Lekshmi R Nair

Capital account liberalization and stability of capital markets in India: An empirical analysis Lekshmi R Nair

Scientific Study from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: -, - (Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR)), language: English, comment: Dr Lekshmi, based in India, has ten years research experience and five years work experience. At present, she is working at IFMR, Chennai, India. She is also an experienced freelance researcher working for many clients all over the world. She has PhD in Economics, M.phil in Applied Economics, Masters in Statistics and Bachelors in Mathematics. She has several international publications including books and journal articles. , abstract: This paper examines the implications of capital account liberalization on the stability of capital markets in India captured in terms of two indicators, the market liquidity indicator and market volatility from 1993-94 to 2007-08. The empirical analysis, after controlling for other variables affecting the stability of capital markets, shows that capital account liberalization; particularly foreign portfolio investment liberalization has not contributed significantly to market liquidity whereas it has contributed significantly to increased market volatility. These results are particularly relevant since India opened its financial markets to Foreign Portfolio flows at an earlier stage of its reform process much before the development of domestic financial markets unlike the sequencing pattern flowed by most countries that were undergoing similar process of liberalization. Further, these results have important policy implications since the choice of an attitude towards full capital account convertibility in India has become a debateful issue.