Jayati Ghosh’s Blog

There are really only two numbers to look out for in the forthcoming budget: how much did the government claim to have spent in 2020-21, and how much does it intend to spend in 2021-22. These two numbers will determine whether there is any real hope of sustained macroeconomic recovery in the near future, notwithstanding any claims of green shoots or revival that the finance minister may point to. As it is, the Indian government’s response to COVID-19 has been, in purely economic terms, one of the worst in the world.  Not only did it impose a national lockdown without notice…

India’s Constitution puts the bulk of responsibility for the basic goods and services to be provided to citizens on to state governments. That is also why it mandated that independent Finance Commissions be appointed every five years to determine the distribution of tax revenues between Centre and the various states. Successive Finance Commissions (FCs) have also recognised that state governments necessarily require more resources to fulfil their obligations, which is why the share of tax revenues to be devolved to states has been steadily increasing across such Commissions, from 29.5 per cent in the 11th FC to as much as…

The US is nowhere near as economically dominant as it was even a decade ago. Yet President-elect Joe Biden can take several relatively simple steps that would have far-reaching benefits for the US economy, the American people, and the rest of the world. Click here for full article. (This article was originally published in the Project Syndicate on January 19, 2020)

UMass Economics Professor Jayati Ghosh points out how pharmaceutical companies not only received massive subsidies for developing a vaccine, but are now trying to hold on to patent monopolies, which will only prolong the pandemic for everyone. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ofXRYMFaSegYyJ19Y6Pbt?si=a3g6WWGRR7ONMA2AZAkW9Q  

The complete absence of any meaningful fiscal response from the Indian government in the face of one of the biggest economic crises ever faced, cries out for explanation. One argument has been that the central government is concerned about its external vulnerability: a large increase in public spending could generate higher imports, thereby worsening the trade deficit at a time when volatile capital flows have already made the balance of payments vulnerable. Is this fear justified? It is certainly true that India’s external sector has been weak and vulnerable for some time now, and a dramatic exodus of foreign capital…

Podcast : Professor Jayati Ghosh talks about the massive unjustness of the so-called pandemic economic rescue packages, which continue to favor the world’s wealthiest while ignoring the dramatic plight of the developing world. (This podcast was originally published in Institute for New Economic Thinking on December 21, 2020.)

Jayati Ghosh discusses how Covid-19 has led to a dramatic decline in economic activity and how the incompetent state responses to the pandemic have intensified the socio-economic and political inequalities that were hidden under the surface until now, in India as well as other developing countries.

Podcast : An increasing number of policymakers, financiers and economists have joined the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in calling for a green recovery from COVID-19. But what does this actually mean? What obstacles will we have to overcome to implement this in practice? And has the global response to COVID-19 so far made our prospects of doing so more or less likely? In Episode 1, we speak to Elliott Harris (Chief Economist of the United Nations), Jayati Ghosh (Executive Secretary of International Development Economics Associates) and Mercedes Pombo (Youth Leader of the Youth for Climate Movement) to answer these and other key questions as we…

Plummeting GDP, squeeze on jobs - is there a way to rescue the Indian Economy? Will India be able to create a $ 5 trillion economy? Catch BOOM's Govindraj Ethiraj in conversation with Economics Prof. at JNU, Jayati Ghosh & Former Governor of RBI, Raghuram Rajan, via TATA Literature Live