Raghbendra Jha, BA (Hons) (Delhi), MA (Delhi), MPhil (Columbia), PhD (Columbia)
Rajiv Gandhi Professor of Economics and Deputy Convener, The Arndt-Corden Division of Economics; Executive Director, Australia South Asia Research Centre

Email: r.jha@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

I am currently working on an Australian Research Council and AusAID funded project on the design of social safety nets in India and an International Fund for Agricultural Development (Rome) funded project on vulnerability to natural disasters in Central Asia and the Pacific Islands. I am also working on monetary policy and fiscal federalism issues for India. In June 2006 I completed a four year Department for International Development (UK) funded project on the impact of nutrition on labour markets in rural India. My current work also includes village economy in semi-arid agriculture, determinants of poverty, undernutrition and inequality in India, the behaviour of retail prices for foodgrains in India, the sustainability of the public debt in developing countries and the linkage between macroeconomic stabilization and banking crises in semi-open developing countries.

Research Interests

Macroeconomic problems of developing countries, optimal tax and price policy, fiscal federalism, Indian economic problems - in particular, poverty, undernutrition, functioning of agricultural markets and financial sector reforms.

Key Publications

Book titles include:

• Environmental Sustainability: A Consumption Approach, Routledge, 2006.
• (edited) Economic Growth, Economic Performance and Welfare in South Asia, Palgrave/Macmillan, Forthcoming 2005.
• Macroeconomics for Developing Countries, Routledge, London and New York, 2nd edition 2003.
• (edited) Indian Economic Reforms, Basingstoke, UK and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
• Modern Public Economics, Routledge, 1998.

Journal article titles include:

• (with Ibotombi S. Longjam) 'Structure of Financial saving during Indian Economic Reforms', Empirical Economics, 31(2), 2006.
• 'Innovative Sources of Development Finance: Global Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century', The World Economy, 27(2), 2004.
• (with K.V.B. Murthy) 'An Inverse Global Environmental Kuznets Curve' Journal of Comparative Economics, 31(2), 2003.
• (with K.V.B. Murthy, H.K. Nagarajan and A. Seth) 'Components of the Wholesale Bid-Ask Spread and the Structure of Grain Markets: The Case of Rice in India', Agricultural Economics, 21(2), 1999.
• (with R. Boadway and I. Horiba) 'The Provision of Public Services by Government Funded Decentralized Agencies', Public Choice, 100(3 & 4) 1999.

Career Highlights

Biographed in Marquis "Who’s Who in the World". Elected Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation, 2001; Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Columbia University, NY (1979); Assistant Professor, Williams College, Williamstown, MA (1979-83); Reader, Delhi School of Economics (1983-92); Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario (1989, 1990, 1993-94); Visiting Faculty, University of Warwick (1996); Senior Professor, IGIDR, Bombay (1997-2000); Rajiv Gandhi Chair and Executive Director, Australia South Asia Research Centre, ANU (since January 2001). Member, Panel of Experts, Fiscal Affairs Division, International Monetary Fund (since March 1996); Associate Editor, International Tax and Public Finance, (since January 1999), Member Editorial Board, Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies (since January 2007). Consultant to WIDER, UNDP, UNRISD, ADB, the World Bank, Government of India, RBI and IFAD.