[Economics Seminar] Labor market effects of exporter pricing behavior: Evidence from a developing economy
Radeef Chundakkadan
Dear All,
The Department of Economics, IIT Bombay, welcomes you to a seminar by Prof. Susantha Mallick on April 16th, 2026 at 2:30 pm. More details are below:
Speaker: Prof. Susantha Mallick (Queen Mary University of London)
Date and Time: April 16th, 2026 (Thursday); 2:30 PM
Venue: Room no. 401, Seminar Hall, 4th floor, A91 Eco Hub Building, Department of Economics, IIT Bombay
Title: Labor market effects of exporter pricing behavior: Evidence from a developing economy
Abstract: Despite an extensive literature on exporter pricing behavior, the labor market consequences of exchange rate changes remain relatively under-studied. Using product-level trade data from India, we document incomplete exchange rate pass-through to traded goods prices, suggesting potential adjustments through both output and input markets. Motivated by this, we estimate the effects of currency depreciation on product market power (markup), labor market power (markdown), and overall market power using plant-level data. We find that currency depreciation benefits workers in exporting firms by raising wages toward competitive levels, with stronger effects for managerial than non-managerial workers. Although exporters experience higher markup due to local currency depreciation, a substantial decline in markdown leads to an overall reduction in combined market power. We exploit exogenous exchange rate variations along with historical export shares to address endogeneity concerns. The above findings introduce a novel distributional dimension to the exchange rate pass-through literature.
About the speaker: Sushanta Mallick is a Professor of International Finance at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, UK. Since October 2024, he has been serving as Managing Editor of ‘Oxford Economic Papers’ – a prestigious journal with 87-year legacy. This new editorial role follows his decade-long tenure as Co-editor-in-Chief of Economic Modelling, which concluded in December 2024. He also serves as co-editor-in-Chief of ‘Journal of Economic Surveys’ (a leading literature survey journal now in its 37th year) and as co-editor of ‘Economic Analysis and Policy’ (the journal of the Economic Society of Australia, established 56 years ago). Prof Mallick holds a PhD in economics from the University of Warwick, UK, and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading academic journals. His research focuses on international economics, banking & finance, and innovation & development. According to the IDEAS/RePEc rankings, he is among the top 5% of economists globally. His work has received over 8,500 citations on Google Scholar, with an h-index of 54. His research has been featured in numerous high-impact journals such as: Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Corporate Finance, European Journal of Operational Research, Research Policy, Industrial Relations, British Journal of Management, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Economic Theory, Journal of Development Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Oxford Bulletin of Economics & Statistics, IMF Economic Review, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, World Development, among others. A comprehensive list of his published research is available at: http://skmallick.busman.qmul.ac.uk.
Regards,
Radeef Chundakkadan
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