Articles by Saibal Ghosh

Using a novel database, the article examines the characteristics of Indian unicorns in a global perspective. The total valuation of unicorns currently approximates $3.4 trillion. Multivariate regressions highlight the importance of city start-up environment, finance and cost as key drivers. India does not appear to exhibit a significantly different valuation from its global peers, although when looked at with respect to the gross domestic product, its valuation is 10% higher, on average.

Using the disaggregated data covering 2007–20, the study estimates the bailout barometer for state-owned banks in India. The findings show that the magnitude of the bailout barometer, in 2020, was $400 billion or around 18% of the total liabilities at the upper end of the scale. The classifications by separate categories such as size, systemic importance, and interconnectedness show that the former two categories appear to exert the most perceptible impact in terms of bailout magnitude.

Using district-level data, the effect of financial literacy centres on financial inclusion in India is investigated. There is evidence of an improvement in the use of bank accounts over time. Robustness tests suggest that banks with a strong capital position and asset quality are more inclusive through their financial literacy centres, and the traditional bank agents continue playing an important role in this process despite non-traditional channels like mobile telephony. Yet, the findings show that the overall impact of financial literacy on bank account ownership is still limited. The analysis raises useful policy pointers to address those impediments that plague the process.

Utilising household-level data, this paper investigates the impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on financial inclusion. Exploiting the staggered timing of the roll-out of the programme across districts, while controlling for its non-random implementation, it is found that MGNREGS improves financial access. This is confirmed in simple univariate tests as well as in multivariate regressions that take into account several district- and household-level controls. The evidence, however, is less compelling when the use of finance is examined, although there is a differential impact for districts with higher proportion of women. The magnitudes in most cases are quite large and suggest that public works programme can positively influence financial inclusion.

Exploiting household level survey data, this paper analyses the interface between gender and financial inclusion. The multivariate regressions that take on board several household and state-level controls suggest significant disparities in both the access to as well as the use of finance. More specifically, female-headed households are 10% less likely to access formal finance as compared to households that are headed by males. Similar evidence carries over to the use of finance as well. From a policy standpoint, the paper highlights several policy interventions which can serve the cause of greater financial inclusion of women in the country.