Applying Evolutionary Game Theory to Understand Institutional Effectiveness

Game Theory, an approach to strategic decision making, defines how people make choices which impact other people and vice-versa. The ‘game’ in this theory indicates a situation where decision makers (players of the game) make certain choices that can impact the society at large. Dr. Ratul Lahkar, Professor of Economics, 51���, elaborates on this concept by applying ‘Evolutionary Game Theory’, which is an extension of Classical Game Theory. Evolutionary Game Theory focuses on how these strategic decisions of the players evolve over time based on experience.

Two key concepts of Game Theory are Nash equilibrium and Pareto efficiency. Nash equilibrium can be explained as a competitive decision-making strategy where the people involved are not benefiting from changing their current strategy, hence are choosing to continue with their usual way of doing things. On the contrary, ‘Pareto efficiency’ explains the best possible allocation of resources where no one individual is better off without making someone else worse off.

Dr. Lahkar studies how institutions, which refer to laws and norms within which societies or economies operate, can resolve the contradiction between Nash equilibrium and Pareto efficiency. Classical Game Theory suggests that Nash equilibrium, resulting from the selfish behaviour of individuals, often differs from the socially best outcome (the Pareto efficient outcome) because individuals may not consider the effect of their actions on others.

Good institutions help resolve the conflict between private interests and the common good by enforcing appropriate laws, norms, and rules that people must follow. For instance, people may be required to contribute to projects that serve the public interest. Social efficiency demands coordination on a Pareto optimal outcome, one in which everyone makes positive contributions that benefit all. However, when individuals act selfishly at the Nash equilibrium, they may not make any contribution, which results in inefficiency. Good institutions address this contradiction by rewarding socially beneficial behavior and discouraging selfishness.

However, institutions may be only partially effective. For example, the government may reward individuals with incentives for only a part of the positive outcome they generate. In that case, these incentives will not be strong enough to push society to the socially best outcome (Pareto efficient outcome). Nevertheless, even such partially effective institutions can incentivize an outcome that is still better than the Nash equilibrium.

To understand how effective institutions are, we also need to understand what determines the effectiveness of these institutions. The main determinant is whether the fundamental institutional structure of the society is inclusive or exclusive. An inclusive institutional structure is characterised by equitable distribution of socio-economic power, rule of law and broadly democratic decision-making. On the other hand, an exclusive institutional structure is one where power is monopolized by elites. Historical examples of exclusive institutions include feudalism, slavery and dictatorships.

The current study analyzes the emergence and stability of these institutional structures using a game-theoretic model called Tullock contests. Tullock contests describe competitive situations where individuals or groups expend resources to gain control over other valuable resources, such as political power or economic advantages.

Such an exclusive institutional structure generates high levels of social conflict in society with excessive rent-seeking, as individuals compete to acquire power, instead of engaging in productive and beneficial activities. The government, designing institutions (rules) for society, is compelled to divert a part of its effectiveness towards managing social conflict. This compromises its ability to design these institutions effectively. In contrast, with an inclusive institutional structure, social conflict is low as everyone has a fair share of power. The government can focus on creating appropriate incentives for social benefits more effectively. Therefore, the more inclusive the fundamental institutional structure, the greater the institutional effectiveness in resolving society’s coordination problems.

This is the first paper to present a theoretical model of the link between institutional origins and institutional effectiveness. An important implication of the paper is that societies and organizations must prevent elite capture for their institutions to be effective in reconciling private incentives and the social good.

Edited by Kangna Verma, Academic Communications, Research and Development Office, 51���

Reference Article:

Author: Dr. Ratul Lahkar (Professor of Economics, 51���)

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51���’s Economics Department Invites Applications For its Ph.D. Programme

The Department of Economics at 51��� is now accepting applications for its Ph.D. programme. Our department offers a diverse and rigorous range of graduate-level courses, including Behavioral Economics, Development Economics, Econometrics, Game Theory, Health Economics, International Economics, Labour Economics, Industrial Organisation, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Network Theory, Political Economy, Public Finance, Time-Series Economics, among others. Our faculty members are actively engaged in cutting-edge research and have published in top-tier journals across various fields. In recognition of our research output, the department was ranked No. 1 in India for research excellence by RePEc in 2020.

At Ashoka, we are deeply committed to supporting our Ph.D. students in their academic and professional journeys. Our programme offers:

• Vibrant Research Culture: We host weekly seminars, annual conferences, and workshops featuring eminent scholars from India and abroad. Students regularly engage with visiting researchers and receive valuable feedback on their work.
• Generous Financial Support: Most Ph.D. students receive a full tuition waiver and a stipend that exceeds the UGC-mandated levels. Additionally, housing on campus is provided (subject to availability), or a monthly rent allowance is offered.
• Research & Travel Grants: Our department provides generous financial assistance for attending international conferences and offers annual contingency and fieldwork grants to support student research.
• Teaching Experience: Students are required to work as Teaching Assistants for specified courses, giving them essential teaching experience to prepare for academic careers.
• Close Faculty Interaction: Small class sizes and a collaborative environment offer strong mentorship opportunities. Many students co-author research papers with faculty members.

We welcome aspiring scholars who are passionate about economics and committed to contributing to the field. Join us and become part of a thriving academic community.

“If you are thinking of a PhD in Economics, look no further!” - Professor Ashwini Deshpande, Head of the Department, Economics

Hear from Our Graduates

“For those who seek academic freedom, strong mentorship, and a collaborative research environment, Ashoka offers something truly meaningful.” - Dr Raghvi Garg, Assistant Professor, Department of Economic Sciences, IIT Kanpur

“If you are planning to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics from Ashoka, the University will always support you and help you grow both academically and personally.” - Dr Jitendra Singh, Assistant Professor, Thapar School of Liberal Arts & Sciences

To learn more about the programme, click here.

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51���’s Anisha Sharma recognised as IEA’s Featured Economist for October 2024

Anisha Sharma, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at 51���, has been recognised as the International Economics Association's . Her research focuses on labor economics, the economics of health and education, and public policy, with a particular emphasis on gender disparities across these dimensions.

One area of her work examines how individuals make human capital investment decisions, specifically the role of gendered social norms in shaping their choices. Another area explores the constraints on firms from hiring women and the socioeconomic factors limiting women’s labor supply. Her work has been supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Innovations for Poverty Action, J-PAL, and Centre for Economic Policy Research, among others. She holds a PhD in Economics, an MSc in Economics for Development, and an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, along with a BA in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

The Featured Economist initiative was introduced by renowned economist Dani Rodrik when he took over as the President of the International Economics Association. Notably, Kanika Mahajan, Assistant Professor of Economics at 51���, was , with her primary research interests in empirical development economics, specifically in the field of labor and gender.

Founded in 1950 as a Non-Governmental Organization, the International Economics Association was established through the Social Sciences Department of UNESCO to foster global collaboration and mutual understanding among economists from different parts of the world through the organization of scientific meetings, common research programs and by means of publications of an international character on problems of current importance.

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Academia, Policy and Finance : Prachi Mishra’s insights on Global Economics and Research

Born and brought up in Patna, Bihar, Prachi Mishra, Professor of Economics and Director and Head of the Isaac Center for Public Policy at 51���, completed her PhD in Economics from Columbia University. She began her professional journey in Washington DC at the International Monetary Fund. Despite the global exposure, her drive to come back and contribute to India led her to work with the Indian Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, the Ministry of Finance, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). She later broadened her experience in the private sector at Goldman Sachs.

One of her most rewarding projects during this time was, developing the intellectual framework and drafting the report of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Committee in 2017. This project addressed the changing global and domestic economic landscapes and the need to revise India's fiscal rules to enhance transparency, flexibility, and credibility.

Historically, India had experienced periods of macroeconomic instability, often caused by unsustainable fiscal policies, such as in the 1980s and during the 1991 Balance of Payments crisis. The government had introduced the FRBM Law in 2003, but by 2017, the economic landscape had shifted. India was becoming more financially connected to the global economy, and new challenges like secular stagnation, uncertainties in the Eurozone, significant debt burdens, and changing fiscal rules worldwide made it clear that India needed to update its approach. Many countries had already adopted fiscal rules with built-in flexibility, transparency, and independent oversight. The time was opportune for a review of India’s fiscal framework.

“I enjoyed both the intellectual challenge of shaping a new fiscal framework for India and the process itself, which involved consultations with stakeholders and lively debates within the committee”, Prof. Prachi shared.

Another key initiative she enjoyed was collaborating with the Human Resource Department at the RBI to establish the Strategic Research Unit. This unit, staffed with both internal personnel and directly recruited PhD economists, was tasked with delivering high-quality research and analysis to address the operational challenges across various departments of the Bank. Human resource management in a large emerging economy like India is indeed significantly more complex compared to countries with more developed institutional frameworks and greater human capital.

At Ashoka, she is working on several research projects. One of them focuses on reducing high public debt and rising debt servicing costs, which are key concerns for policymakers in India and globally. In India, nearly 40% of government revenue goes towards debt servicing, compared to just 10% on average for emerging markets. This high spending on interest payments limits funds available for economic support during crises like COVID-19, as well as for crucial social investments in health and education, where India still spends significantly less than its peers.

In today’s interconnected global economy, decisions made in advanced economies often have significant effects on emerging markets. One of Prof. Prachi’s research areas focuses on how these policy shifts impact financial markets in emerging countries, a topic she has studied for nearly a decade. A key moment in this work occurred on May 22, 2013, when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at “tapering” (or the reversal of quantitative easing policies by a central bank to stimulate economic growth). Emerging markets reacted sharply, and as part of India’s G20 delegation to Moscow, the collective concern was raised that while aggressive monetary easing could support recovery in the US, Europe, and Japan by increasing demand for exports, it also triggered “spillover” effects for emerging markets—widening interest rate differentials, increasing capital flows, appreciating currencies, and driving up stock and asset prices. This experience has been central to shaping her research agenda on spillovers.

Having worked in both academic and financial sectors, when asked about the key challenges of each and how to bridge the gap between academic research and practical policy making?

She states, “For academia, especially in India, the big challenge is to attract world class faculty. The intellectual ecosystem is dominated by the West, and all emerging economies face binding resource constraints.

Despite all challenges, engaging with Indian students and faculty is rewarding in several ways. Research and teaching in a large emerging market is way more interesting and challenging too, compared to the West.

The financial industry is very fast paced. The challenges there are different – limited bandwidth of clients, little time for academic rigour.

Engagement at all levels is crucial to bridge the gap between academic research, financial markets, and policy making. 51��� need to boost research on policy relevant questions and proactively present the results to policymakers, enabling them to draw conclusions from evidence-based research.”

For Prof. Prachi, research and academia have always been her passion. When asked about her long term goals and how 51��� can contribute to her professional growth, she mentions, “ I aim to work with colleagues to provide innovative perspectives on key questions global economies face - high public debt, high inflation, monetary transmission, political economy issues, etc.”

51��� and the newly established Isaac Center for Public Policy (ICPP) provide a unique chance to blend policy with academics, teaching, research, and engage with a large dynamic community of young students”

As a final piece of advice for those beginning their journey in economic research or policy, Prof. Prachi emphasises the importance of maintaining a critical mindset: “Summers' Law (named after Larry Summers) states, 'It takes just as much time to write an unimportant paper as an important one.' Read, recognize contributions, but don’t be awed by them, question everything.” This guiding principle, drawn from her own extensive career, encourages aspiring economists to approach their work with a curious mind.

Interview conducted by Kangna Verma and Yukti Arora, Academic Communications, RDO, 51���

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Dr. Anisha Sharma, Assistant Professor and Garima Rastogi, Ashoka alum awarded 2023 Kuznets Prize

The Kuznets Prize is awarded for the best paper published in the Journal of Population Economics in a given year. The award is named for Simon Kuznets, the 1971 Nobel Prize laureate in economics and papers are judged by the Editors of the Journal of Population Economics. 

Dr. Anisha Sharma, Assistant Professor of Economics and Garima Rastogi, an Ashoka alum, who is currently studying at Oxford University have been awarded the 2023 Kuznets Prize. Their paper is titled “” in the Journal of Population Economics (2022). 

“As a researcher, there is no greater honour than being recognised by your peers and by your senior colleagues in your field, and I am delighted that Garima’s and my paper was selected for the 2023 Prize. Personally speaking, it has been a particular pleasure to write this paper with my former undergraduate and Ashoka Scholars Programme (ASP) student,” said Dr. Sharma, who finished her Ph.D. in Economics at Oxford University in 2016 and has been an assistant professor at 51���’s Department of Economics ever since.

The annual prize honors the best article published in the Journal of Population Economics in the previous year. The prize will be awarded in a public online event during the GLO Global Conference on December 1, 2022.

Congratulating the winners, Vice Chancellor Malabika Sarkar said, "We rejoice in the recognition that Anisha and her former student Garima have received for the excellence of their research through the Kuznets Prize. It is a great moment for the University."

"All of us in the department know how talented Anisha is as a researcher. And, Garima was amongst the best students I have come across in my long teaching career. So, while I am not surprised that they wrote this excellent paper, it is wonderful to know that the world outside has also acknowledged and recognised the worth of their paper," Bhaskar Dutta, Distinguished University Professor of Economics said.

Elaborating on her paper "Unwanted daughters: The unintended consequences of a ban on sex-selective abortions on the educational attainment of women” Dr. Sharma further explained that it is about the unintended adverse consequences of a ban on prenatal sex selection on discrimination against surviving girls. 

“The PNDT Act of 1994 in India criminalised both the detection of the sex of a foetus by technologies such as ultrasound, as well as the selective abortion of female foetuses. The ban was intended to address severely male-biased sex ratios in India, and we find that while it did succeed in increasing the number of female births, it also displaced prenatal gender discrimination to a postnatal margin. While girls were more likely to be born, they were also more likely to face discrimination in parental inputs such as investments in their schooling, resulting in a widening gender gap in educational attainment. 

“These effects are concentrated among non-wealthy households that lacked the resources to evade the ban. We argue this is because surviving girls became relatively unwanted, whereas surviving boys became relatively more valued, leading to an increasing concentration of household resources on them. This underscores the weaknesses of policies that seek to promote gender equity through a top-down approach but fail to address the underlying social norms driving son preference,” she added.

Anisha Sharma maintained that Ashoka is very special in the view that it gives the faculty members many opportunities to work not just with graduate students, but with undergraduate students as well on original research projects. 

Picture Credits: https://glabor.org/

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Prof. Bhaskar Dutta named Distinguished University Professor of Economics

51��� today instituted Prof. Bhaskar Dutta as Distinguished University Professor of Economics. Distinguished University Professor is a rare distinction conferred by the University and is a recognition of outstanding academic and research achievements as well as significant contribution to institution building at Ashoka.

“The conferment of the title of Distinguished University Professor is a new policy adopted by the University. I cannot think of anyone at Ashoka who deserves this distinction as much as Professor Bhaskar Dutta,” said Prof. Malabika Sarkar, Vice Chancellor.

Prof. Dutta’s research interests include Cooperative Game Theory, Mechanism Design, Formation of Groups and Networks, Social Choice Theory and Development Economics. He has had a long association with the Indian Statistical Institute, where he taught during 1979 -2002. He has also been a Visiting Professor in several universities including the California Institute of Technology, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Universite Cergy-Pointoise, Paris, University of Graz. He was winner of the Mahalanobis Memorial Award of the Indian Econometric Society in 1990. He was President of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare (2014-16). He is also a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and the Society for Advancement of Economic Theory. He has been Chair, Standing Committee for India and South Asia as well as a member of the Council of the Econometric Society. He is currently a member of the Council of the Game Theory Society. He has also served as consultant for the World Bank, UNDP, ILO and ADB.

Prof. Dutta has published extensively in leading journals, applying game-theoretic tools in the areas of mechanism design, cooperative game theory, the economic theory of social networks, and social choice theory. He was Managing Editor of Social Choice and Welfare, and is currently Advisory Editor of Games and Economic Behavior as well as Social Choice and Welfare. He has also edited several books.

Prof. Dutta did his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Calcutta, and his Master’s and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Delhi.

“This is such an incredible honour! I am truly delighted and at the same time feel  humbled,” Prof Dutta said on receiving the honor.

51��� is built on the finest global best practices of institution and university governance. Accomplished leaders, philanthropists, thinkers, and academicians with expertise in varied fields have come together to create the university. It brings the best contemporary values and practices in higher education, in the tradition of the world’s leading universities, to India.

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Professor Ashwini Deshpande talks about the gendered effects of the pandemic and the Indian economy post-COVID

The pandemic’s effects on women have been extremely disproportionate. There is clear evidence of a gendered impact of COVID in the arena of employment according to Deshpande. She further added that when we assess the impact of COVID on the gender gap in employment, we have to be mindful of the large pre-existing gender gaps in employment that preceded the pandemic. There have been far greater layoffs of women than men, the same goes for the losses of businesses, highlights an on The Hindu. 

And if we look at the post-pandemic Indian economy, to be back at the before-pandemic level, it will surely take time. “The economy will spring back to life only when people have money in their hands, i.e. purchasing power,” said Deshpande.

From assessing the post-pandemic recovery of India’s economy, to the gendered effects of the COVID-19 especially its impact on the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work through the lockdown and recovery phases, and the Centre’s recent research and events, Deshpande touched upon many critical issues related to India’s economic development. 

How do you assess the post-pandemic recovery of the India’s economy? What are the factors according to you affecting the recovery? 

After the massive dip in economic activity in April 2020 due to the complete nationwide lockdown, between May and July, as the economy gradually unlocked, employment also increased. However, from September to December 2020, employment recovery petered off, with a decrease in the total number of people employed compared to the previous month, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data. The decline in employment was larger for women than men, for rural areas compared to urban, and the largest for daily wagers, hawkers, i.e. the most precarious workers. The bulletin shows these trends in employment over the full year. 

On the CEDA website, we have also documented the corresponding decline in and , which took a massive hit in April 2020. The latest available data show that they have not recovered to the pre-pandemic levels. 

What the last year has demonstrated is that a lockdown is a good “off” switch (i.e. a strict lockdown stops economic activity), but a lifting of the lockdown is not an automatic “on” switch. The economy will spring back to life only when people have money in their hands, i.e. purchasing power. When incomes are severely depressed, producers will halt or slow down production since they don’t anticipate sufficient demand for their output. This leads to a vicious cycle of slow employment growth leading to slow growth in purchasing power and demand, and the cycle repeats itself. 

A key lesson from earlier episodes of global recessions (2001 or 2008-9) is that relatively strong domestic demand insulated the Indian economy to a large extent and prevented a drastic decline in GDP growth rates. This factor is not going to cushion the Indian economy in the pandemic-induced recession because the growth rate was already slowing down before the pandemic for many reasons, including two large back-to-back negative economic shocks due to demonetisation and the new GST regime. Both these had already resulted in sharp fall in domestic demand leading to low and sluggish growth. The crisis of demand was already in place before the pandemic hit. The drastic fall in economic activity due to the pandemic means job and income losses for an unprecedented number of people, further exacerbating the demand crisis. 

The only way out of this vicious cycle is a strong boost by the government to increase demand. This must involve direct cash transfers, payroll support to small and micro enterprises and many other measures. We at CEDA were among the first to flesh out a comprehensive set of policy measures needed to ensure economic recovery and to minimise human hardship. 

The gendered effects of the pandemic - in one of your recent papers (The COVID-19 Pandemic and Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from India), you have examined the high frequency national-level panel data from CMIE on paid work (employment), unpaid work (time spent on domestic work) and incomes. Could you elaborate on the effects of Covid-19 on the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work through the lockdown and recovery phases? 

Many impacts of the pandemic are gendered. Several countries such as the US have released gender-disaggregated data on COVID incidence. Barring a few states in India, we don’t know if women are disproportionately hit by co compared to men. 

However, there is clear evidence of a gendered impact of COVID in the arena of employment. When we assess the impact of COVID on the gender gap in employment, we have to be mindful of the large pre-existing gender gaps in employment that preceded the pandemic. Women’s labour force participation rate has been lower than men’s for decades in India and has been declining in recent years. Therefore, it was natural to find that in absolute numbers, more men lost jobs in April 2020 compared to women. However, after accounting for pre-pandemic employment, women’s chances of being employed in August 2020 were lower by 9.5 percentage points compared to men, relative to their pre-pandemic employment. By December 2020, gender gaps in employment were back to their pre-pandemic levels. 

Women are over-represented among essential workers and frontline health workers (ASHA, ANMs and Anganwadi workers), who have been the unknown, nameless(s) heroes of the fight against COVID in India. They faced massive challenges arising from lack of PPE, social stigma, were also subject to violence from the community and they braved all this while being pathetically underpaid. 

UN Women has focused attention on the “shadow pandemic”: women calling helplines because they or their children are being abused at home, with or without physical violence. The lockdown provides the perfect opportunity to the abuser to practise “intimate terrorism” – dictate and control all actions and movements of women, with violence if needed. 

The increased violence is not just a result of the frustration due to physical confinement. The pandemic has brought in its wake a global slowdown, massive economic dislocation, closed businesses, the spectre of looming unemployment, often accompanied by the threat of hunger and poverty for what seems to be an indefinite future. While both men and women are affected by the economic downturn, there is evidence from the past that violence against women increases during episodes of high unemployment. 

Another concern is reduced due to the shutting down of condom manufacturing units. Previous research has found that natural disasters have led to significant increases in childbirth rates, leading to significant challenges such as reduced investments in children, particularly girls, and adverse effects on women’s health. 

According to the Women@Work report by a non-for-profit, work-life balance has become worse for working women with work from home during the pandemic. Your comment. 

Lockdowns impose unequal burdens of housework and care work on men and women everywhere, but disproportionately more in societies such as India, where women spend much more time on domestic chores and care work. 

The CMIE has some evidence on time spent on domestic work. In April 2020 the average time spent on domestic work by men increased, as families were confined indoors and domestic workers, the invisible backbone of middle-class India, stayed away from work. This resulted in reduced gender gap in domestic work. However, by August 2020, men’s time had decreased already, and by December 2020, men were spending much less time on domestic work compared to December 2019, and women were spending much more. In other words, the gender gap in unpaid work has significantly worsened in the first year of the pandemic. 

The pandemic has also quite disproportionately impacted people belonging to the lowest-ranked caste and under BPL. One of your papers (Is COVID-19 “The Great Leveler”? The Critical Role of Social Identity in Lockdown- induced Job Losses) examines this. Would you talk more about this? 

The main point to recognise is that large segments of economic activity, especially in urban areas, run on the backs of workers employed informally or casually, often on daily wages, who are circular migrants. These workers are either wage workers (construction or factory workers, shop helpers, workers in the transportation sector, hospitality etc.) or self-employed (small shopkeepers, running dairy, poultry, livestock businesses, or eateries, barbers, tailors, electricians, plumbers etc.). The sudden closure of economic activity means that they no longer earn an income, with no certainty about when and in what form economic activity can resume. They also live in extremely inhospitable, congested and unsanitary environments in cities, where concepts such as social distancing and the recommended hygienic practices are meaningless, and therefore, expecting a massive behavioural change is not realistic. 

However, even within economically vulnerable populations, social identity matters. Therefore, it is equally important to recognise that lockdowns and decline in economic activity affect different social groups differently. 

The pandemic has seen ugly, vicious expressions of racist and communal hatred, in the spread of which mainstream media has taken an active part. Government machinery, particularly the police, must be actively vigilant to prevent discrimination and ensure that relief, assistance and materials reach everyone, irrespective of their caste, religion, or tribal status. 

Then pandemic will abate one day, but if it leaves behind a large population that is unhealthy because of being deprived of minimum subsistence, it will adversely impact India’s growth potential for several years to come. If unbridled bigotry is allowed to flourish under the “new normal”, the resulting discrimination will result in large parts of India’s vast reservoir of labour under-utilised and incorrectly rewarded. 

As we battle a grave health and economic crisis, we need to put humanity centre-stage. That is the only way to devise a long-term policy framework directed towards alleviating human suffering, especially of the most vulnerable.

Can you tell us briefly about some of your current and/or upcoming research work happening at the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis, and any exciting new events taking place? 

The previous responses contain glimpses of what we are doing at CEDA. I am very excited by the that we have just launched. CEDA’s user-driven and interactive data portal allows you to generate and download visualisations (heat maps, bar charts, graphs) and tables of a large range of socio-economic and demographic indicators (e.g. employment, education, health, fertility, sex ratios and much more) based on large national level datasets for India. You can connect variables across time, across geographies (national, state and district) and across social groups (e.g. gender, caste, tribe and religious categories). You can also plot two variables from the same dataset or from different datasets against one another to see how they correlate.

We were very fortunate to be able to inaugurate the data portal along with the Infosys Prize Lecture by the renowned economist Raj Chetty. One can watch the video . 

Keep checking the for exciting updates!

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Department of Economics News

2020

Daksh Walia, a second year undergraduate student of Economics at 51���, has won the first prize in Stiglitz Essay Competition in the undergraduate category for his work “The Meritocratic Myth: Merit in a World Characterized by Inequality of Opportunity”. This is a prize instituted by the International Economic Association (IEA) and the competition is held at a global level. He will be presented this award at the World Congress of the IEA in July 2020, to be held at Bali, Indonesia. (The essay is available here)

The Department of Economics at 51��� invites you to apply to attend a Graduate Workshop in Empirical Methods in Macroeconomics to be held during 21-22 March, and 28-29 March at 51���. This workshop is open to all Masters and PhD students. For more details, click here.

51���, Haryana and The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), New York are coming together to launch Hikmat – Lectures in Economics. The inaugural Hikmat lecture will be given by Prof. Oliver Hart, the co-recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics, on January 23, 2020 at 6.30 pm-8pm in the Multipurpose Hall, Kamala Devi Complex, IIC, Delhi, 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Gardens, New Delhi. Oliver Hart is currently the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1993. He is the 2016 co-recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, and the American Finance Association, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, President of the American Law and Economics Association and a Vice President of the American Economic Association. RSVP: hikmatinindia@gmail.com. 

2019

The Department of Economics at 51��� will host its 3^rd Annual Economics Conference from December 14-16, 2019. The conference has five sessions spread across three days. Each session has three papers along a particular theme. The thematic areas include Experimental Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Governance, Macroeconomics, and Economic Theory. On the first day we have an exciting conversation on the topic "Behavioral Economics: (Re?)Thinking Pedagogy, Praxis, and Policy Making" between Sanjit Dhami from University of Leicester and Abhinash Borah from our department. The full conference program is available here. 

Aishwarya Kekre, a student of the Masters in Economics programme at Ashoka University, presented her post-graduate dissertation submitted to 51���, at the Asian Meeting of the Econometric Society (AMES) 2019 . The conference was held at Xiamen University, China from 14th-16th June 2019 and is one of the most prestigious regional conferences organized by the International Econometric Society.

The Department of Economics at 51��� is organizing a workshop on Community Networks and Institutions on April 12, 2019. For more details about the workshop program click here. 

The Department of Economics at 51��� is organizing a public lecture by Prof Kaivan Munshi, Cambridge University, on April 8 at 6.30 p.m. at India International Centre. He will be speaking on the relationship between sex-selection in India and marriage market institutions in the context of economic development. For more details about the event click here. 

Abhinav Verma, a fourth year student of undergraduate Economics programme, was awarded the best prize in the "Informal Economy in South Asia” category, and the Mahbub ul Haq – Amartya Sen Award for the best paper at the 15th  held in Colombo. The meet had undergraduate students from all South Asian countries present research papers at the annual conference across ten themes. Abhinav’s paper, empirically investigates the relationship between formal and informal sector manufacturing in India.

2018

The Department of Economics at 51��� is organizing its 2^nd Annual Economics Conference from December 14-16, 2018. This conference aims to bring together researchers working in different fields of economics. The broad areas around which the sessions are organized include Public Policy, Economic Theory, Topics in Applied Microeconomics, Political Economy, and Macroeconomics. For more details and program schedule visit the conference website. [Click here] 

The Department of Economics is organizing a Macroeconomics workshop on November 9, 2018. The workshop aims to discuss questions from different areas of macroeconomics such as monetary economics, international economics, labor economics, and economic growth. Researchers from various institutions would present their work in 45 min long talks. The detailed programme will be available on the workshop's website. []

The Economics department, in collaboration with the Computer Science department at 51��� is organizing a two day workshop to be held from October 5-6. For workshop details click here.

A new research society, Behavior, Incentives and Design (BID), has been formed. It provides a forum for faculty and students to engage with recent developments in the field of decision making as well as study more closely the ramifications of these developments on questions of incentives and the design of institutions. BID's goal is to have a meaningful dialogue between theory, experiments and applications in this area. Members of BID (aka BIDders) meet once every week for a reading group. 

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