Financial accessibility and MSME’s labour productivity: evidence from developing countries Available to Purchase

Dr Durairaj Kumarasamy, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Economics, School of Behavioural and Social Sciences (SBSS), Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS), Haryana. He has over 13 years of teaching and research experience worked at the ASEAN India Centre (AIC), Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) and Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI), New Delhi. He was a “Think Tank Initiative Fellow” at the Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi. He was the recipient of the KIEP Visiting Scholar 2022 from the Korea Institute of Economic Policy (KIEP), South Korea. He has served as a Consultant to the UNESCAP, Bangkok and the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, the UK. He has coordinated more than 30 national and international conferences in different Indian states and Southeast Asian countries. He is the Assistant Editor of the Journal of Asian Economic Integration, published by Sage and a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals from Sage and Springer publications. His research area broadly covers topics in international trade, regional integration, foreign direct investment and applied econometrics. He has published over 40 research papers in referred international and national journals, working papers, edited volumes and research reports.

Dr Prakash Singh is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), where he also holds the Chair Position for the Centre of Excellence and Research. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Economics, Kingston University, UK. With over 15 years of experience in research and teaching, Dr Singh specialises in development economics and related sub-fields, including regional growth, innovation, ICT, access to finance, international trade and firm-level productivity linkages. He has undertaken many independent and collaborative research projects funded by leading institutions such as the Azim Premji University, Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), IDE-JETRO, ARTNeT-UNESCAP, the World Bank, ICSSR and the Japanese Government. Dr Singh is a recipient of the Sir Ratan Tata Post Doctoral Fellowship and ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship at IEG. He has published extensively on issues related to access to finance, gender and firm, financial development and growth, MSME and financial inclusion.

Dr Akhilesh Kumar Sharma, a Development Economist, is presently working at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi, India. Before joining ISID, he worked at the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi and the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), New Delhi. He has obtained his PhD in Economics from Banaras Hindu University. He has been a “Think Tank Initiative Fellow” at IEG. He received an international award from the Alfred Nobel Charity Fund for his research paper in the category of young scholars in 2011. In his around 13 years of research experience, he has also worked with various national-international organisations, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO); International Development Research Centre (IDRC); United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP); Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI); Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP); International Initiatives for Impact Evaluation (3ie); Ministry of MSMEs, Government of India; Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Government of Uttarakhand, Government of Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; and Public Sector Banks in India for conducting research studies/projects. He coordinated the South Asian Research Network (SARNET) for Employment and Social Protection for Inclusive Growth. He was a member of the editorial board of SARNET Working papers. His key areas of research interest include MSMEs, Entrepreneurship, Industrial Development, Institutional Economics, Social Protection Programmes, Inclusive Growth and Macro-Economic Modelling. In these areas, he has around 50 national and international publications, including refereed journals, edited books, reports, working papers, conference proceedings, policy briefs, magazines and newspaper articles.