Jayati Ghosh’s Blog

 The renowned development economist, Jayati Ghosh, offers an eye-opening perspective on the different facets of inequality and the need for systemic change to address them, bringing together her interests in international trade and finance, employment patterns in developing countries, as well as issues related to gender and development. Ghosh argues for the need to redress the power imbalances which are reinforcing socially irrational and unjust policies. Through the prisms of gender inequality, social discrimination, and the global power dynamics between countries, Ghosh looks at how relational inequality impacts the ability of individuals or groups to influence the actions of…

It’s common to hear analysts talk of “global growth” in a way that suggests that everyone in the world is affected by it equally. Of course, it is well known that this is not true either across or within national economies. Countries differ hugely in terms of their ability to garner benefits from more rapid global growth or avoid the losses associated with growth slowdown or declines. And within most countries, growing inequality has meant that the rich everywhere have tended to benefit disproportionately from period of economic expansion and avoid the costs of declines. Nevertheless, the sense of broadly…

Extended by a day in a show of symbolism, this year’s climate summit, the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29), ended in collapse. The widespread consensus that this was the case concealed, however, differences as to what reflected the collapse. Developed country governments have attempted to identify the collapse as being the result of a conscious effort by the oil-dependent Azerbaijani Presidency to facilitate an oil-exporter walk back on past commitments to phasing out fossil fuels. But this year’s Summit was slated to be a Finance COP. It was to decide on the magnitude and form of the pretentiously titled New…

Many analyses of the recent erosion of democracy in India have dwelt on political and social forces. I will examine the role of economic forces unleashed by a particular form of capitalist development, and how they may have contributed to this process in recent decades.

There’s no doubt that the election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States sets the stage for further expansion of fossil fuel production in the US, especially of natural gas, of which the US has emerged as the world’s largest producer and exporter. The Ukraine War was a significant catalyst for this, as European countries that were earlier heavily reliant on natural gas from Russia to power their electricity generation desperately sought alternative sources after the US and the EU both imposed sanctions on Russia. Indeed, analysts pointed out at the time that at least two…

Almost half of the global population is affected by the current global debt crisis and some Global South countries are now spending more on debt servicing than health, education and social protection combined. Development economists Jayati Ghosh and Charles Abugre explore its root causes - from the imposition of austerity and structural adjustment policies in the 1980s to the excess liquidity post-2008 financial crisis that resulted in the Bretton Woods institutions encouraging developing countries to borrow from private bond markets. They also highlight the profound effects on people and society. And we hear from a Kenyan barber about how tax…

The latest World Employment and Social Outlook Report (update for September 2024) from the International Labour Organisation highlights some disturbing trends. Importantly, it identifies a significant decline and then stagnation in the share of labour income in GDP, for the world as a whole, in the past few years. This comes as part of a persistent trend of decline in labour income shares, other than spikes in “crisis years” like 2008-10 and 2020-21. (Note that the IO includes income from self-employment as part of the labour share, which is an important point since self-employment is very important, and indeed often…

Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, must reject his predecessor’s recent debt-restructuring deal with the IMF. That agreement would inflict unnecessary pain on Sri Lanka’s population and set a dangerous precedent, undermining other developing economies’ ability to restructure their foreign debts. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka’s president, recently lost his re-election bid after voters overwhelmingly rejected the debt-restructuring deals he negotiated with the International Monetary Fund and other creditors. Instead, Sri Lankans elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the left-wing National People’s Power (NPP) alliance and a vocal critic of IMF-imposed austerity measures, who has vowed to renegotiate the country’s agreement with the Fund............. Download…

The recent meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing in the first week of September was an important indicator of a new phase in Africa-China economic relations. These reflect both the changing internal dynamics in China as its economy rebalances towards greater emphasis on domestic consumption and the recent changes in geopolitics that are altering international trade and financial patterns. China’s economic interaction with African countries, especially in the past decade, has been the object of much attention not only within Africa but globally. The rise of China has been hugely significant for the world economy—and…

The latest controversy in the South Asian University, over an interview with a philosopher mentioned in a student’s research proposal that resulted in severe backlash and eventual resignation of an eminent foreign professor, would appear to be ludicrous if it were not so tragic. It culminates several years of decline in a university that began with much loftier ideals. Click here for full article. (This article was originally published in The Indian Express on August 22, 2024)