Maitreesh Ghatak
@maitreesh
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LSE Economics Professor. Fellow of British Academy. Essayist. Views personal. Debate & discussion welcome, trolls muted, abusers blocked.
London
Joined July 2014
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Lecture notes on Development Economics by Debraj Ray, Dilip Mookherjee, Andrew Newman, Ethan Ligon and myself...
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Today is my aunt, the writer and activisit, Mahasweta Devi's birthday. She was my father's eldest sister. Not everyway you wake up seeing a family member's sketch on Google doodle!
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Most favourite Economics Nobel prize ever!!! Abhijit is a teacher/co-supervisor/co-author of several papers, Esther is a co-author, and Michael who is visiting LSE currently is a co-author on a new project.
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My paper on arranged marriages via newspaper ads with Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo & Jeanne Lafortune is discussed in this interesting piece:
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Development economists exploring ways to boost intra-disciplinary work : )
with
#reetika_khera
&
@karthik_econ
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At the LSE reception this afternoon with Michael Kremer, who was a senior in Harvard...
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Ashok Kotwal - one of the most unorthodox development economists who left a big mark on the field. As editor of
@Ideas4India
made it what it is now starting from scratch. The photo is from our last meeting, in June 2019. Have lost a mentor and friend. An irreparable loss.
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Honoured to be selected for this award. Thank you
@kaushikcbasu
and
@IEA_economics
!
Congrats to 4 newly-awarded IEA Fellows, selected from around the world, for creative research on development policy.
The IEA Fellows 2021 are
Sonia Bhalotra-University of Essex
Maitreesh Ghatak-LSE
Pinelopi Goldberg-Yale University
Vijendra Rao-World Bank
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#Opinion
| "Robert Lucas was a restless, fiercely intellectual scholar who brought rigour and profound insights into any problem he studied"
✍️
@maitreesh
|
#HTPremium
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Fazle Abed - a truly great man passed away yesterday. Founder of BRAC, the largest NGO is the world, he left a mark in the world that will be hard to match.
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Gave my last lecture today in the Master's course in Growth & Development at LSE after an early morning commute to the city centre in a dark, damp, & cold day. Will miss the enthusiasm & intellectual vibrancy of the students from all parts of world (here's a photo with a subset)
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From famines, to measurement of poverty, to the theory of capability, to inequality, to limits of markets, to welfare.....how we think about markets, the role of the state, and public policy now is unimaginable without Amartya Sen's contributions.
Why Amartya Sen remains the century’s great critic of capitalism: Every major work on material inequality in the 21st century owes a debt to Sen.
@maitreesh
@LSEInequalities
@LSEEcon
Read:
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RIP Robert Solow. He laid the foundations on which growth theory was built. There were Ramsey, Harrod, Domer, Feldman, Mahalanobis before, Cass, Koopmans, Uzawa, Kaldor later, and Romer, Lucas, Barro in the recent era, but Solow’s 1954 article remains as relevant as ever.
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India’s GDP ranks fifth in the world while it was 17th in the early 1990s - a definite improvement. However, on the basis of per capita income, India was ranked 161st in the early 1990s & is now 159th. Why? My piece in
@htTweets
:
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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Exit polls underestimated seats won by NDA in 2014 & 2019 general elections, grossly overestimated them in 2004 & in 2009 underestimated seats for UPA. So, exit polls aren't reliable but one shouldn't count on this to pin hopes on any particular outcome. Best to wait till June 4.
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The critiques of mainstream economics from some segments of the left (renewed in the context of RCTs) remind the old Joan Robinson quip - ideology is like bad breath, easier to recognise in others than in ourselves.
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The India Forum is publishing a series of articles on the latest poverty estimates for India. The first one, by S. Subramanian, one of the foremost experts on the topic came out today. My article with
@Kumar_EconIneq
is up next!
@TheIndiaForum
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Really sorry to hear about the death of Robert Lucas, one of the greatest economists of our era. Was privileged to have him as a colleague during my stint in the faculty of University of Chicago.
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My take on the debate on inequality inspired by the paper Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj by Piketty, Bharti, Chancel, & Somanchi in the context of Indian elections.
@htTweets
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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A review of what we know about poverty stats in India since the last available official figures in 2011-12 with
@Kumar_EconIneq
More to come in the coming months....
@pujamehra
@livemint
@Ideas4India
@STICERD_LSE
@LSEEcon
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RIP Prof Nirmala Banerjee. India has lost one of its most eminent social scientists, and we have lost a person who epitomized grace, warmth, and intellectual openness and breadth.
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Cliched as it may sound but to me the core two elements of the idea of India are an accepance of differences ("unity in diversity") & a humane, empathetic outlook towards the disadvantaged. There's nothing "left" or "liberal" about this- one can be from the left, right, or centre
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My essay with
@Kumar_EconIneq
in
@TheIndiaForum
on the latest official statistics by the Indian government & what they seem to imply about the current extent of extreme poverty in India
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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Abhijit Banerjee’s Nobel Lecture, forthcoming in the AER, discusses my paper on poverty traps with Clare Balboni,
@orianabandiera
, Robin Burgess & Anton Heil
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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My piece in The Hindustan Times on the economic impact of the coronavirus disease & its economic impact with special focus on India
@htTweets
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@Ideas4India
@SAsiaLSE
@vox_dev
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On the role of RCTs in empirical research in Development Economics, policy evaluation, and some of the critiques in
@the_hindu
in light of this year’s Nobel Prize to Banerjee-Duflo-Kremer
@vrsrini
@LSEnews
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@SAsiaLSE
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(Alphabetically by last name) Pramit Bhattacharya, Harish Damodaran, Jean Dreze, Himanshu, Somesh Jha, Vivek Kaul, Reetika Khera, Roshan Kishore, Puja Mehra, TS Ninan, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Pronab Sen, Mihir Shah, S. Subramanian, Avinash Tripathi (Tweet 2/2)
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I will be giving the R.C. Dutt Lectures at the Centre for Studies in the Social Sciences, Kolkata on Dec 28 & 29: "Unequal Growth : Growth, Poverty, and Inequality in Post-Liberalization India". It is a public event.
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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I was interviewed by Anushka Bansal, a high school student from Delhi who wants to pursue higher studies in Economics for tips about how to go about it.
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Deeply distressing news & images coming from Indian university campuses, most recently JNU. Universities should see clashes of ideas & viewpoints, not the kind we are witnessing.
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There are some very interesting examples of Indian English. A favourite example of mine is the use of "only" - for example, "Do you live in London only?" Never understood what "only" is capturing...live here as opposed to visiting?
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My student Jay Lee joins the Department of Economics, University of Stockholm as an Assistant Professor this fall!
We are happy to announce that
@EuijungJay
from
@LSEEcon
and
@HorngChernWong
from
@warwickecon
will join us at department as Assistant Professors this fall.
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Amused whenever anthropologists refer to “economists” as a homogeneous group who are all hopelessly “neoliberal” & such. Isn’t this reductionism & essentializing, sins that economists and not anthropologists are supposed to be guilty of?
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Unfortunately, the translator has mistanslated my last name! It is घटक in Hindi, not घातक!
My essay on RCTs in light of this year’s Nobel Prize in the Hindi edition of Ideas for India.
@Ideas4India
@SAsiaLSE
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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With my LSE colleagues
@XJaravel
&
@JonathanWeigel
I make the case for a Global Solidarity Fund to help developing countries cope with the pandemic & its aftermath in
@nytopinion
:
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@LSE_ID
@LSEPublicPolicy
@vox_dev
@BritishAcademy_
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Naseeruddin Shah, one of the finest actors in Indian cinema, turns 70.
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I decided to work on Development Economics because I read the working paper version of Occupational Choice and the Process of Development by Banerjee & Newman (JPE 1993) which had a model of poverty traps. (Tweet 1/2)
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I will be talking about trends in poverty and inequality in India tomorrow in my Foundation Day Lecture at the Institute for Development Studies (IDSK), Kolkata. It’s a public lecture & anyone can attend (s.t. space constraints).
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In Abhijit Banerjee’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech my recent work on poverty traps with Clare Balboni, Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, and Anton Heil is discussed (between 36 & 49 minutes)
@orianabandiera
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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"Our youngsters need to work for at least 70 hours a week" Narayana Murthy
News: Infosys not hiring.
How does this add up?
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A year since the national lockdown was announced in India & images of a long march of migrant workers heading home on their feet started surfacing
A joint piece with
@MukulikaB
of
@LSEAnthropology
in
@htTweets
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@Ideas4India
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As I start writing an op-ed on the contributions of Banerjee-Dufulo-Kremer, my friend and co-author
@karthik_econ
is, as always, much, much faster:
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In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a subversive act.
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হে বঙ্গ, তব অঙ্গ, ভুষিছে তিন গঙ্গ-উপাধ্যায়
সংগীত (কিশোর), সাহিত্য (সুনীল), ক্রীড়া (সৌরভ), প্রোজ্জ্বল তিন অধ্যায়
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Statement issued by a group of scholars, intellectuals and activists organized by
@_YogendraYadav
on action plan to deal with with the current crisis in India .........Tweet (1/3)
Leading economists, intellectuals and activists propose a 7-point Plan of Action to respond to the current crisis
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Whether you agree with him or not on specific issues, Karthik is a force of nature and his energy and enthusiasm in infectious. I will certainly get hold of a copy of this book (unless I manage to get a complimentary copy from Karthik, if there is a co-author quota!)
Delighted to hold the 800+ page book in my hands for the first time earlier this week! The iconic
@Bahrisons_books
in Delhi may be the first bookstore to have them physically in stock, and have signed copies available for early buyers!
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May be something good will come out of the churning and unrest that is going on in India. May be we are rediscovering values we took for granted and the need to fight to preserve those. May be we became too complacent, too cynical, too critical about those values. (1/2)
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Bengal has been ravaged by a cyclone unprecedented in its ferocity & destructiveness. Here is a document that has a list of names of organisations & their bank details doing relief & rehabilitation
Please retweet this to spread the word. And do contribute.
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My short essay on inequality in India - relative to other countries, over time, the impact of Covid-19 & some reflections on policy in
@forbes_india
12th anniversary issue
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@Ideas4India
@vox_dev
#AnniversarySpecial
|
@maitreesh
writes that unequal opportunities lead to uneven distribution of gains, of growth, and limited upward mobility and that is the real problem. He believes that development policies need to focus on finding a solution
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Liberals/Libertarians underestimate the pre-existing power asymmetries in the domain outside the direct control of the state, and the left underestimates the power asymmetry between the state and the rest.
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Useful long-term picture of India's growth performance. Only two accelerations - after Independence and in the early eighties.
@DevashishMitra_
@NilayShastri
@somnath1978
Source:
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A must-read paper by my LSE colleague Alwyn Young on RCTs that is forthcoming in the QJE (HT to
@bill_easterly
for the latest version)
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My PhD student Jay Lee is on the job market this year. Please a look at her paper! It studies married women’s labour force participation in the US.
In her job market paper, Jay Euijung Lee studies the aggregate economic effects of traditional gender norms in marriage. More about Jay on her website:
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My LSE colleague & coauthor Tim Besley gets Knighthood! A well-deserved honour to a great economist & a terrific role model.
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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When economists talk about cash transfer programmes, they usually don’t include bribery.
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Excellent column by
@CafeEconomics
relating the demand-constraints vs supply-side debate about the current economic slowdown to insights from a great economist from an earlier era (& my former teacher at the Delhi School of Economics) Sukhamoy Chakravarty
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Today a circle is completed as Abhijit in his Nobel acceptence speech talks about my recent work trying to connect the theory of poverty traps to evidence generated by RCTs. Somtimes, the twain does meet....(Tweet 2/2)
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The sun on a return visit, after a gap
Nuffield College, Oxford
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My thoughts on the Minimum Income Guarantee proposal being debated in India
@vox_dev
@IGC_IndiaBihar
@SAsiaLSE
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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This is an excellent resource for those looking for quickly accessible data on India. Thanks to the researchers for the huge amount of work they put in.
Thread: After more than a year of work, we have now launched , a public platform that seeks to expand access to Indian data for everyone, and deepen the understanding of the country that can come from this data
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My conversation with Ishita Mehra, a high school senior from Delhi, who has been hosting a podcast on game theory since last year. I spoke to her about the applications of Game Theory in development economics as well as my research in general.
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The film Gully Boy is about dreams of escaping the ghetto and not just the literal one. And, it may well make rap mainstream in India ....who would have thought a song with lines like “dekho to hum pass lekin socho kotni doori hyay” to be a stirring anthem about inequality!
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A policy that pushes domestic demand, especially in rural India, is a better strategy for sustained growth. An essay with Ashok Kotwal & Bharat Ramaswami in
@TheIndiaForum
&
@Ideas4India
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@LSEPublicPolicy
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A recording of Abhijit Banerjee's lecture at LSE in honour of Sir Arthur Lewis on May 10, 2022 that I had the honour of chairing.
@STICERD_LSE
@LSEEcon
#EconTwitter
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Simple models are as useful as understanding economic phenomena as Aesop's Fables are for understanding moral dilemmas...no more, no less. It is baffling to hear critiques that economists use simplistic models.
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As much as "One should always be wary of simple solutions to complex problems, and universal basic income is no exception" one should also be wary of simplistic critiques of strawmen versions of policies.
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We respect people for their achievements, i.e., the things that they do. Perhaps we often don't realize that we also respect people for the things that they could have done but chose not to. We do realize it eventually, but unfortunately, often that happens after they pass away.
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Random reflection: Those who can convince themselves that they are doing good while doing well for themselves, are the happiest of the lot.
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Updating my reading list for PhD & MSc Development Economics at LSE - any suggestions for recent (2018/2019) papers on anti-poverty policies, credit, land, insurance, property rights that one should look at?
#EconTwitter
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A detailed version (with tables) of my evaluation of West Bengal’s economic performance relative to India over the last three decades, looking at changes in a couple of key economic indicators
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“The growth-versus-labour rights binary is false...leading to a zero-sum discourse. Protecting rights is .. also an investment in boosting overall productivity.” On reframing the debate on labour reform in India with
@AiyarYamini
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@CPR_India
@SAsiaLSE
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What's the cost of a very basic diet that would provide the minimal caloric requirement used in the calculation of poverty lines at current prices? Simple calculations suggest it exceeds the poverty line for at least 10% of hhs covered in India's 2022-23 hh cons exp survey (HCES)
Determining how many Indians are poor today - Maitreesh Ghatak
@maitreesh
(
@LSEEcon
), Rishabh Kumar
@Kumar_EconIneq
(
@UMassBoston
)
Read more:
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@surjitbhalla
We will document that there is no basis for the assertion that poverty has declined significantly over the last decade as asserted by
@surjitbhalla
and others. Watch this space.
@Kumar_EconIneq
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Pioneered the shirtless look, the gold-rimmed cool glass frames, had a wicked sense of humour (e.g., Q: “What do you think of Western civilization?” A: “I think it would be a good idea”) & foresaw most of the ills of modernity with remorseless clarity.
Gandhi turns 150 today
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I am interviewed along with other economists in
@IndiaToday
on the prolonged slump in the Indian economy
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@SAsiaLSE
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What are the must-read pieces on how the Indian govt can deal with financial impact of the crisis, including funding the package? I have read some by
@EmergingRoy
, Kapur-Subramanian,
@andymukherjee70
,
@pramit_b
,
@CafeEconomics
... do a thread here to collate?
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The idea of a poverty trap is very old but it is not easy to find evidence about whether they actually exist. This blogpost in
@voxeu
discusses findings from a recent research article with
@orianabandiera
,
#clare_balboni
,
#robin_burgess
&
#anton_heil
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What are some of the best analytical essays/op-eds on the global rise of right-wing populism, namely, those that get at the underlying causes, and throw light on why they are at play in a very diverse set of countries?
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On top of my reading list
George Akerlof argues that economics, as a discipline, puts too much emphasis
on 'hard' theory and evidence.
Forthcoming in JEL:
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Clare Balboni presenting our joint paper "Why do the Poor Stay Poor?" with
@orianabandiera
, Robin Burgess, Anton Heil at the NBER Summer Institute
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What are the papers to read on how expansionary fiscal policy works in economies with a large informal sector?
#EconTwitter
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My piece on West Bengal's economic performance relative to the rest of the country in the last two decades....in
@MyAnandaBazar
It is in Bengali though - an English version should be coming soon
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@thikalbrad
Luck plays a big role. I was lucky to have a brilliant and inspiring maths/stats teacher in high school. Here is my tribute to him: ?
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Where have you gone Pandit Nehru
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
To blame you for all our ills
Yet, knowing there was no one else…
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Is it the case that India's growth rate of GDP per capita has been less than that of the world whenever a Nehru or a Gandhi was PM? The graph by
@dubeyamitabh
shows that's not true - Indira Gandhi was in power from 1980-84 and Rajiv Gandhi from 1984-89
@DevashishMitra_
@AnnuJal
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On the role of the informal sector & scope for expansionary fiscal policy in India at present. My piece for
@IndianExpress
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@SAsiaLSE
@Ideas4India
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LSE is ranked number 4 in the Tilburg University Top 100 Worldwide Economics Schools Research Ranking based on research contribution 2014-2018, the only non-US department in the top-10
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
@LSEnews
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Ode to Social Media (with due apologies to Rabindranath Tagore)
কত অজানারে জানাইলে তুমি,
কত ঘরে দিলে ঠাঁই
চাই বা নাহি চাই ।
দূরকে করিলে নিকট, বন্ধু,
পরকে করিলে ভাই
কর্মব্যস্ত দিবসমাঝারে
কর্মনাশা হে বন্ধু মোর
তর্কসাগরে তুফান তুলিয়া
আপনে করিলে পর ।
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My piece with
@ajay_shah
on the opportunities & challenges posed by the gig economy in India in
@bsindia
growing out a panel discussion organized by
@PushHigherEd
at
@icggoa
Non-paywalled version
@XkdrF
@LSEEcon
@STICERD_LSE
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