Academic experts on India discuss reforms aimed at curbing poverty and inequality among the nation's socially disadvantaged.
CHAIR: N.K. Singh, Member of Parliament, India
Paper 1: Growth, Openness and the Socially Disadvantaged, Megha Mukim (LSE) and Arvind Panagariya (Columbia)
Paper 2: The Post-reform Narrowing of Inequality Across Castes: Evidence from the States, Viktoria Hnatkovska and Amartya Lahiri (UBC)
Discussant 1: Mary Lovely, Syracuse
Discussant 2: Pravin Krishna, Johns Hopkins
Bio
Pravin Krishna
Pravin Krishna (born 1969) is Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business [1] at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the Department of Economics in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Krishna holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and a B. Tech in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.[2] He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of International Economics. Krishna was previously Professor of Economics at Brown University and has held academic appointments at Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago.
Amartya Lahiri
Dr, Amartya Lahiri is a Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on International Economics with a secondary focus on Macroeconomics. Prior to his current appointment Lahiri served as a Senior Economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and as an Assistant Professor at the University of California Los Angeles. He is the author of several papers and in 1998 he was the recipient of UCLA Faculty Development Award in 1998. Lahiri is a member of the America Economic Association, the Society for Economic Dynamics, and the Econometric Society. Lahiri holds an M.A. in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a
Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland
Mary Lovely
Mary E. Lovely is Professor of Economics at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, where she combines interests in international economics and public economics. She is co-editor of the China Economic Review. Her current research projects investigate the pollution content of Chinese exports, the implications of China's industrial restructuring, and the nature of Chinese trade flows. She has recently completed work on the role of provincial differences in environmental policy and labor conditions in directing foreign direct investment flows to Chinese provinces. Dr. Lovely's earlier work considered the measurement of labor market effects of increased international trade, the distributional effects of industrial policy, the geographic concentration of exporting firms, and the welfare effects of smuggling. She has studied the optimal design of commodity taxes when consumers cross borders to shop in lower‑taxing jurisdictions as well as the benefits and costs of restricting this activity. Dr. Lovely earned her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She holds a master's degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University. She has taught at Syracuse University since 1988.
Megha Mukim
Megha Mukim is Economist and Private Sector Development Specialist at The World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Previously she was a Research Fellow at the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). Her research focuses on international trade and FDI, economic geography and economic development.
Before coming to Columbia, she taught topics in development at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC. She has a PhD from the London School of Economics and her graduate degrees are from the universities of London and Cambridge. Her professional experience has been accumulated in research departments of the World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and at Yale and Columbia University. Her current research focuses on different aspects of how changes in market structures and industrial or trade policy can affect growth and the re-distribution of resources.
Arvind Panagariya
Arvind Panagariya is the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy and professor of economics at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
A leading authority on the economy of India, he has been the chief economist of the Asian Development Bank and has also work with the world Bank, IMF, WTO, and UNCTAD. He holds a PhD in Economics from Princeton.
According to Fareed Zakaria (editor of Newsweek International), Professor Panagariya has written "the definitive book on the Indian economy," in which he "puts to rest myths and settles debates with balance and fairness."
Amartya Lahiri raises the question of whether representation of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in government is responsible for the narrowing wage gap between castes in recent years.
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