Rohan Sandhu
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rohansandhu.bsky.social
Rohan Sandhu
@rohansandhu.bsky.social
Co-founder of the Harvard Reimagining the Economy Project | state capacity, economic development, industrial policy, workforce/education | + TV, films, books
Before the Booker Prize gets announced today, here’s my ranking of the shortlisted novels:
1. Flesh
2. Audition
3. The Rest of Our Lives
4. Flashlight
5. The Land in Winter
6. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

(But #6 is probably going to win)
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Currently reading @drodrik.bsky.social’s new book, releasing in a few weeks.

Join us for a launch discussion with Dani Rodrik, @chatibbasri.bsky.social, Rebecca Henderson, & @johncassidysays.bsky.social, on October 29, at Harvard Kennedy School.

Register here: www.hks.harvard.edu/events/share...
October 22, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
Really interesting case study on transformation support in a 🇩🇪 industrial region. Here's just one feature: “The final design reflects an intentional choice to avoid setting legacy sectors and new industries against one another... 1/
How one German state (Saarland) combined institutional vision with an override of fiscal rules to set the stage for the transformation of its economic base away from old, dirty industries. www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/wien...
Regional Economic Transformation in Germany: The Origins and Evolution of the Saarland Transformation Fund
www.hks.harvard.edu
September 29, 2025 at 3:58 PM
In a new case study, Sebastian Buck and I unpack the origins & functioning of a €3 billion investment instrument established by the German state of Saarland. Since 2022, the fund has made investments with the twin aims of stabilizing existing industries and enabling long-term transformation⬇️
How one German state (Saarland) combined institutional vision with an override of fiscal rules to set the stage for the transformation of its economic base away from old, dirty industries. www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/wien...
Regional Economic Transformation in Germany: The Origins and Evolution of the Saarland Transformation Fund
www.hks.harvard.edu
September 30, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social's Abundance has become a Rorschach test among policy analysts w/ much discussion focusing on the impediments that government may have imposed upon itself. But beyond that conversation is a more expansive state capacity project ssir.org/articles/ent...
An Abundance of Capacity (SSIR)
Optimizing for outcomes will require building out a range of local public and private institutions.
ssir.org
August 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
"Evidently, the state capacity needed to generate this abundance won’t just be a top-down federal imperative...We need to take an Everything Everywhere All at Once approach to building the institutional capacity required for an abundance of economic prosperity." @ssir.org ssir.org/articles/ent...
An Abundance of Capacity (SSIR)
Optimizing for outcomes will require building out a range of local public and private institutions.
ssir.org
August 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social's Abundance has become a Rorschach test among policy analysts w/ much discussion focusing on the impediments that government may have imposed upon itself. But beyond that conversation is a more expansive state capacity project ssir.org/articles/ent...
An Abundance of Capacity (SSIR)
Optimizing for outcomes will require building out a range of local public and private institutions.
ssir.org
August 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
"The state capacity needed to generate this abundance won’t just be a top-down federal imperative. It’ll involve building out the capabilities of a range of local public and private institutions, the system hubs and their spokes."

New piece from @rohansandhu.bsky.social
An Abundance of Capacity (SSIR)
Optimizing for outcomes will require building out a range of local public and private institutions.
ssir.org
August 8, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Absolutely no one:

Me: here are my best 10 movies of the 21st century:

(And 5 more: The Lobster, The Squid and the Whale, No Country for Old Men, The Dark Knight, LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring)
June 27, 2025 at 1:42 PM
. @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social: "I worry about a politics that often sees only problems of corporate & oligarchic control. That is a politics with so totalizing a theory of power that it has a lost a clear view of policy... That is a world in which the left will fail, both substantively & politically"
June 8, 2025 at 2:16 PM
It was very invigorating to be at - and help organize - the 25th anniversary celebrations of the MPA/ID program. Some reflections:
www.linkedin.com/posts/rohans...
June 4, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
Pre-doc opening:

Come work with @harvardrte.bsky.social on research about place-based policies, industrial policy, and local labor markets with Gordon Hanson, @drodrik.bsky.social, and the rest of our great team!

#EconRA #EconSky
May 5, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Folks in the Boston area, we (@harvardrte.bsky.social) are hosting a panel discussion tomorrow with regional leaders at the forefront of building tech ecosystems in Colorado and Wyoming, Chicago, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sign up here: www.hks.harvard.edu/events/ameri...
April 13, 2025 at 10:26 PM
The Reimagining the Economy Project is now on Bluesky! Follow our work here ⬇️
Reimagining the Economy is an economics-centered program based at the Harvard Kennedy School. We work on local labor market, industrial, and productive development policies in the US & around the world. We combine rigorous research with practitioner insight.
www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/wien...
Reimagining the Economy
www.hks.harvard.edu
April 7, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
Reimagining the Economy is an economics-centered program based at the Harvard Kennedy School. We work on local labor market, industrial, and productive development policies in the US & around the world. We combine rigorous research with practitioner insight.
www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/wien...
Reimagining the Economy
www.hks.harvard.edu
April 7, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
Excited to share v1 of our new paper on the Economics of Digital Public Infrastructure.
This work provides a conceptual framework for thinking about how to measure the ways infrastructure creates value.

Real privilege to work with @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social

t.co/ENfNTMTgdU
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2025/mar/economics-shared-digital-infrastructures
t.co
March 31, 2025 at 12:55 PM
"The bedrocks of successful climate action are limits on greenhouse gas emissions & cooperation with countries where emissions are growing fastest. A myopic & imperialistic focus on domestic energy production will take the world in the opposite direction"
March 27, 2025 at 8:05 PM
From @ifp.bsky.social's Brian Potter: where do Nobel Prize winners come from? | would be interesting to unpack how these trends correlate with public R&D investments, especially during and post WWII in the US www.construction-physics.com/p/who-wins-n...
March 26, 2025 at 4:06 PM
.@emollick.bsky.social, @raffasadun.bsky.social, et al study 776 P&G employees & find large effects of #AI on collaboration & expertise: individuals w/ AI match the performance of teams without AI, produce more balanced solutions, & report positive emotions on the job papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
March 25, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
The "supply chain" framing allows us to unpack the process, the rules, intermediary institutions through which "horizontally-differentiated policy actions" are designed, funded, and implemented within "vertically structured policy domains"
February 25, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
We discuss supply chains for 6 domains: strategy and planning, business recruitment and retention, small business support, community redevelopment, workforce development, and technological innovation. Across all of these domains, policies are implemented via a range of local intermediaries
February 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
Need to read, but the idea of place-based policy “supply chains” seems extremely helpful. Especially in a v centralised country like the UK 👇👇👇
Gordon Hanson, @drodrik.bsky.social, & my chapter for @nber.org's upcoming volume on place-based policy. We discuss the history of innovations in place-based policies in the US & unpack the "supply chains" through which these policies are implemented in different domains | www.nber.org/papers/w33511
March 21, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Rohan Sandhu
Finally, today's institutions and rules are an accretion of over 150 years of innovations and updates to policies. We trace this history - from the creation of land grant colleges in the 1860s to New Market Tax Credits, Empowerment Zones, Opportunity Zones, & Bidenomics in the last couple of decades
February 25, 2025 at 1:08 PM