| Type | Conference presentation |
| Event | Issues in Finance & Economic Development in Developing Countries |
| Organized by | Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi |
| Location | Delhi, India |
| Date | November 6–7, 2009 |
| Slides | Download the presentation (PDF) |
A talk delivered at the International Conference on Issues in Finance and Economic Development, SRCC, University of Delhi (November 6–7, 2009).
In short: How Indian firms weathered the 2008–09 global financial crisis — which businesses proved resilient, which were hit hardest, and what their differing fortunes reveal about firm-level strength.
About the talk
This presentation examined how Indian companies performed during the 2008–09 global economic slowdown, drawing on data for a large sample of firms tracked through the downturn. Rather than treating the crisis as a single shock, the talk asked which firms held up and which struggled — and used those differences to draw out the firm-level characteristics that made some businesses more resilient than others.
What the talk covered
- A sharp, uneven slowdown — across the sample of firms, average sales growth fell steeply as the crisis hit, but the impact was far from uniform across companies.
- What resilience looked like — younger firms and those with a stronger export orientation tended to hold up better through the downturn than their peers.
- Where the damage concentrated — firms more exposed to the affected channels saw the sharpest reversals, underlining how firm characteristics, not just the macro shock, shaped outcomes.
- The policy reading — supporting firm-level capabilities (and the more resilient kinds of firms) matters for cushioning developing economies against global shocks.
Get the slides
The full presentation is available as a PDF:
⇩ Download the presentation (PDF)
Related research on this site
This presentation draws on the author’s published work:
- Firm Performance during Global Economic Slowdown: A View from India — the full journal article (Economics, Management, and Financial Markets, 2011).
