Maitreesh Ghatak

Who is Maitreesh Ghatak?

Maitreesh Ghatak is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. He is an applied microeconomic theorist with research interests in economic development, public economics, and the economics of organizations.

His research interests include microfinance, property rights, occupational choice, collective action, and the economics of NGOs and non-profits. He did his schooling in Patha Bhavan, Kolkata and went on to do his undergraduate studies at Presidency College, Kolkata. He has a M.A. in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the Harvard University under the supervision of Eric Maskin and Abhijit Banerjee. He taught at the department of economics of University of Chicago before moving to the London School of Economics where he has taught since 2002. He has held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Yale University, Northwestern University, and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He is a former managing editor of the Review of Economic Studies, the current Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Development Economics, and a former co-editor of the Economics of Transition. He directs the research group Economic Organization and Public Policy at the LSE. He is the Lead Economist of the DFID-funded International Growth Centre's India programme. He is a Board Member of the Bureau for Research in the Economic Analysis of Development, also known as the BREAD. He writes occasional essays in various newspapers and magazines on economic and political issues, in English as well as in Bengali.