An Economist’s Miscellany

Description

‘Philosophy has to be deductive, poetry romantic, plays and fiction humorous, and politics intriguing if they are to catch my attention,’ writes Kaushik Basu. All these interests are on display in An Economist’s Miscellany, which brings together an eclectic collection of writings on the world of academe, politics, policy, travel, and more.

This book offers unique glimpses of the author’s engagement with the world: his opinions on contemporary policies and economic issues; his exploration of different parts of the world; and his reflections on people, ideas, and books that have influenced him. An Economist’s Miscellany also puts on display his literary forays—translations of two hilarious Bengali short stories and a four-act play on academe, love, and cultural misunderstandings. This second and much-expanded edition of the book features a new set of essays that reflects the author’s dual perspective of the world: one from the groves of academe and one from the policymaker’s perch. In the world of policymaking, he was not just an observer but an active participant, and many of the new essays dwell on ideas gathered from this hands-on engagement.

About the Author

Kaushik Basu is Professor, Economics, and Carl Marks Professor, International Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. He was also Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He has published with Oxford University Press for almost three decades, and is the editor of the prestigious Oxford Companion to Economics in India (2012). In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the president of India.

Reviews

The following review comments are for the first edition of the book, carried out in this expanded edition as well.

‘Kaushik is among those academicians who can communicate lucidly with a lay audience. In this varied mix of musings and comments, he shows how the principles of economics can, and should, be leveraged to improve our daily lives in myriad ways.’

RATAN TATA

‘Kaushik Basu presents an entertaining miscellany of his work, one which showcases his humour and wide range of interests as much as his skills as an economist. The essays are varied … but share some things in common: insightful ideas and the easy warmth of his prose. The collection that results is an absorbing, thoughtful work, whose pieces come together to form a coherent and fulfilling whole.’

NANDAN NILEKANI

‘This collection is a sheer delight. Kaushik Basu is a special social scientist. He is a master of technical rigour. But in this collection he shows how human beings and the institutions they create can also be best explored through that art form, the wry, detached, humorous, insightful essay. These essays and translations contribute to an understanding of the strange and undulating ways in which human beings work.’

PRATAP BHANU MEHTA

‘What makes economics a dismal science is not only its dehumanized, asocial, antiseptic worldview but also often its humourless, self-sure, pompous practitioners. An Economist’s Miscellany is a charming, playful, self-questioning book that refuses to vend certitudes. Instead it invites the reader to enter the convivial world of Kaushik Basu where the discipline is not an all-consuming, clenched-teeth profession but a more modest, uncertain, human enterprise, contaminated by life.’

ASHIS NANDY

Table of contents

Prologue

Introduction to the Expanded Edition

PART ONE MAKING INTRODUCTIONS

1. Entering North Block

The Last Column, The First Week

Life in the Heart of Indian Government

2. Ambiguity, Equivocation, and Economics

PART TWO ACADEMIC TRANSGRESSIONS

3. Policy: Foreign and Domestic

China’s Power and Corbett’s Gun

The ABC of 123

India Globalizing

A Higher Opportunity

The Ethics of Reducing Inequality

4. On the Road

A Traveller’s Guide

India’s Wild East

Among the Zapotecs

Economics and Zen in Munich

Namaste: Welcome to Israel

Praying in the Foothills of Mount Fuji

The Maharaja Disappoints

Taking Off : Airports and Economics

Fragments from an Africa Diary: Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Diepsloot

Samoa Diary

Bhutan: Development Economics in the Himalayas

Postcard from Malaysia: Through the Fog, Gently

A Hinduism More Tolerant

In Good Faith: A Journey, an Education

An Evening in Florence

The Turin Miracle

Does God Exist? There Are Several Possible Hypotheses

5. Persons and Ideas

Amartya Sen: Re-inventing Himself

Prasanta Pattanaik: A Fine Theorist

Engels and the Quest for a Better World

Paul Samuelson and the Foundations of Economics

In Praise of Doubt

Kenneth Arrow: Economist of the Century

John Nash: The Shakespeare of Economics

The Anti-Argumentative Indian: Amartya Sen

The Problem of Choice

The Angry Intellectual: Ashok Mitra

Stiglitz’s Sticky Prices

Manmohan Singh: A Quiet Courage

6. Culture and Economics

Art and Commerce

Markets and Aesthetics

Norms and Prosperity

Trust and Development

Where India Is Ahead of China

7. Conundrums of Finance and Economics

Burning Cash: A Finance Conundrum

Why Some Financial Products Should Be on Prescription

Financial Scams and Ponzis

Acquiring Land for Industry

Bureaucratic Reform in India

Labour Market Reform in India

Whither Social Progress?

Same-Sex Preference and Rights

Evidence-Based Policy Mistakes

The ABC of Doing Business

8. Medley

Are We Becoming Over-Cautious?

My Worst Lectures

India at 60

Mother at 90

PART THREE CONTEMPORARY POLICY EXCURSIONS

9. India and the World

In India, Black Money Makes for Bad Policy

India and the Visible Hand of the Market

Resisting the Moral Retreat

Anger Is Not Enough

Trump’s Gift to China

Facing the Slowdown

In the Name of Education

Reviving India’s Economy

10. Inequality and Labour Pains

The Insecurity of Inequality

Experts and Inequality

Inequality in the Twenty-First Century

The World Economy’s Labour Pains

Profit Sharing Now

Can You Be Rich and Left-Wing?

11. The Global Challenge

America’s Dangerous Neo-Protectionism

A Currency Crash Course for Politicians

Why Is Democracy Faltering?

The Case for a Global Constitution

The Language of Conflict

A Thimbleful of Optimism

PART FOUR LITERARY TRANSLATIONS

12. By Debt if Need Be
13. The Birth of a New God

PART FIVE DRAMATURGIC INCURSIONS

14. Crossings at Benaras Junction

PART SIX END OF ALLITERATIONS

15. Duidoku and Ultimate Duidoku

Name Index

Subject Index