Pranab Bardhan

Recent Books (over the last 15 years or so)

  1. Scarcity, Conflicts and Cooperation: Essays in Political and Institutional Economics of Development (MIT Press, 2005)
  2. Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability, co-edited with Jean-Marie Baland and Samuel Bowles, Princeton University Press, 2006.
  3. International Trade, Growth and Development, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2003.
  4. Poverty, Agrarian Structure, and Political Economy in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2003.
  5. Globalization and Egalitarian Redistribution, coedited with Samuel Bowles and Michael Wallerstein, Princeton University Press, 2006.
  6. Decentralization to Local Governments in Developing Countries: A Comparative Perspective, coedited with Dilip Mookherjee, MIT Press, 2006.
  7. The Contested Commons: Conversations between Economists and Anthropologists, co-edited with Isha Ray, Blackwell Publishers, 2008.
  8. Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India, Princeton University Press, 2010 (paperback, Fall 2012)
  9. Smriti-Kanduyan (Memory Scratching), Ananda Publishers, 2013 (In Bengali)
  10. Globalisation, Democracy and Corruption: An Indian Perspective, Frontpage Publications, 2015
  11. Poverty and Income Distribution in India (coedited with A. Banerjee, R. Somanathan and T.N. Srinivasan), Juggernaut, Delhi, 2017
  12. Reading India (coedited with S. Mundle and R. Somanathan), Orient Black Swan, 2019
  13. Indian Polity and Economy: A Mirror to Difficult Times, Frontpage Publications, 2020
  14. A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and Poor Countries, Harvard University Press, 2022
  15. Charaiveti: An Academic's Global Journey, forthcoming, 2023

    A. Political Economy and Governance

  1. "How Do Voters Respond to Welfare vis-à-vis Public Good Programs? Theory and Evidence of Political Clientelism", Quantitative Economics, July 2024 (with 3 co-authors)
  2. "Inequality and Inefficiency" in A. Deshpande (ed.), Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action, Springer, 2023.
  3. "Clientelism and Governance", World Development, 2022
  4. "Inequality and Capitalism in India", Studies in Indian Politics, December 2022
  5. "Refections on the Political Economy of 'New' India", New Left Review, July-August 2022
  6. "A Theory of Clientelistic Politics versus Programmatic Politics" (with D. Mookherjee), August 2018
  7. "Clientelist Politics and Economic Development: An Overview with D. Mookherjee, in J-M Baland, F. Borguignon, J-P Platteau and T. Verdier (eds), The Handbook of Economic Development and Institutions, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2020
  8. "How Do Voters Respond to Welfare vis-a-vis Infrastructure Programs", (with S. Mitra, D. Mookherjee, and A. Nath), May 2020
  9. "State and Economic Development: The Need for a Reappraisal of the Current Literature", Journal of Economic Literature, September 2016
  10. "Reflections on Indian Political Economy", Economic and Political Weekly, May 2, 2015
  11. "Democratic Development in India: Reflections on Problems and Prospects" in O.Tornquist and J. Harriss (eds.), Reinventing Social Democratic Development, NIAS Press, 2016.
  12. "Capitalist Dynamics and the Plutocrats" (a review of Piketty), Economic and Political Weekly, June 21, 2014
  13. "Political Clientelism- cum-Capture: Theory and Evidence from West Bengal", August 2012.
  14. "Inequality, Inefficiency, and the Challenges for Social Democracy in India's Economic Transition", In S. Khilnani And M. Malhoutra (Eds.), An Indian Social Democracy, Academic Foundation, New Delhi, 2013 (a shorter version published in the Economic and Political Weekly, March 2011)
  15. "Corruption: A Policy Perspective", Journal of Public Economic Theory, September 2014
  16. "Corruption In India: When Preaching Piety Is Not Enough", Lecture 2013
  17. "Understanding Voting Patterns in Rural West Bengal: Role of Clientelism and Local Public Goods", December 2013, (with S. Mitra, D. Mookherjee, and A. Nath), published in Economic and Political Weekly, March 15, 2014
  18. "Democracy and Development in India: A Comparative Perspective", keynote lecture given at Sixty Years of Indian Democracy Conference at Brown University, May 2010.
  19. "Notes on the Political Economy of India's Tortuous Transition", Economic and Political Weekly, December 5, 2009.
  20. "Impact of Political Reservations in West Bengal's Local Governments" on Journal of Globalization and Development, January 2010.
  21. "Local Democracy and Clientelism: Implications for Political Stability in Rural West Bengal"(jointly with S. Mitra, D. Mookherjee and A. Sarkar), Economic and Political Weekly, February 2009.
  22. "Distributive Conflicts and Indian Economic Policy: Some Notes on Political Economy" in C. Ghate (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy, Oxford University Press, 2011.
  23. "Resistance to Economic Reforms in India", YaleGlobal Online, October 2006
  24. "Governance Matters in Economic Reforms in India", slides of Brookings/NCAER Public Lecture in New Delhi, July 2006
  25. "The Economist's Approach to the Problem of Corruption", World Development February 2006.
  26. "Determinants of Redistributive Politics: An Empirical Analysis of Land Reforms in West Bengal, India", American Economic Review, September 2010.
  27. "Opposition to Market Reforms", Economic and Political Weekly, November 26, 2005.
  28. "Law and Development", in A.K. Dutt and J. Ros (eds.), International Handbook of Development Economics, vol. II, Elgar.
  29. "Political Economy of India", in K. Basu (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Economics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006.
  30. "Decentralization, Corruption and Government Accountability: An Overview", in Susan Rose-Ackerman (ed.), Handbook of Economic Corruption, Edward Elgar Publishing (jointly with Dilip Mookherjee), 2006.
  31. "Democracy and Distributive Politics in India,"in I. Shapiro, P. Swenson and D. Donno (eds.), Divide and Deal: The Politics of Distribution in Democracies, New York University Press, 2008.
  32. "Political Competition in Economic Perspective" (with Tsung-Tao Yang) , Economics Dept. Working Paper, Berkeley, July 2004.
  33. "The Politics of Economic Reform in India," [~124k pdf] in P. Bardhan, Poverty, Agrarian Structure, and Political Economy in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 2003.
  34. "Relative Capture of Local and Central Governments," with Dilip Mookherjee, [~217k pdf], plus figures 1-3 [26k]; CIDER Working Paper C99-109 (November 1999). A shorter version of the paper has been published in American Economic Review, May 2000.
  35. "Democracy and Development: A Complex Relationship", [~57k pdf] , in I. Shapiro and C. Hacker-Cordon (eds.), Democracy's Values, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

    B. Institutional Economics

  36. "The Informal Sector and Institutional Economics: Keynote Lecture at Universidad del Rosario", in Bogota, Colombia
  37. "Institutions, Trade, and Economic Development", paper for UNCTAD, Geneva, August 2006
  38. "Institutional Economics of Development: Some General Reflections," Opening Lecture at CESifo/BREAD conference on Institutional Economics at San Servolo, Italy, July 2006, now published in T. Besley and R. Jayaraman (eds.), Institutional Microeconomics of Development, MIT Press, 2010.
  39. "Institutions and Development", in David Clark (ed.), Elgar Companion to Development Studies, Elgar, 2006.
  40. "Institutions Matter, but Which Ones?" in a symposium on Institutions edited by Abhijit Banerjee and Maitreesh Ghatak, Economics of Transition, July, 2005.
  41. "Institutional Economics of Development, slides of LACEA Plenary Lecture," October 2007

    42. C. Globalization

  42. "Middleman Margins and Globalization", (with D. Mookherjee and M. Tsumagari), in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, November 2013
  43. "Reflections on some Under-researched Issues in Trade and Development", keynote lecture given to IGC Trade group at Columbia University (revised in April 2011).
  44. "Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World's Poor?", Scientific American, April 2006.
  45. "Globalization and Rural Poverty", World Development, August 2006.
  46. "Globalization, Inequality, and Poverty: An Overview "[~251k pdf] (May 2005).
  47. "The Impact of Globalization on the Poor", in S. Collins and C. Graham (eds.), Brookings Trade Forum 2004, Brookings Institution.
  48. "Social Justice in the Global Economy,"[~128k pdf] September 2000, (first delivered as ILO's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture in Cape Town, South Africa), now published by ILO, Geneva, 2000.
  49. Poverty and Inequality in China and India: Elusive Link with Globalisation Economic and Political Weekly, September 2007

    50. D. Decentralization

  50. "Decentralization and Development: Dilemmas, Trade-offs and Safeguards" (With Dilip Mookherjee), in E. Ahmad and G. Brosio (Eds.), Handbook of Multi-Level Finance, Elgar, 2015
  51. "Pro-Poor Targeting and Accountability of Local Governments in West Bengal" (with Dilip Mookherjee), Journal of Development Economics April 2006.
  52. "Decentralisation and Accountability in Infrastructure Delivery in Developing Countries" with Dilip Mookherjee, [~226k pdf], May 2000, Economic Journal, January 2006; plus Figs 1-6 [~67k pdf]
  53. "Decentralizing Anti-Poverty Program Delivery in Developing Countries" [~230k pdf], April 2005; Journal of Public Economics 2005.
  54. "Poverty Alleviation Effort of West Bengal Panchayats" (with Dilip Mookherjee), Economic and Political Weekly, February 2004.
  55. "Decentralization and Governance in Development" [~291k pdf] in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, fall 2002.

    E. Collective Action

  56. "Wealth Inequality and Collective Action," with Maitreesh Ghatak, and Alex Karaivanov, [~497k pdf] Journal of Public Economics, September 2007
  57. "Inequality, Coalitions and Collective Action" (with Nirvikar Singh), Economics Dept. Working Paper, Berkeley, April 2005.
  58. "Unequal Irrigators: Heterogeneity and Commons Management in Large-Scale Multivariate Research," with Jeff Dayton-Johnson, [~222k pdf] in National Research Council. The Drama of the Commons, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 2002.
  59. "Inequality and Conservation on the Local Commons: A Theoretical Exercise" with Jeff Dayton-Johnson, [~330k pdf] (August 1999); plus Figure 1 [~16k pdf], in The Economic Journal (July 2002).
  60. "Water Community: An Empirical Analysis of Cooperation on Irrigation in South India", [~57k pdf] June 1999, in M. Aoki and Y. Hayami (eds.), Community and Market in Economic Development, 2001.

    F. China-India

  61. "The Chinese Governance System: Its Strengths and Weaknesses in a Comperative Development Perspective",China Economic Review, June 2020
  62. "Governance Issues in Development: A China-India Comparative Study" in S. Casagrande and B. Dallago (eds.), Handbook of Comparative Economic Systems, Routledge, 2023.
  63. "Merchants of Hype and Hate: A Political-Economic Evaluation of the Modi Regime", in A.P.Chatterji, T.B. Hansen and C.Jaffrelot (eds.), Majoritarian State, Hurst and Co., London, 2019
  64. "China and India: The Pattern of Recent Growth and Governance in a Comparative Political Economy Perspective", in S. Fan, R. Kanbur, S.J. Wei and X. Zhang (Eds.), Oxford China Companion, Oxford University Press, 2014.
  65. "State and Capital in Chinese and Indian Economic Development", 2013, Lecture
  66. "Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: A China-India Comparative Economic Assessment", public lecture given at the World Bank in September 2010.
  67. "Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: A Brief Assessment of the Rise of China and India", Journal of South Asian Development, April 2006.
  68. What Makes a Miracle: Some Myths about the Rise of China and India Boston Review January/February 2008.
  69. "Economic Reforms, Poverty and Inequality in China and India" , in K. Basu and R Kanvur (eds.), Arguments for a Better World: Essays in Honor of Amartya Sen, Vol II, Oxford University Press 2008.
  70. "The State of Health Services in China and India in a Larger Context", in Health Affairs, July/August 2008
  71. "India and China: Governance Issues and Development", Journal of Asian Studies, May 2009

    72. G. Others

  72. "Universal Basic Income-Its Special Case for India", Indian Journal of Human development, August 2017
  73. "Reflections on Kalyan Sanyal's Rethinking Capitalist Development", Economic and Political Weekly, March 26, 2018
  74. "Ineqality and Economic Performance", Items, SSRC, New York, 2016
  75. "Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967-2004: Role of Land Reform" (with M.Luca, D. Mookherjee and F. Pino), Journal of Development Economics, 2014
  76. "Land Acquisition: Currently A Major Stumbling Block for Development Policy", April 2011, Development Outreach, World Bank.
  77. "Forests to the People: Decentralization and Forest Degradation in the Indian Himalayas", (with J.M.Baland, D. Mookherjee and S.Das), November 2010, in World Development
  78. "Subsidized Farm Input Programs and Agricultural Performance: A Farm-level Analysis of West Bengal's Green Revolution, 1982-95" (with D. Mookherjee), American Economic Journal , Applied Economics, October 2011.
  79. "State-Led or Market-led Green Revolution? Role of Private Irrigation Investment vis-a-vis Local Government Programs in West Bengal's Farm Productivity Growth" (with D. Mookherjee and N. Kumar), Journal of Development Economics, 2012.
  80. "Managing the Environmental Consequences of Growth: Forest Degradation in the Indian MidHimalayas" (with J.M. Baland, S. Das, D. Mookherjee, and R.Sarkar), India Policy Forum, vol. 3, 2007.
  81. "Methodological Approaches to the Question of the Commons" (with Isha Ray), Economic Development and Cultural Change, April 2006 (revised version published in P. Bardhan and I. Ray, eds. The Contested Commons, and in J. B. Davis and W. Dolfsma, eds. The Elgar Companion to Social Economics).
  82. "Who Represents the Poor? The Limits of the NGO Movement in Global Development", Boston Review, July 2011
  83. "The Environmental Impact of Poverty: Evidence from Firewood Collection in Rural Nepal" in Economic Development and Cultural Change, October 2010, (with J.M. Baland, S. Das, D. Mookherjee, and R. Sarkar)
  84. "Development Economics: New Directions, New Pitfalls", published with the title "Little, Big" in Boston Review May/June 2013
  85. "Variations in Relations of Capital in India", Lecture, 2013
  86. "The State of Indian Economic Statistics: Data Quantity and Quality Issues", Lecture, 2013
  87. "Theory or Empirics in Development Economics" for a symposium edited by Ravi Kanbur in Economic and Political Weekly, October 1, 2005.
  88. "Journal Publication in Economics: A View from the Periphery," [~18k pdf], Economic Journal, June 2003.
  89. "Artfilms, Handicrafts and Other Cultural Goods: The Case for Subsidy" (with Cecile Aubert and Jeff Dayton-Johnson), Economics Dept. Working Paper, Berkeley, June 2004.
  90. with Herbert Gintis and Samuel Bowles, "Wealth Inequality, Wealth Constraints, and Economic Performance." [~675k pdf] A. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon, eds., Handbook on Income Distribution, Elsevier, 2000. (CIDER Working Paper C98-097).
  91. "A Powerful, but Limited, Theory of Development: A Review Article on Lectures on Economic Growth by Robert E. Lucas," [~161k pdf] Economic Development and Cultural Change, January 2004.

    92. H. Selected Op-Ed Pieces

  92. "Globalization Hits Road Bumps in India", Yale Global Online, October 3, 2006
  93. "Capitalism: One Size Does not Suit All", Yale Global Online, December 2006
  94. "Questioning Milton Friedman's Free Market and Freedom", Yale Global Online, January 2007
  95. "Ienquality in India and China, Is Globalization to Blame?", Yale Global Online, October 15, 2007
  96. "The Virulence of Asian Nationalism", Yale Global Online, April 2008.
  97. "What does this Authoritarian Moment Mean for Developing Countries?", Financial Times, August 22, 2008.
  98. "Future of Capitalism", Yale Global Onlinee, April 2009
  99. "China at Sixty", Yale Global Online, September 2009.
  100. "How Unequal a Country is India?", Business Standard, September 5, 2009.
  101. "The Vexed Issue of Land Acquisition (in India)", Business Standard, September 23, 2009.
  102. "The Vexed Issue of Labor Laws(in India)", Business Standard, September 29, 2009.
  103. "India battles for Transparency", Yale Global Online, December 24, 2010.
  104. "An Uneven Field (on the Land Acquisition Bill in the Indian Parliament)", Hindustan Times, August 2011
  105. "Anti-corruption Movement in India", Outlook magazine, September 2011
  106. "Democratic Malaise", Project Syndicate, September 2011
  107. "More Unequal than Others", Project Syndicate, December 2011
  108. "Constraints on Capitalism in India", Outlook magazine, January 2012
  109. "It Simply Can't Fail (on the Food Security Bill in the Indian Parliament)", Hindustan Times, February 2012
  110. "Plague on All Houses", Yale Global Online, May 2012
  111. "Inequality Breeds Resistance to Globalization", Yale Global Online, November 27, 2012
  112. "Casteism and Corruption: Beyond Political Correctness", Ideas for India, February 12, 2013
  113. "The Slowing of Two Economic Giants", New York Times, July 14, 2013
  114. "Global Experts Still Need Local Knowledge", Yale Global Online, December 2013
  115. "The Labor Reform Myth", Indian Express, August 23, 2014
  116. "The Contradictions of China's Communist Capitalism" Project Syndicate, July 16, 2015
  117. "Could a Basic Income Help a Poor Country?", Project Syndicate, June 22, 2016
  118. "Basic Income for a Poor Country", Ideas for India, September 2016
  119. "Rise of Right-wing Populism: A Manifesto for the Moderate Left", Yale Global Online, September 2016
  120. "The Crisis of Higher Education in India", Indian Express, January 20, 2017
  121. "Universal Basic Income in India", Times of India, May 2, 2017
  122. "Understanding Populist Challenges to the Liberal Order", Boston Review, May 11, 2017
  123. "Stepping into the Void: A New Agenda for Global Labor", Los Angeles Review of Books, May 2018
  124. "Diffusing the Jobs Time Bomb", Times of India, October 2017
  125. "Job and Cultural Insecurity, More than Inequality' Fuels Populism", Yale Global Online, February, 2018
  126. "The Safety Net of the Future", Indian Express, December 2018
  127. "Universal Basic Income can be Funded by Reducing Subsidies to the Rich", Indian Express, January 2019
  128. "Looking beyond Election Fever: Here's How the Next Govt. can Tackle Jobs, Health and Farm Crises", Times of India, March 2019
  129. "Anti-National Thoughts", Indian Express, April 2019
  130. "Are Indian Democracy's Weaknesses Inherent?", Project Syndicate, May 2019
  131. "Populism in Less Developed Countries is Somewhat Different", 3 Quarks Daily, August 2018
  132. "What Exactly is Neo-Liberalism and What's Wrong with It?", 3 Quarks Daily, October 2018
  133. "Russia's Dead Souls: A Tale of Two Movies", 3 Quarks Daily, November 2018
  134. "The Chinese Governance System: Impressive Strengths and Appalling Flaws", 3 Quarks Daily, January 2019
  135. "Upcoming Challenges for Two of the Largest Democracies", 3 Quarks Daily, March 2019
  136. "Can the Local Community Save Liberal Democracy?", 3 Quarks Daily, May 2019
  137. "From False Hopes to False Pride", Indian Express, June 2019
  138. "Small-Town South Indian Fiction: We Are Not in Malgudi Anymore", 3 Quarks Daily, July 2019
  139. "If Mass Poverty is Declining, Why Should We Worry About High Inequality?", 3 Quarks Daily, September 2019
  140. "Coping with Resurgent Nationalism", 3 Quarks Daily, October 2019
  141. "Attempts are being Made to Dismantle the Pluralistic Ideas of India", Indian Express, October 12, 2019
  142. "Development Economics After the Nobel Prize", Indian Express, November 2019
  143. "India is Steadily Creeping from Democracy to some form of Thugocracy", Indian Express, January 18, 2020
  144. "The Achilles Heel of Liberal Democracy", 3 Quarks Daily, February 2020
  145. "Lockdown Trade-ofs in a Young Country", Indian Express, April 8, 2020
  146. "Her Voice Amid Lurking Danger: Reflections on Some Recent Feminist Crime Novels", 3 Quarks Daily, April 2020
  147. "How to Foot Covid 19's Hefty Bill", Economic Times, April 22, 2020
  148. "Decentralize Relief Policy", Business Standard, April 29, 2020
  149. "Labor Law Suspension: Hit the Workers when They are Down", Bloomberg Quint, May 10, 2020
  150. "Modi's Performance and the Tragedy of India's Poor", Project Syndicate, May 21, 2020
  151. "Universal Basic Income in post-Pandemic Poor Countries", 3 Quarks Daily, June 2020
  152. "Coronavirus Relief Package", Scroll.in, June 13, 2020
  153. "Civic Nationalism", Indian Express, October 12, 2021
  154. "Left and Right: Examining the Evolution of Political Ideologies", Ideas for India, 2021
  155. "Thinkers' Dialog with Pranab Bardhan on Inequality, Capitalism, and Democracy in India", 2021.
  156. "Organized Labor after COVID", Project Syndicate, May 2021
  157. "Unmasking India's Crony Capitalist Oligarchy", Project Syndicate, February 2023
  158. "What Will It Take to Save Democracy?", Boston Review March 2023
  159. "Left and Right: Examining the Evolution of Political Ideologies", Ideas for India September 2021
  160. "India's Massive Employment Problem and Some Ways Out", Ideas for India August 2024

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