Kaushik Basu Is the New Chief Economist of the World Bank

I had heard a very credible rumor about this a few weeks ago, but here is the official announcement on the World Bank’s website. If you don’t know who he is, here is the Wiki entry for Kaushik Basu, and here is his Cornell webpage.

I was lucky enough to take Kaushik’s graduate level development class in the early years of my Ph.D. As you might expect, the course was mostly about theory, and we used Kaushik’s Analytical Development Economics as our textbook. I also really liked his 2003 book on political economy.

Kaushik is one of the most interesting lecturers I have had a chance to learn from in the ten years I spent as a student at various universities doing my B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees. He is also one of my favorite writers in economics because of his clear, congenial style.