Ashwini Deshpande
ashwinideshpande.bsky.social
Ashwini Deshpande
@ashwinideshpande.bsky.social

Econ, Ashoka U, India

Ashwini Deshpande is an Indian economist best known for her papers concerning various topics such as poverty, inequality, regional disparities, and gender discrimination. She is currently working as a professor at Ashoka University; she has taught at the Delhi School of Economics in the past as well. She has won many awards for her papers and publications, one of which is called Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India. .. more

Economics 34%
Political science 27%

With @darrickhamilton.bsky.social at @nber.org conference on race and stratification

📣📣 new paper alert 🔔 50 days free access to new paper w Rajesh Ramachandran at @monashuniversity.bsky.social "Discriminatory social norms & early childhood development". How stigmatising caste norms, esp untouchability, affects childhood stunting adversely.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Discriminatory social norms and early childhood development
This study explores caste-based disparities in childhood stunting in India, focusing on the role of caste-based practices. Using data from the Nationa…
www.sciencedirect.com
Real footage of a synthetic control model

Some photos from a recent visit to #princeton Centre for Global India. It was really nice of Avinash Dixit to come to campus just to meet me 😊 Thanks to Tanushree Goyal for all the warm hospitality 🥰

On Monday at Princeton. Trying to unpack the puzzle of India's low female labour force participation (the recent rise notwithstanding). (What's demand got to do with it? 🤔) @seema.bsky.social

It was wonderful to be a small part of this exciting @lsepublicpolicy.bsky.social
project!
2025 marks 35 years since the Washington Consensus. What should today's policy priorities be and how can they be implemented?

📕 Professor Andrés Velasco and Tim Besley have co-edited a new book with @lsepress.bsky.social coming out in Autumn 2025 on this topic.

Event: www.lse.ac.uk/school-of-pu...
Shaping a 21st Century Policy Consensus: Upcoming book co-edited by Andrés Velasco and Tim Besley
YouTube video by LSE School of Public Policy
youtube.com

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

2025 marks 35 years since the Washington Consensus. What should today's policy priorities be and how can they be implemented?

📕 Professor Andrés Velasco and Tim Besley have co-edited a new book with @lsepress.bsky.social coming out in Autumn 2025 on this topic.

Event: www.lse.ac.uk/school-of-pu...
Shaping a 21st Century Policy Consensus: Upcoming book co-edited by Andrés Velasco and Tim Besley
YouTube video by LSE School of Public Policy
youtube.com

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

Excellent discussion about tariffs and industrial policy between @drodrik.bsky.social and @martinsandbu.ft.com!

Rodrik talks about Trump’s tariffs as an ineffective Swiss army knife to industrial policy. I would specify that it is a one-blade army knife.

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...
Making sense of Trump's tariffs. With Dani Rodrik
Podcast Episode · The Economics Show · 2025-02-06 · 36m
podcasts.apple.com

Love it when I get purple first 😎

Connections
Puzzle #607
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Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

"The Impact of Being Denied a Wanted Abortion on Women and Their Children Get access Arrow"

academic.oup.com/qje/advance-...
The Impact of Being Denied a Wanted Abortion on Women and Their Children*
Abstract. This paper examines the impact of denying a wanted abortion on women and children in Colombia using high-quality administrative microdata and cre
academic.oup.com

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

What happens when women are denied a wanted abortion?

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...
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In the short run, their risk of death rises.

In the long run, they have...

-more health issues,
-lower education/labor-force participation, and
-higher rates of single motherhood, poverty, and reliance on government assistance

My take in the IndianExpress today on the Larsen and Toubro 90-hour work week controversy. Instead of glorifying burnout, we need to focus on more sustainable work schedules, fair compensation and genuine equity.

Connections
Puzzle #582
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How did you do in Connections today? Players must select four groups of four words without making more than three mistakes. Play here: nyti.ms/3B7faPM

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

How did you do in Connections today? Players must select four groups of four words without making more than three mistakes. Play here: nyti.ms/3B7faPM

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

"The Global Distribution of Authorship in Economics Journals" (w/ E Aigner and J Greenspon)--a much revised and updated version now forthcoming at World Development. (Incidentally, my very first academic publication was in that same journal back in 1981!) drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu/publications...
The Global Distribution of Authorship in Economics Journals
Aigner E, Greenspon J, Rodrik D. The Global Distribution of Authorship in Economics Journals. 2025.
drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

🆕 Can political representation boost forest conservation?

Today on VoxDev, @saadgulzar.bsky.social, @apoorvalal.com & @benpasquale.bsky.social explore how decentralising power in India impacted forest conservation: voxdev.org/topic/energy...
Can political representation boost forest conservation?
Despite fears that devolving control over forest resources to local communities may accelerate deforestation and worsen the climate crisis, the large-scale transfer of political power to India’s histo...
voxdev.org

Farm to table: freshly harvested kumquats converted to delish marmalade. Joys of #gardening & fresh #produce
The Getty Center, one of Los Angeles’s most renowned art museums, is now squarely in the mandatory evacuation zone as the Palisades fire’s footprint has grown. An active fire is about a half mile away, but the blaze is not threatening the museum’s main buildings. nyti.ms/3PwJWVC

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

“In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy,” Hitler destroyed “a constitutional republic through constitutional means,” writes Timothy W. Ryback. Read about how Hitler overcame democracy in just 53 days:
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days
He used the constitution to shatter the constitution.
www.theatlantic.com

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

Maus author Art Spiegelman’s next comic will be about Gaza, in collaboration with Joe Sacco. He thinks he will struggle to find a publisher in the United States.

“I’ll finish this thing or die trying.”
Art Spiegelman Won’t Shrink Back From Controversy
The artist has illustrated more than one contentious New Yorker cover in his career, chronicled in a new film, and his next project will be no less gutsy.
hyperallergic.com

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

I like a lot of figures in the paper, but this figure showing the wage effects across the wage distribution is one of my favorite.

Those at the bottom 10% of the wage distribution see the largest gains.

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

If only there were a study using a higher education expasion to examine whether encouraging students to pursue affordable higher ed boosts their income and enables them to pursue higher paid jobs.

When the former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to DSE for Kaushik Basu’s 65th birthday conference in 2017. An erudite, gentle, courteous presence, he interacted with all of us with utmost ease. Deepest condolences to my Ashoka Univ colleague Upinder Singh & rest of the family.

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

I have moved my open textbook on inequality research to a new address:
https://maxkasy.github.io/inequalityresearch/

(The textbook has not been updated recently, but hopefully is still useful.)

Reposted by Ashwini Deshpande

Breaking News: Manmohan Singh, a former prime minister of India who helped transform the country’s economy, died at 92.
Manmohan Singh, Indian Premier Who Spurred Economic Boom, Dies at 92
The country’s first Sikh prime minister, he introduced free-market reforms that turned India into an economic powerhouse and sought reconciliation with Pakistan.
www.nytimes.com
Amazing pioneer of trade and industrial reforms in India. The 1991 reforms changed the trajectory of India's economy & the course of history, in many ways he was the Deng Xiaoping of India....
Manmohan Singh, Indian Premier Behind Economic Changes, Dies at 92 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/w...
Manmohan Singh, Indian Premier Behind Economic Changes, Dies at 92
The country’s first Sikh prime minister, he introduced free-market reforms that turned India into an economic powerhouse. He signed a nuclear deal with Washington and sought reconciliation with Pakist...
www.nytimes.com

🥇of my 2024 reads. Happen to be written by women but that's not the (only) reason I found these excellent. The writing is empathetic, nuanced, lucid, moving & the analysis is sharp with new insights. Reveals a face of India that urban, upper middle class, Eng-speaking Indians are mostly oblivious to