Profile

Arjun Jayadev

• Postdoctoral Research Scholar
  Committee on Global Thought
  Columbia University

Arjun Jayadev is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His research focuses on the ways in which policy shifts that have occurred globally over the last three decades have impacted distributional outcomes (measured in terms of income, wealth and power) and the welfare of the poor. He is currently examining how financial reforms in India have changed the access to finance for various groups across several axes (urban versus rural, small landholders versus large landholders, caste groups), often by reducing access and opportunities to more vulnerable groups. He is also interested in examining the causes and consequences of power in economic life and in the institutional frameworks of societies that arise from considerations of power. Jayadev is also working with a lawyer's advocacy group in India in assessing the impacts of Patent law in India on pharmaceutical provisions and access to medicines. During this post-doctoral period he hopes to continue examining these issues and also to assess various aspects of the impact of globalization on the Indian economy and evaluating the consequences of the series of reforms meant to turn it away from dirigisme to market orientation. While much has been written about the undoubted gains in terms of growth, the fundamental emphasis of his research will be on the implications for distribution in the last decade and a half.