontal and vertical MNEs, host and home country perspectives, MNEs’ role in GVCs, emerging market perspectives
- Concept and measurement of FDI: Definition of FDI and best practices in estimating FDI flows
- FDI and development: The relationship – Quality of FDI, country experiences in using FDI for economic advancement
- India’s FDI and OFDI policies and recent trends in cross border investment flows.
Global Value Chains (GVCs)
- Global value chains, development and emerging economies
- Governance and upgrading in value chains, distributional issues and impact on labor
- Services, digitalization and GVCs
- Regionalization, SMEs’ integration, and trade policy in the GVC context
Course No. O02
Course title: Economics of Innovation and Technological Change
Number of Credit: 2 | Course Type: Optional
Instructors: R Rijesh, Sanjaya Kumar Malik, K Seeneiah
This course explores the role of innovation and technology in economic development and industrialization. It equips students with theoretical frameworks and empirical insights to analyse how technological change impacts productivity, competitiveness, and economic progress, with a focus on the Indian context.
Nature and Significance of Innovation: Concepts, types, and measurement of innovation; role of technology in economic progress.
Innovation and Productivity Growth: Innovation diffusion, firm dynamics, productivity, inequality, green growth, and public policy.
Innovation Systems: National, regional, and sectoral innovation systems; catch-up by developing countries.
Technological Development in India: India’s Technological evolution, scientific infrastructure, industry-university collaboration, and STI policy.
R&D, IPR, and Emerging Technologies: R&D in India, intellectual property rights, Industry 4.0 technologies, and their impact on productivity and labour markets.
Course No. O03
Course title: Energy Economics and Green Industrialization
Number of Credit: 2 | Course Type: Optional
Instructors: Anjali Tandon; Swati Verma
The course provides a foundation in environmental and energy economics, focusing on the interplay between energy consumption, economic development, and sustainable industrialization. Students will explore theoretical frameworks, policy approaches, and empirical methods to assess energy transitions and green industrial development. Through lectures, discussions and case studies, they will gain insights into sustainable development goals and environmental accounting. The course equips students with analytical skills to evaluate energy policies, assess their economic and environmental impacts, and model sustainability transitions. By the end, students will be prepared to conduct research and contribute to sustainable energy and industrial policies.
Fundamentals of Environment and Energy Economics
This module covers optimization, market failures, environmental regulation, demand for environmental goods, and the energy-growth relationship, covering efficiency, externalities, policy instruments, valuation methods, and theoretical energy-economic linkages.
Energy, economy, and green industrialization
This module covers renewable energy in industry, economic effects of energy transitions, India’s energy policy, global sustainability debates, green industrial policies, and methods for assessing sustainable development and environmental impacts.
Green Innovation, Accounting and Environmental Modelling
This module covers green technology, innovation, environmental accounting, and modeling. It explores concepts related to cleaner production, circular economies, sustainability frameworks, ESG adoption, environmental-economic accounting, and modeling approaches for policy assessment and sustainable development.
Course No. O04
Course title: Emerging Industry Structures, Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Number of Credit: 2 | Course Type: Optional
Instructors: Satyaki Roy, Akhilesh K Sharma, Ajit K Jha
The course comprises of three components: the first part would familiarize students on the changing nature of production particularly emerging trends of modularization in place of vertical structures, different dimensions of organic linkage and networks among decentered firms and its integration with global production networks. The second part would focus on theories of entrepreneurship and the size distribution of firms in India, the role of MSMEs in India’s industrialization and the challenges to enhance competitiveness of MSMEs in the domestic and international markets; Third part deals with concepts and dimensions of informality, the landscape of unorganized manufacturing and services and relation between formal and informal sectors in the context of India.
Emerging industrial structures
Clusters and Networks: Patterns of Industrial Growth; Spatial dimension of production; Fordism-Taylorism and Post-Fordist Structures; Global Restructuring and Fragmentation;
Technological Change: Scale and Scope Advantages;
Collective Efficiency and Meso-level Institutions: Typologies of Industrial Clusters; Platform and Networks.
Entrepreneurship New Venture Creation and Entrepreneurial Growth
Theories of entrepreneurship: Innovation Theory; Achievement Theory; X-efficiency Theory; Risk Bearing Theory, Theory of Entrepreneurial Growth, Exposure Theory of Entrepreneurship; Political System Theory for Entrepreneurial Growth; Size structure and contribution of small enterprises in economic growth of India; Institutional framework for MSMEs; Start-ups in India; Challenges for the growth of MSMEs; Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation of MSMEs; Participation of MSMEs in supply chains.
Informality and Unorganised Enterprises: Concepts, measurements
Conceptual debates in informality: coverage and contribution in output and employment; Landscape of unorganized manufacturing and service sector in India
Relation between formal and informal firms: subcontracting, outsourcing; Self-employment in developing and developed world, Migration and Informality.
Course No. O05
Course title: Spatial Dimensions of Industrial Growth
Number of Credit: 2 | Course Type: Optional
Instructors: Mahua Paul, Surya Tewari, Sangeeta Ghosh
The course focuses on understanding the concept of space and its role in economic activity that has emerged as an important focus in economic theory. This course would help understand the location of economic activities, explore the theoretical underpinning of the important works on agglomeration, and learn from international and national case studies to place these theories in perspective. Endogenous growth theory that highlights the importance of innovation and knowledge spillovers will be offered. International division of labour and its role in shaping relocation of production in the world will be taught. The course will provide a discussion on the sub-national trajectories of industrial development in India.
Theoretical Assessment and Relevance of Agglomeration: Early Location Theories and Identification of Fundamental Location Forces; General Theory of Industrial Location and Industrial Complex Analysis; Growth Pole and the Principle of Cumulative Causation; Marshall Externalities and the Concept of Industrial District; Porter’s Industrial Cluster Theory; New Economic Geography: Krugman’s Core Periphery Model and its extensions, and contributions of others such as M. Fujita, J-F. Thisse; Regional Path Dependence.
Regional Industrial Development in India: Regional Development in Indian Planning; Post-liberalisation Regional Development Policies; Regional Patterns of Industrialisation; Convergence and Divergence in Industrial Development; Infrastructure and Logistics.
Globalisation and Economic Geography: Economic Geography of the World Economy; New Spatial Division of Labour; Fordist and Post-Fordist Production Systems; Flexible Production; Spatial Proximity between Firms: Competition, Collaboration, Transactions; Spatial Consequences of these Production Structures and Regional Planning; Transnational Firm and Location Choices; Information Technology and Spatial Process: Proximity (Cognitive, Organisational, Social, Institutional, Geographical) and innovation, and its Critique.
Analysing Spatial Data: Data Input, Storage, Editing, Map Designing.
Course No. O06
Course title: Industrial Finance, Corporate Structure & Governance
Number of Credit: 2 | Course Type: Optional
Instructors: Santosh Das, Swati Verma & Beena Saraswathy
This course provides foundational as well as critical debates/perspectives relating to operations of the corporates and the financial markets. The course is designed with three main components/parts – Corporate structure and governance, Corporate finance, and developments relating to financial markets. The objective of the course is to develop a deeper understanding of the nature and functioning of the corporates and financial markets, and interaction among the two. This course will also give insights into the developments in financial sector policies and how far it has been helpful in driving industrialisation in India and elsewhere?
Corporate Structure, Competition Policy and Regulations
Types of firms, Main Objective of the Firm: Wealth / Profit Maximization Vs maximization of Shareholder Value Ownership structure, Ownership & Control of Corporations, Concentration and Business Groups, Indian Business Groups.
Major Components of Competition Regulation, Indian Competition Act: Evolution and Functioning, Mergers and Acquisitions, Digital Market competition, Foreign acquisitions and Overseas M&As.
Corporate Governance & Disclosures
Principles and Theories of Corporate Governance; Models of Corporate Governance, Business Ethics, Governance mechanisms, Ownership & Board Structure, Corporate Governance Framework in India, Legal & Regulatory Framework (Companies act, SEBI act etc.). Corporate Disclosure, Accounting Standards, and Recent Trends in Reporting.
Corporate Finance
- Time, Money and Interest rates.
- Risk and Return: Risk, Return & Cost of Capital; Capital Market and pricing; Optimal Portfolio Choice and
- Capital Assets.
Capital Budgeting
Project Analysis; Investment, Strategy, and Economic Rents; Agency Problems, Compensation, and Performance Measurement.
Long & Short Term Financing
Raising equity capital; Debt Financing; Short Term financial planning, & Working Capital management.
Capital Structure
How much should a corporate borrow; Debt and equity financing; Modigliani-Miller; Debt and taxes; The cost of bankruptcy; Optimal capital structure: the trade-off theory; Pay Out Policy.
Industrial Financing and Financial Sector
Financial Institutions: DFIs, commercial banks, NBFCs, venture capital fund, pension fund etc.
Financial Markets: money markets, bond market, equity/stock market,
Foreign Capital: FDI, FIIs
Structure of Interest Rates in India
Financing industrialization: Global experience India’s Story of financing industrialization since independence.
Bank/intermediary vs market based financial system; Role and Mode of State Intervention in Financial markets