Jayati Ghosh
Professor of Economics University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Amherst MA
Jayati Ghosh is an Indian economist working on the global economy and India. She comments in popular media on a wide range of issues.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Expertise
Biography
Prizes received include the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work Research Prize for contributions to research in 2011; the 2023 Galbraith award of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, "in recognition of breakthrough discoveries in economics and outstanding contributions to humanity through leadership, research and service" and the International Economics Association Fellow Award for 2023 for “outstanding work and excellence in economic research, research-driven popular writing, and economic policymaking.” She has advised governments in India and other countries and consulted for various international organizations. From 2002 to 2021, she was the Executive Secretary of International Development Economics Associates (www.networkideas.org). She has been a member of several international boards and commissions, including the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs 2016 to the present, the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All 2022-23, the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism 2021-23, the Club of Rome 2022 to the present, the Jubilee Debt Commission created by Pope Francis in 2024 and the Extraordinary Committee of Experts on Inequality constituted by President Cyril Ramaphosa for the South African G20 Presidency in 2025. She is Co-Chair (with Joseph E. Stiglitz) of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Capital Taxation and Vice-Chair of the Founding Committee of the International Panel on Inequality in 2026.
Social Media
Video
Education
University of Cambridge
Ph.D.
Economics
1984
University of Cambridge
M.Phil.
Economics
Jawaharlal Nehru University
M.A.
Economics
University of Delhi
B.A.
Honours in Sociology
Links
Select Recent Media Coverage
We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way
The Guardian online
2026-06-10
Jayati Ghosh and other authors call on political leaders at all levels to use their “roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth”.
Is China’s Confidence Justified?
Project Syndicate online
2026-05-25
Jayati Ghosh authors this article on the skepticism that China's economic transformation is evidence that state-led development has succeeded where liberal capitalism has failed.
Establishing an International Panel on Inequality
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg online
2026-04-24
Jayati Ghosh is mentioned as a Committee Founding Member and author of the first-ever G20 report on global inequality,
Selective Outrage Won’t End the Iran War
Project Syndicate online
2026-03-20
Jayati Ghosh authors this article on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution condemning Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases and energy facilities.
Will Democracy Govern Capitalism - or Be Consumed by It?
Project Syndicate online
2026-02-06
Jayati Ghosh and Joseph E. Stiglitz author this article on global corporate minimum tax rules and its effect on demoncracy and policy making.
COP climate conferences have become 'meaningless rituals,' says economist
CBC radio
2024-11-19
It's time for the United Nations to completely re-think its annual climate change conference, says economist Jayati Ghosh. Ghosh, a frequent advisor to the UN, is one of several prominent climate experts and former UN and world leaders who have signed an open letter calling on the organization to completely overhaul the annual event that brings delegates from member countries together to tackle climate change.
Africa’s Debt Crisis Has ‘Catastrophic Implications’ for the World
The New York Times online
2024-08-28
Jayati Ghosh comments in an article about “Africa’s debt crisis. She notes that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank encouraged poor and middle-income countries to embrace Wall Street and seek private loans overseas to fund development in the 2010s, resulting in considerable amounts of debt.
Political Unrest Worldwide Is Fueled by High Prices and Huge Debts
The New York Times print
2024-07-05
Jayati Ghosh comments on global political unrest caused by high prices and huge debts. “Terrible things are happening even in countries where there aren’t protests, but protests kind of make everybody wake up,” she says.
Many young Indians say they haven't benefited from the economic growth Modi boasts of
NPR radio
2023-09-07
Jayati Ghosh says young people in India are not benefitting from the economic growth boasted about by the government. Ghosh says, “Our employment rate has been falling in a period when we’re supposed to growing, and that’s crazy. The recovery package after COVID was oriented to big business. It wasn’t for small and micro enterprises. It wasn’t for self-employed people. The top hundred companies account for 90% of the corporate profits.”
Why It Seems Everything We Knew About the Global Economy Is No Longer True
The New York Times print
2023-06-18
“Financial globalization was supposed to usher in an era of robust growth and fiscal stability in the developing world,” said Jayati Ghosh, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. But “it ended up doing the opposite.”
Why do the rich get richer — even during global crises?
Al Jazeera online
2022-12-27
“The easy money policy that began after the global financial crisis led to really low to negative interest rates and big liquidity in the financial system,” Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told Al Jazeera. “So, in the past 15 years, corporations chose to reinvest the money into buying more financial assets chasing high returns, rather than increasing their production.”
Why a 1970s-style ‘stagflation’ crisis would hit the world’s poor hard
The Washington Post print
2022-06-09
Economist Jayati Ghosh is quoted in a story about how the world’s poorest will be most impacted by the global economy’s stagflation, a situation where inflation and unemployment rates are high while economic growth is slow.
Poor Countries Face a Mounting Catastrophe Fueled by Inflation and Debt
The New York Times online
2022-05-17
Jayati Ghosh is quoted in a story about poorer countries facing mounting catastrophe fueled by Russia’s war in Ukraine and an economic slowdown in China.
Prices Soar as Corporate Profiteers & Speculators Drive Inflation; It Hurts the Developing World
Democracy Now! online
2022-04-13
Jayati Ghosh appears on a nationally syndicated radio program to discuss how higher inflation is leading to more extreme poverty and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to commodity price increases.
Select Publications
Weaponizing data against democracy
The Jakarta PostJayati Ghosh
2025-02-17
Jayati Ghosh writes that last week’s visit to the White House by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the striking similarities between him and President Donald Trump. Ghosh says both govern through the politics of division and intolerance, designed to consolidate power and enrich oligarchic capitalists, with control over data at the heart of the effort.
New Hope for India’s Democracy
Project SyndicateJayati Ghosh
2024-06-10
Jayati Ghosh writes that there is new hope for India’s democracy after the recent election. Ghosh says that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given a third consecutive term, his ruling BJP party’s failure to secure a simple majority in the lower house of parliament means Modi will have to rely on several unpredictable allies to promote his legislative agenda.
Why private corporations subvert states
Bangkok PostJayati Ghosh
2023-12-12
“Straight out of a dystopian novel,” is how Jayati Ghosh, describes the current scenario in Honduras in which various private corporations have sued the government for the right to establish their own jurisdictions within the country.
The Myth of Global Grain Shortages
Project SyndicateJayati Ghosh
2023-08-11
Jayati Ghosh writes, "Contrary to popular belief, the war in Ukraine has not led to a global shortage of wheat. While global hunger has surged in recent years, the way to address the current food crisis is by focusing on its real causes: financial speculation and corporate profiteering."
Budget 2023 Has Chilling Implications for India's People
The WireJayati Ghosh
2023-02-02
The annual budget is generally supposed to be a statement of not only the Union government’s actual and proposed revenue raising and spending plans, but also of its general economic policy intent. If so, the indications this year are chilling.
Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity (BOOK)
New Society PublishersJayati Ghosh et al
2022-09-20
Earth For All is both an antidote to despair and a road map to a better future. Using powerful state-of-the-art computer modeling to explore policies likely to deliver the most good for the majority of people, a leading group of scientists and economists from around the world present five extraordinary turnarounds to achieve prosperity for all within planetary limits in a single generation.
The world may be on a path to collapse. Whether it heads there is for us to decide
The Globe and MailJayati Ghosh
2022-07-15
Jayati Ghosh writes that the world may be on a path to collapse without significant economic and social transformations. A new report produced by the Club of Rome’s Transformational Economics Commission, of which Ghosh is a member, and a team of computer modelers, calls for five major initiatives to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality, empower women, transform food systems, and overhaul energy systems by ‘electrifying everything’.
Three lessons from countries that performed best in tackling Covid-19 challenges
South China Morning PostJayati Ghosh and Mariana Mazzucato
2022-05-25
Professor Jayati Ghosh co-authors an opinion piece naming the three key factors in determining a country’s success in handling the pandemic: long-term investment in public health systems, mission-driven leadership and sufficient fiscal space.
The G7’s role in the world
Social EuropeJayati Ghosh
2021-06-21
Jayati Ghosh unpacks the G7 summit in England and finds an anachronistic coalition failing to meet global responsibilities.
