Pranab Bardhan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
He was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata and Cambridge University, England. He had been at the faculty of MIT, Indian Statistical Institute and Delhi School of Economics before joining Berkeley. He has been Visiting Professor/Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and London School of Economics. He held the Distinguished Fulbright Siena Chair at the University of Siena, Italy in 2008-9. He was the BP Centennial Professor at London School of Economics for 2010 and 2011.
He has done theoretical and field studies research on rural institutions in poor countries, on political economy of development policies, and on international trade. A part of his work is in the interdisciplinary area of economics, political science, and social anthropology. He was Chief Editor of the Journal of Development Economics for 1985-2003. He was the co-chair of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Network on the Effects of Inequality on Economic Performance for 1996-2007.
He got the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982.
The Degree of DSC (Honoris Causa) was awarded to him by Indian Statistical Institute In 2013.
He is the author of 17 books and editor of 14 other books, and author of more than 150 journal articles including in leading Economics journals (like American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Economic Journal, American Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Oxford Economic Papers, etc.).
His latest book titled A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and Poor Countries is being published by Harvard University Press in late 2022. he link to the Press catalog is https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674259843 This book has been included in the Financial Times list of "best summer readings of 2023". He gave talks on this book at London School of Economics, Oxford University, Kennedy School at Harvard University (with Dani Rodrik as discussant), Columbia University, University of California at Berkeley (with Barry Eichengreen as discussant), King's College London, Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, etc. For a You Tube video of his book talk at London School of Economics, along with a discussion on the book with Martin Wolf of the Financial Times and Tim Besley of LSE, the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeYrGmOtNsY
His memoir titled Charaiveti: An Academic's Global Journey is being published by Harper Collins India in late 2023.
His memoir in Bengali (titled Smriti-kanduyan, 'Memory-Sratching') has been serialized in Kolkata's leading literary magazine, Desh, and the book came out in January 2014.
For some of Bardhan's RECENT papers and books, click on papersHe has also contributed essays to popular outlets like New York Times, Scientific American, Financial Times, Die Zeit, Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Project Syndicate, Yale Global Online, Times of India, Economic Times, Business Standard, Bloomberg Quint, Hindustan Times, Ideas for India, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Express, Ananda Bazar Patrika (in Bengali), etc. Some of these popular pieces have now been collected in his latest books, Globalization, Democracy and Corruption and Indian Polity and Economy:A Mirror to Difficult Times (Frontpage Publications). A collection of his Bengali essays has been published by Ananda Publishers in Kolkata in 2020.
From 2018 he has started writing a periodic column for a New York-based blog, 3 Quarks Daily. His columns published so far can be downloaded from https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/author/pranabbardhan
His Google Scholar citations are in https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CvoogxEAAAAJ
His popular-level book, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India is published by Princeton University Press; their website for the book is at http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9153.html. A paperback edition came out in 2013, with an Afterword added. He has given public lectures on the theme of the book at different institutions in the world: London School of Economics, Paris School of Economics, Oxford University, University of Warwick, National University of Singapore, University of Manchester, Tsinghua University (Beijing), Hong Kong University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Centre for Policy Research (Delhi), University of Copenhagen, University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, Victoria University (New Zealand), IESE Business School at Barcelona, Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, University of Toronto, University of Oslo, Catholic University of Peru, Indian Statistical Institute, and Council of the Eruopean Union, apart from in the US at Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, New York University, World Bank, Emory University, University of Notre Dame, University of Illinois at Carbondale, Asia Society at Houston, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Portland State University, Camden Conference in Maine, etc.
For a substantial interview on the book recorded at the London School of Economics,
listen to http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/5109.
For a longer interview on the book as well as looking back at his professional life, watch the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3QAqlqg1Do
Two collections of his selected essays came out in 2003; one is International Trade, Growth and Development published by Blackwell; and the other, Poverty, Agrarian Structure, and Political Economy in India published by Oxford University Press.
His book, Scarcity, Conflicts and Cooperation: Essays in Political and Institutional Economics of Development , was published by MIT Press in 2005.
A co-edited volume, Globalization and Egalitarian Redistribution was published by Princeton University Press in 2006, followed by another co-edited volume, Inequality,Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability, also published by Princeton University Press in 2006. A co-edited volume, Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries: A Comparative Perspective was published by MIT Press in 2006.A co-edited volume, The Contested Commons: Conversations between Economists and Anthropologists was published in 2008 by Blackwell.
A graduate-level textbook by Pranab Bardhan and Christopher Udry, Development Microconomics, Oxford University Press, was published in 1999. More information on the book may be found in the publisher's website: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-877371-4 In 2000 MIT Press published a two-volume Readings in Development Economics, edited by Bardhan and Udry. More information on the book may be found in the publisher's website: http://mitpress.mit.edu/book-home.tcl?isbn=0262024845
His other notable public lectures and keynote addresses include:
Radhakrishnan Memorial Lectures at All Souls College, Oxford, 1983
V.K. Ramaswami Memorial Lecture at Delhi School of Economics, 1997
ILO Nobel Peace Prize Lecture at Capetown, South Africa, 2000
Inaugural Max Corden Lecture at the University of Melbourne, Australia, 2003
The first Luca d'Agliano Lecture in Development Economics in Turin, Italy, 2003
K.R. Narayanan Oration at the Australian National University, Canberra, 2003
K.C. Basu Endowed Lecture at the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India, 2004
Keynote Lecture at the CEPR/BREAD development conference at Istanbul, 2005
Kalinga Lectures at the N.C. Centre for Development Studies in Bhubaneswar, India, 2005
Opening Lecture at the CESIFO/BREAD development conference at San Servolo, Italy, 2006
Silver Jubilee Lecture at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, 2006
Keynote Lecture at the India Development Foundation conference in New Delhi, 2006
Brookings/NCAER India Policy Forum Public Lecture in New Delhi, 2006
Keynote Lecture at development conference at University of Quebec, Montreal, 2007
DEC Lecture at the World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007
Plenary lecture at the 2007 Annual meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association at Bogota, Colombia
TDPE Annual Distinguished Lecture at Syracuse University, 2007
Fred J. Hansen Distinguished Lecture at San Diego State University, 2007
Dipak Banerjee Memorial Lecture at Presidency College, Kolkata, India, 2007
Valedictory address at an international conference on Poverty at A.N.Sinha Institute at Patna, India, 2007
Public lecture at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester, 2008
State of the Arts lecture at 2008 Annual meeting of the Canadian Economic Association at Vancouver
Sukhamoy Chakrabarty Memorial Lecture at Delhi School of Economics, 2009
Opening lecture at a CEPAL conference on Decentralization at Santiago, Chile, 2009
Distinguished Lecture at Singapore Economic Review Conference, 2009
Keynote Lecture at conference on Decentralization at IFPRI, Washington DC, 2010
Keynote Lecture at IGC Workshop on Trade and Development at Columbia University, 2010
Bernard Fain Lecture at Brown University, 2010
Keynote Lecture at Six Decades of Indian Democracy conference at Brown University, 2010
Keynote lecture at the mid-West Development conference at Madison, Wisconsin, 2011
B.G. Kumar Memorial Lecture at Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrujm, India, 2011
Keynote Lecture at Copenhagen Business School, 2011
Keynote Lecture at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, 2011
Keynote Lecture at Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, 2012
Keynote Lecture at Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, 2012
Halle Speaker Series Lecture at Emory University, 2012
S.C. Fang Memorial Lecture at Hong Kong University, 2012
Distinguished Speaker Series Lecture at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2012
Keynote Lecture at a Conference at CMI, Bergen, Norway, 2012
VKRV Rao Memorial Lecture at Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, 2012
30 Year Commemorative Lecture at Export-Import Bank in Mumbai, India, 2012
SK Chakravarty Memorial Lecture, Calcutta University, India 2012
Keynote Lecture at the Ninth Beijing Forum, 2012
Public Lecture at University of Toronto Law School, 2012
Pravin Visaria Memorial Lecture at Gujarat Institute of Development Research, 2012
Plenary Lecture at a workshop Organized by Journal of Public Economic theory in Mysore, India, 2012
Keynote Address at Asian Research Institute Workshop, National University of Singapore, 2012
Plenary Speaker at the International Institute of Public Finance Congress at Taormina, Italy, 2013
Public Lecture at University of Oslo Festival, 2013
Samar Sen Memorial Lecture at Kolkata, 2013
Silver Jubilee Lecture at IGIDR, Mumbai, 2013
CUTS International 30th anniversary Lecture at Kolkata, 2013
Keynote address at Comparative Education Society of India Conference in Kolkata, 2013
A.N. Varma Lecture at India Development Foundation, New Delhi, February 2014
Keynote Lecture at Shiv Nadar University, February 2014
Lecture at the Liu Institute Distinguished Speaker Series at University of Notre Dame, April 2014
Plenary Lecture at Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis Conference in Italy, June 2014
Institute Lecture at IIM, Kolkata in July 2014
DEC Lecture at the World Bank in September 2014
Opening Keynote Lecture at conference on Indian Political Economy at All Souls College, Oxford in March 2015
Adrian Leftwich Memorial Lecture at University of Manchester in March 2015
Plenary Speaker at World Economic History Congress in Kyoto, Japan in August 2015
Keynote Lecture at National University of Singapore in October 2015
Amlan Datta Memorial Lecture at Calcutta University at Calcutta University in February 2016
ADRI Silver Jubilee Lecture in Patna, India in March 2016
Keynote lecture on the 200th Anniversary of Presidency College, Calcutta, in January 2017
Keynote Lecture at a conference on China and India at Paris School of Economics in March 2017
Keynote Lecture at the conference on the State at the Peking University Center for New Structural Economics in Beijing in June 2017
Keynote lecture at University of Chicago conference on "The Limits of the Numerical" in June 2017
Keynote Lecture at a conference on Universal Basic Income at the Institute of Human Development, New Delhi, in July 2017
Keynote Lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at the India@70 Symposium in November 2017
Keynote Lecture at a conference in Kolkata in January 2018 on Political Economy of Development organized by the Indo-German International Center for Advanced Studies
Kalyan Sanyal Memorial Lecture organized by Calcutta University in Kolkata, January 2018
Public Lecture at London School of Economics in April 2018 on A Global Agenda for Labor
Keynote Lecture at conference on Economics of Informality at Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia, in May 2018
Keynote Lecture at Conference on Comparative Political Economy in Fudan University, Shanghai, 2018
Ashok Rudra Memorial Lecture at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal in 2019
Keynote Lecture at ISID Annual Conference at McGill University, Canada in 2019
First CATS Lecture at Heidelberg University, Germany in 2019
T.N.Srinivasan Memorial Lecture at India Policy Forum, New Delhi in 2019
Keynote Lecture at Renmin University, Beijing in Annual Conference on China Development Theory in 2019
Lecture at the Institute of International Economic Policy, George Washington University in 2020
Special Lecture at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi in 2022Foundation Day Lecture at Institute of Development Studies Kolkata in 2022
Special Lecture at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi in 2022
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