December 2012
Maitreesh Ghatak
Department of Economics
London School of Economics
Houghton Street, London
WC2A 2AE, U.K.
Telephone: (44) 207 852 3568
http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/mghatak/
Principal Current Position
Professor: Department of Economics, London School of Economics (2004 – present)
Past Positions
Assistant Professor: Department of Economics, University of Chicago (1996 –2002)
Reader (Associate Professor with tenure): Department of Economics, London School of Economics (2002 – 2004)
Education
1986-1989: Presidency College, University of Calcutta, B.Sc. (Econ.), First Class, Ranked First in University.
1989-1991: Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, M.A.(Econ.), First Class, Ranked First in University.
1991-1996: Harvard University, Cambridge Mass., Ph.D. in Economics (Thesis Chair: Eric Maskin)
Fields of Interest
Development
Economics, Public Economics, Organizational Economics
Current
Research Topics
Microfinance, property
rights, non-profits, public service delivery, land acquisition, incentives with
motivated agents, poverty traps, taxing incentive pay, occupational choice,
capital market frictions, tenancy, discrimination.
Teaching
Economic Growth and
Development (Graduate and undergraduate), Contracts and Organizations
(Graduate), & Microeconomics (Undergraduate).
Editorship
Editor-in-Chief (2009 –present): Journal of Development Economics.
Managing Editor (2003-2006): Review of Economic Studies
Co-Editor (2008 –2009): Journal of Development Economics.
Member of Editorial Board (2002-2011): Review of Economic Studies
Associate Editor (2009-2012): Journal of Comparative Economics
Co-editor (2003-2005): Economics of Transition.
Professional Affiliations/Activities
Director (2005 –present): Economic Organization and Public Policy Program (EOPP) in STICERD
Lead Economist (2010 - present ): International Growth Centre, India: Bihar Programme.
Board Member (2008 - present): Bureau
for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (B.R.E.A.D.) (Senior
Fellow since 2002).
Core Member (2011 - present): Theoretical Research in Development (ThReD).
Research Fellow: Centre for Economic Policy Research (C.E.P.R.), Program in Public Policy & Development Economics
Research Associate: The Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE), Warwick University.
Research Associate: The Leverhulme Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO), University of Bristol.
Invited Short-Term Visiting Positions
Distinguished Visitor: Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, 2013-14.
Visiting Professor: MIT, May 2012
External Visiting Professor: Centre
of Research in the Economics of Development, University of Namur, 2010-2015.
Visiting Professor: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, January–April 2008
Visiting Professor: Yale University, April 2007.
Visiting Scientist: Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, July-August 2006.
Visiting Fellow: International/Development Visitor Program, Department of Economics, Northwestern University, March 2004.
Bhabatosh Datta Visiting Fellow: Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, May-July 2002
Member: Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Academic Year 2000-01.
Visiting Assistant Professor: London School of Economics, January-March 1999.
Post-Doctoral Fellow: STICERD, London School of
Economics, July-September 1996
AWARDS, GRANTS AND PRIZES
International Growth Centre (IGC) Grant: Cash Transfer Versus In-Kind Transfers: A Conceptual Framework & Preliminary Evidence from Bihar, 2012.
STICERD Grant “Regulating Microfinance: Theory and Policy in Light of the Indian Crisis”, 2012.
International Growth Centre (IGC) Grant (RST-U145): Land Acquisition for Business and Compensation of Displaced Farmers, 2019-2012
STICERD Grant “Beyond Joint Liability: Topics in Microfinance”, 2010.
Microsoft Corporation Grant “Motivation and Incentives in Organizations”, 2007-2009.
ESRC Large Grant RES-000-23-0717 “Competition and Incentives in Public Service Provision” (with T. Besley) 2004-06.
Visiting Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, 2000-01.
University of Chicago, Social Science Division Dean's Research Grant, 2001-02.
Mellon Cultural Training and Research Grant for field survey in West Bengal, 1999.
Post Doctoral Fellowship, STICERD, London School of Economics, Summer 1996.
The Simon Kuznets Award, 1993, Harvard University.
INVITED SPECIAL LECTURES
The Fourth Dipak Banerjee Annual Memorial Lecture, Presidency College, Calcutta, January 6, 2011.
Public Lecture, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) and Bangalore University, Bangalore, September 2, 2010.
Invited Lecture Series, Winter School, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, December 2008.
PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Publications
1. "Group Lending, Local Information and Peer Selection". Journal of Development Economics , Vol.60, No.1, October 1999.
2. "The Economics of Lending with Joint Liability : Theory and Practice", (with Timothy W. Guinnane). Journal of Development Economics, Vol.60, No.1, October 1999 (See also erratum in Volume 69, Issue 1, October 2002). [Reprinted in Readings in the Theory of Economic Development (ed.s) D. Mookherjee and D. Ray, London: Blackwell (2000).]
3. "Screening by the Company You Keep: Joint Liability Lending and the Peer Selection Effect". Economic Journal, Vol.110, Issue 465, July 2000.
4. "Contract Choice in Agriculture with Joint Moral Hazard in Effort and Risk", (with Priyanka Pandey). Journal of Development Economics, Vol.63, No.2, December 2000.
5. "Occupational Choice and Dynamic Incentives" (with Massimo Morelli and Tomas Sjostrom). Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 68, No. 4, October 2001, p. 781-810.
6. "Financially Interlinked Business Groups", (with Raja Kali). Journal of Economics and Management Strategy . Vol. 10, Issue 4, p. 591-619, Winter 2001.
7. "Government versus Private Ownership of Public Goods", (with Tim Besley). Quarterly Journal of Economics , Vol. 116, No. 4, p.1343 – 1372, November 2001.
8. “Empowerment and Efficiency: Tenancy Reform in West Bengal", (with Abhijit V. Banerjee and Paul J. Gertler). Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 110, No. 2, April 2002, p. 239-280 [Lead article; Featured in the article "Free Market Thumbs up for Bengal's Operation Barga", The Times of India, July 19, 2001, and "Barga Works, OK", The Times of India, August 27, 2004.]
9. “A Simple Model of Inequality, Occupational Choice and Development", (with Nien-Huei Jiang). Journal of Development Economics, Volume 69, Issue 1, October 2002.
10. "Can Unobserved Heterogeneity in Farmer Ability Explain the Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Productivity?" (with Juliano Assuncao). Economics Letters , Volume 80, No. 2, pp.189-194, August 2003.
11. "Eviction Threats and Investment Incentives" (with Abhijit V. Banerjee), Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 74, No.2, pp. 469-488, August 2004.
12. "Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents" (with Tim Besley). American Economic Review, Vol. 95, No. 3, pp. 616-636, June 2005. [Featured in Stanford Social Innovation Review Upfront Research News story “Helping Do-Gooders Do Their Best,” Fall, 2005]
13. "Joint Liability Lending and the Peer Selection Effect", (with S. Gangopadhyay and R. Lensink), Economic Journal , October 2005.
14. "Subcontractors for Tractors: Asset Specificity and Contracting in a Manufacturer-Supplier Network" (with Asim Khwaja, and Tahir Andrabi). Journal of Development Economics . Volume 79, No. 2, pp. 273-492, April 2006. [Lead article]
15. "Entrepreneurial
Talent, Occupational Choice, and Trickle Up Policies" (with Massimo
Morelli and Tomas Sjostrom), Journal of
Economic Theory, Symposium on Development Theory, Volume 137,
No. 1, pp. 27-48, November 2007. [Reprinted in Entrepreneurship in Recession (ed.) Simon C. Parker, Edward
Elgar, 2011].
16. "Retailing Public Goods: The Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility" (with Tim Besley). Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 91, No. 9, p. 1645–1663, September 2007 [Lead article]
17. "Wealth Inequality and Collective Action" (with Pranab Bardhan and Alexander Karaivanov), Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 91, No. 9, p. 1843–1874, September 2007.
18. "Thanks for Nothing? Welfare Effects of Not-for-Profits with Endogenous Matching" (with Hannes Mueller), Journal of Public Economics, Volume 95, Issues 1-2, Pages 94-105, February 2011.
19. “Incentives and the de Soto
Effect’’, (with Tim Besley & Konrad
Burchardi). Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 127(1), February, 2012.
20. “Trade and the Allocation of Talent with Capital
Market Imperfections” (with Roberto Bonfatti). Forthcoming, the Journal of International Economics.
21.
“Marry for What? Partner Selection in Modern India” (with Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo,
and Jeanne Lafortune). Forthcoming, the American
Economic Journal: Microeconomics.
Other Publications
1.
"Diversified
Business Groups in Emerging Economies" (with R. Kali), Money and
Finance, Vol.2, No. 4, Oct.-Dec. 2000.
2.
"Recent
Reforms in the Panchayat System in West Bengal:
Toward Greater Participatory Governance?” (with Maitreya
Ghatak), Economic and Political Weekly of India,
Vol 37, No 1, January 5, 2002. [Reprinted in Decentralisation: Institutions
and "Politics in Rural India (ed.s) Satyajit Singh and Pradeep K.
Sharma, Oxford University Press, Delhi.]
3.
“Strategy
for Economic Reform in West Bengal”
(with Abhijit Banerjee, Pranab
Bardhan, Kaushik Basu, Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri, Ashok Guha, Mukul
Majumdar, Dilip Mookherjee, and Debraj Ray), Economic and Political
Weekly of India, Vol. 37, No. 41 October 12, 2002.
4.
“Incentives
and Accountability in the Provision of Public Services’’ (with Tim Besley), Oxford Review of Economic Policy,
Vol. 19 (2): Financing and Managing Public Services, Summer 2003.
5.
“Incentives,
risk and accountability in organizations” (with Tim Besley),
in Organizational Encounters with Risk (ed.s)
Bridget Hutter and Michael Power, Cambridge
University Press, 2005.
6.
“Who
should provide public goods? A Perspective from the Theory of Organizations?” Development,
Displacement and Disparity - India in the Last Quarter of the Century, (ed.s) S. Marjit and N. Banerjee,
Orient Longman, 2005.
7.
"Inequality
and Collective Action " (with P. Bardhan and A. Karaivanov) Forthcoming in P. Bardhan,
S. Bowles and J. M. Baland (ed.) Economic
Inequality, Collective Action, and Environmental Sustainability, Princeton
University Press, 2006.
8.
“Public
Goods and Economic Development’’ (with T. Besley), in
Understanding Poverty, (A. Banerjee, R. Benabou,
D. Mookherjee, eds.), Oxford University Press, 2006.
9.
“Sorting
with Motivated Agents: Implications for
School Competition and Teacher Incentives” (with T. Besley),
Journal of the European Economic Association, Papers and
Proceedings, 2006.
10.
“Land Reform”, entry in The Oxford
Companion to Economics in India edited by Kaushik
Basu, Oxford University Press, 2007.
11.
“Land Reform and Agricultural Productivity in
India: A Review of the Evidence” (with S. Roy), Oxford Review of Economic
Policy, Vol. 23(2): India, p. 251-269, Summer 2007.
12.
“Reforming Public Service Delivery” (with T. Besley), Journal of African Economics, Vol.
16 (1), p. 127-156, 2007.
13.
“Status Incentives” (with T. Besley), American Economic Review, Papers and
Proceedings, May 2008.
14.
“Property Rights and Economic Development”
(with T. Besley),
in D. Rodrik and M. Rosenzweig (ed.s) Handbook of Development Economics, North
Holland, 2009.
15.
“Spanning the Chasm: Uniting Theory and
Empirics in Microfinance Research” (with Greg Fischer) , The Handbook of
Microfinance, (ed.s) Beatriz Armendáriz
and Marc Labie, World Scientific, 2010.
16.
“Implementing Health Insurance: The Rollout
of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Karnataka”, (with Durgam, R., Berg, E., Manjula,R.,
and Roy, S.), Economic and Political Weekly of India, May 2011.
17. “The Land Acquisition Bill: A Critique and a Proposal”, (with Parikshit Ghosh), Economic and Political Weekly of India, October 8, 2011, Vol. XLVI, No 41
18.
"Bailouts and the Optimal Taxation of Bonus Pay", (with Tim Besley), forthcoming, American Economic
Review, Papers and Proceedings, May 2013.
RECENT WORKING PAPERS
1. “Market Structure and Borrower Welfare in Microfinance”, (with Jon de Quidt, and Thiemo Fetzer). (Submitted).
2. “Land Acquisition for Industrialization and Compensation for Displaced Farmers, (with Dilip Mookherjee) (Revise and resubmit, Journal of Development Economics, Special Issue on Land & Property Rights)
3. “Can Market Failure Cause Political Failure?” (with Madhav Aney and Massimo Morelli). (Revise and resubmit, the Journal of European Economic Association).
4. “Contractual Structure in Agriculture with Endogenous Matching” (with Alexander Karaivanov), (Revise and resubmit, Journal of Development Economics, Special Issue on Land & Property Rights)
6. “Repayment Frequency and Lending Contracts with Present-Biased Borrowers” (with Greg Fischer).
7. “Land Acquisition and Compensation in Singur: Results of a Survey” (with Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, and Anusha Nath).
8. “Motivating Knowledge Agents: Incentive Pay vs. Social Proximity” (with Erlend Berg, R. Manjula, D. Rajasekhar, and Sanchari Roy).
9. “Microfinance, Market Structure, and Borrower
Welfare in Microfinance: Regulatory Lessons from the Indian Crisis” (with Jon
de Quidt and Thiemo Fetzer).
OLDER WORKING PAPERS
1. “Taxation and Regulation of Bonus Pay” (with Tim Besley), C.E.P.R. Discussion Paper No. 8532.
2. “Credit Rationing,
Wealth Inequality, and Allocation of Talent” (with Massimo Morelli and Tomas Sjostrom). Version:
October 2002, STICERD Theoretical Economics Discussion Paper TE/2002/441.
3. "Gun Control and the Self-Defense Argument", Version: January 2001.
4. “Public-Private
Partnership for the Provision of Public Goods: Theory and an Application to
NGOs” (with Tim Besley), August 1999, STICERD Development
Economics Discussion Paper Series, DEDPS 17.
WORK IN PROGRESS
1. “Mission Integrity in
Public Organizations” (with Tim Besley).
2. “Non-Profits and Ownership of Public Goods”, (with Tim Besely and Patrick
Francois).
3. “Incentive Effects of Regulating Exchange Rights” (with Dilip Mookherjee).
4. “Implicit Joint Liability” (with Jon de Quidt and Thiemo Fetzer).
5. “For-Profit and Non-Profit Competition” (with Hannes Mueller).
6. “Ethical Finance” (with Tim Besley).
7. “Tenant Heterogeneity and the Unequal Effects of Agrarian Reform:
Theory and Evidence” (with Abhijit V. Banerjee and Selim Gulesci).
8. “Can Taste for Discrimination Survive in Competitive Markets?”
9. “Missing Firms” (with Rocco Macchiavello and Christopher Woodruff).
10.“The Welfare Effects of Microfinance: A Quantitative Approach” (with Tim Besley and Konrad Burchardi).
11.“Poverty Traps without Credit Market Frictions”, (with Giacomo Rodano).
12.“Missing Markets and Backward Bending Supply Curve of Land” (with Sanjay Banerji).
1. Recent trends in the U.S. economy (with Parikshit Ghosh), The Telegraph, Calcutta, June 4, 1999.
2. Increase in West Bengal’s agricultural productivity and the role of agrarian reform (in Bengali) (with Abhijit Banerjee), Ananda Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, April 20, 2000.
3. An economic plan for the West Bengal government (with Abhijit Banerjee, Pranab Bardhan, Kaushik Basu, Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri, Ashok Guha, Mukul Majumdar, Dilip Mookherjee, and Debraj Ray) The Telegraph, Calcutta, May 13, 2001.
4. Industrial reform in West Bengal (with Abhijit Banerjee, Pranab Bardhan, Kaushik Basu, Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri, Ashok Guha, Mukul Majumdar, Dilip Mookherjee, and Debraj Ray) published serially in The Telegraph, Calcutta, July 02-11, 2001, (in Bengali) in the Ananda Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, June 17-21, 2001, and Economic and Political Weekly of India, October 12 2002.
5. The policy of banning private tuition in West Bengal (with Sugata Marjit) in The Telegraph, Calcutta, June 29, 2002.
6. The 2004 US Presidential Election (in Bengali), Anandabazar Patrika, Calcutta, November 14, 2004.
7.
The land acquisition controversy in West
Bengal Beyond Nandigram: Industrialization in West Bengal (with Abhijit Banerjee, Pranab Bardhan, Kaushik Basu, Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri, Ashok Guha, Mukul
Majumdar, Dilip Mookherjee, and Debraj Ray),
Economic and
Political Weekly of India,
April 28, 2007
and
Anandabazar Patrika (Bengali version)
April 25, 26, 2007.
8. Where is Credit Due? Financial Express, New Delhi, October 27, 2008.
9. The 2008 US Presidential Election (in Bengali) (in two parts), Anandabazar Patrika, Calcutta, November 18-19, 2008.
10. Barefoot Entrepreneurs? Financial Express, New Delhi, January 12, 2009.
11. Poor Man’s Capitalism. Financial Express, New Delhi, March 23, 2009.
12. Anger in the Wake of Aila (with Sreyashi Dastidar), Financial Express, New Delhi, June 11, 2009.
13. Small is Smart, Financial Express, New Delhi, August 24, 2009.
14. The Limits of Markets, (in Bengali), Anushtup, Annual Number, 2009.
15. No Way Out of this Plot, (with Sanjay Banerji), Financial Express, New Delhi, September 30, 2009.
16. Buying land and selling kidneys, Financial Express, New Delhi, Nov 09, 2009.
17. Why would you sell your heart? , Financial Express, New Delhi, Nov 16, 2009
18. The Pioneer of Modern Analytical Economics: Paul Samuelson, (in Bengali), Ananda Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, December 29, 2009
19. What crisis has taught economics, Financial Express, 09 Jan 2010
20. On Some of the Presumptions of Mainstream Economics, (in Bengali), Anushtup, Annual Number, 2010.
21. Incentive Pay and Bailouts (with Tim Besley), Vox, August 27, 2011.
22. Land on One’s Square Feet, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, September 21, 2011 and Ananda Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, September 22, 2011.
23. Designing Economic Policy (in Bengali), Anushtup, Annual Number, 2011.
24. Land acquisition: Is there a way out? (with Parikshit Ghosh), Ideas for India, July 16, 2012.
25. Developing a land acquisition policy for India, (with Dilip Mookherjee), Ideas for India, and MINT, Sep 5 2012.
26. The Apparent Decline of Bengali as a Language (in Bengali), Baromas, Annual Number, 2012.
27. Role of Markets in Development, Anushtup, Annual Number, 2012.
Completed Theses Supervised (with initial placement)
Principal Advisor to: Neville Nien-Huei Jiang (Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University) Rocco Macchiavello (Post-doc, Nuffield College, Oxford), Masayuki Kudamatsu (Assistant Professor, IIES, Stockholm), Emmanuel Frot (Assistant Professor, SITE, Stockholm School of Economics), Paolo Masella (Post-doc, European University Institute, Florence), Sanchari Roy (Post-Doc, Warwick), Konrad Burchardi (Assistant Professor, IIES, Stockholm), Selim Gulesci (Assistant Professor, Bocconi), Erlend Berg (Post-Doc, Oxford), Madhav Aney (Assistant Professor, Singapore Management University), Giacomo Rodano (Bank of Italy), Hannes Mueller (Post-Doc CSIC, Barcelona.)
Member of Thesis Committee: Christian
Ahlin (Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University), Kumar Aniket (Lecturer, New
Hall and Trinity College, Cambridge University), Fernando Aragon (Simon Fraser,
Assistant Professor), Xavier Gine (World Bank), Hyeok Jeong (Assistant Professor,
University of Southern California), Alexander Karaivanov (Assistant Professor,
Simon Fraser University), Priyanka Pandey (Assistant Professor, Penn State), Kenichi Ueda
(I.M.F.), Ankur Vora
(Boston Consulting Group).