Research
Investigations in progress.
Two research projects drawn from design work and economic curiosity. Details are added as the work develops.
Sit Smarter: School Seating Redesign
This study applied a user-centred design process to redesign the standard Indian classroom chair for upper-secondary learners. A baseline product analysis, a comparison of six commercial chairs and a student questionnaire identified the main problems; seven concepts were modelled in CAD and scored against ten criteria; and a 1:3 laser-cut acrylic prototype confirmed the geometry, assembly sequence and storage function of the winning design.
Trade and Cross-Border Bank Claims
Cross-border bank lending is often assumed to follow trade, because banks finance and insure international transactions. This paper tests that idea by matching merchandise imports from UN Comtrade with cross-border bank claims from the BIS Locational Banking Statistics: 493 observations on 62 country pairs over 2015–2023. Across pairs, a 1% larger import flow is associated with 0.9–1.2% larger bank claims; within pairs over time the relationship is much weaker and mostly insignificant.