COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL LAUNCHES “THE PROGRAM ON INDIAN ECONOMIC POLICIES: FREE TRADE, DEMOCRACY AND ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT”

December 4, 2009

Columbia Business School announced on December 3 that the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business has launched the Program on Indian Economic Policies: Free Trade, Democracy and Entrepreneurial Development. Under the auspices of the Chazen Institute, the program will support a robust research program led by scholars from Columbia Business School and other institutes across the University, as well as other universities and think tanks in the United States and India. The research will promote the creation of knowledge on India’s growing economy, and identify factors that will help transform India into a modern 21st-century economy. The program is supported by a major grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Economics & Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University will serve as the Director of the Program. At a workshop attended by more than a dozen scholars from leading U.S. universities, the program launched two major research studies “Poverty Inequality and Democracy” and “Transforming India” for the upcoming year. Tentatively, a major conference is planned later this year to share the findings of these this research.

Furthermore, two members of Columbia Business School’s faculty, Professor of Marketing Rajeev Kohli and Finance and Economics Professor Amit Khandelwal will launch two research projects with support from the Program, “The Future of Retailing in India and the Rise of the Middle Class, Demand Patterns and Entrepreneurship” and “Imported Inputs and Product Creation: Evidence from India” respectively.

The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business is the focal point for Columbia Business School’s major international programs and initiatives. Under the leadership of newly-appointed Director Shang-Jin Wei, N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy at Columbia Business School and Professor of Finance and Economics at the School of International and Public Affairs, the Chazen Institute will continue to serve as a thought-leader in international business development.

[1] The Program will support the following papers for the “Poverty Inequality and Democracy” research initiative: Trends in Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility in India by Pravin Krishna, SAIS; Caesarian Augustus: Notes on Caesarian and Auspicious Days, Jagdish Bhagwati with Jeff Hammer at Princeton; Globalization, Labor-Market Institutions and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Indian States, Devashish Mitra, Syracuse University with Rana Hasan, Asian Development Bank; Non-traded Informal Sector Services and Poverty Alleviation, Arvind Panagariya with Rajeev Dehejia, Tufts University and Economic Reforms and Anti-incumbency, Arvind Panagariya with Poonam Gupta, ICRIER. In addition, the “Transforming India” papers will include: Impact Liberalization and Privatization on the Privatized and Public Sector Firms, Nandini Gupta, Indiana University, and  Determinants of Outsourcing of Labor-Intensive Activities by Formal (Organized) Sector Firms to Informal (Unorganized) Sector Firms, Devashish Mitra, Syracuse University.. The Program will also support two working papers outside of these two programs: Determinants and Prevalence of Sex Selection in India; Lena Edlund, Columbia Economics Department with Rajeev Dehejia, Tufts University and How do Conflict and Violence Affect Firm-Activity?, Anusha Chari, UNC with Laura Alfaro and Lakshmi Iyer at Harvard Business School.