Tim Besley receives the John von Neumann Award 2010

The 2010 John von Neumann Award has been given to Prof. Tim Besley for his research on political institutions by the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies at Corvinus University of Budapest. The award was established in 1995 and is presented annually to leading scholars whose influential works have had a substantial impact on the studies and intellectual activity of the students at the College.

Previous award holders include John Harsanyi (UC Berkeley), Hal Varian (University of Michigan), Janos Kornai (Harvard University and Budapest College), Jean Tirole (University of Toulouse), Oliver Williamson (UC Berkeley) Jon Elster (Columbia University), Avinash K. Dixit (Princeton University), Maurice Obstfeld (UC Berkeley), Gary S. Becker (University of Chicago), Glenn C. Loury (Brown University), Matthew Rabin (UC Berkeley), Daron Acemoglu (MIT), Kevin Murphy (University of Chicago) and Philippe Aghion (Harvard University).

Further information on Prof. Besley's research can be found on Tim Besley's website. For more information on the John von Neumann Award see the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies website.

Maitreesh Ghatak: "What crisis has taught economics", The Financial Express, 09 Jan 2010

Maitreesh Ghatak examines the legacy of Paul Samuelson, who pioneered the use of formal models in economics.

Read the full article in The Financial Express at
http://www.financialexpress.com/printer/news/565062/

Tim Besley: State Capacity, Conflict and Development

A paper by Tim Besley entitled "State Capacity, Conflict and Development" (joint with Torsten Persson) will be published in Econometrica.

In this paper, the authors point out that the absence of state capacities to raise revenue and to support markets is a key factor in explaining the persistence of weak states. They report on an on-going project to investigate the incentive to invest in such capacities. The paper sets out a simple analytical structure in which state capacities are modelled as forward looking investments by government. The approach highlights some determinants of state building including the risk of external or internal conflict, the degree of political instability, and dependence on natural resources. Throughout, the authors link these state capacity investments to patterns of development and growth.

Maitreesh Ghatak: "Buying Land and Selling Kidneys", The Financial Express, 09 & 16 Nov 2009

In two articles for the Financial Express Maitreesh Ghatak, looks at the legal and ethical limits of economic transactions by analysing the trade in human organs and finding parallels in coercive land acquisition.

Read the articles:
"Buying land and selling kidneys", published Nov 09, 2009
"Why would you sell your heart?", published Nov 16, 2009

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.