As part of the Brown Bag Lunch series, the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute is pleased to invite you to a public talk given by Alexandre Lauwers , PhD candidate in International Economics. He will present his research work entitled Capital Inflows and the Allocation of Debt Across Firms .

Abstract (on-going research): The growth benefits from international financial integration is not straightforward; empirical studies highlighting the possibly negative relationship, especially in the long run, between economic growth and cross-border capital inflows, the latter often associated with domestic credit booms. Building upon the growing literature on the nexus between foreign capital, the efficiency of credit allocation and total factor productivity, this preliminary study uses firm-level data to assess the financial sector's ability to channel credit to its most productive use. We investigate whether international capital inflows affect the within-industry allocation of credit across firms that differ in their productivity. Using a comprehensive firm-level sample (ORBIS) on 13 Central and Eastern European countries over the period 1997-2016, preliminary evidence shows that capital inflows disproportionately increase debt of ex-ante low productive firms relative to their more productive industry peers.