Maitreesh Ghatak: "No Way Out of This Plot" Financial Express, New Delhi, Sep 2009

Maitreesh Ghatak, joint with Sanjay Banerji (Essex), analyses the issues of land transfer from agriculture to industry in the context of industrialization in West Bengal, India in this Financial Express piece entitled "No Way Out of This Plot", published on Sep 30, 2009.

To read the full article, click here.

LSE Teaching Excellence Award: Justin Kueh

Congratulations to Justin Kueh who received the LSE Teaching Excellence Award in June this year for Microeconomic Principles II (EC202)! Justin won another top prize, with nomination as the best class teacher students had ever encountered, partly for his gifts of explanation and intuition in this mathematically rigorous course partly for his evident dedication and contagious enthusiasm for the material. ("He extends the class material by relating it to current research" and "he makes me work hard for the subject because he is very motivating").

For more information, click here.

Maitreesh Ghatak: "Small is Smart" Financial Express, New Delhi August 09

Maitreesh Ghatak analyses the effectiveness of microfinance in this article "Small is Smart" published in the Financial Express, August 24, 2009. He argues that while microfinance is no magic bullet for solving all the problems of poverty, it does relax credit constraints faced by the poor.

Journal Editorship: Maitreesh Ghatak

Maitreesh Ghatak will be taking up the position of Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Development Economics starting October 1, 2009.

Recent Publications: "Defensive Weapons and Defensive Alliances" by Gerard Padró i Miquel

A paper by Gerard Padró i Miquel entitled "Defensive Weapons and Defensive Alliances" (joint with Sylvain Chassang) has been published in the American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings in May 2009. The paper provides a careful formal analysis of how the unilateral acquisition of defensive weapons may affect the sustainability of peace.

Maitreesh Ghatak: Anger in the wake of Aila: Financial Express 11 June 2009

Maitreesh Ghatak's latest article in the Financial Express on the role of the media in democracy in light of the recent cyclone in West Bengal, India.

International Growth Centre: Oriana Bandiera appointed Co-Program Director of State Capabilities Theme

Oriana Bandiera has been appointed Co-Director, along with Raj Chetty (Berkeley), of the State Capabilities research programme at the International Growth Centre since April 2009.