Sutirtha Bagchi, PhD
Associate Professor of Economics | Villanova School of Business | Villanova University
Villanova, PA, UNITED STATES
Sutirtha Bagchi, PhD, is an expert in public finance.
Media
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Areas of Expertise (6)
Business
Taxicab Medallions
Tax Compliance & Tax Evasion
Cable Regulation
Public Pensions
State & Local Government
Biography
Dr. Sutirtha Bagchi's research interests focus on the areas of political economy, state and local public finance, regulation and public-sector labor markets. He can discuss trending topics like the value of taxicab medallions and how competitors Uber and Lyft have affected the economy of this sector of the market. He also has expertise in market regulation and reform, particularly in regard to the cable industry.
Education (4)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: PhD
University of Michigan: MA
Purdue University: MBA
Indian Institute of Technology: B.Tech
Select Accomplishments (5)
Lincoln Scholar (professional)
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, May 2017
Center for Global Leadership Research Excellence Award (professional)
April 2015 & April 2017
Spivey-Hall Fellowship for Academic Excellence (professional)
September 2012–August 2013
Gladys and Walter R. Stark Fellowship for Academic Excellence (professional)
Fall 2011
Thomas William Leabo Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence (professional)
Fall 2010
Links (3)
Select Media Appearances (5)
Both VP Harris and Former President Trump Are Backing Same Policy to Eliminate Taxes on Tips
NBC 10
2024-08-12
Sutirtha Bagchi, associate professor of economics at Villanova University, points out that eliminating taxes on tips could mean you are treating different groups of taxpayers differently even if they make the same amount of money and have the same life circumstances. "The person who works as a cashier, for example, because all of their income comes in the form of wages, that person gets treated less favorably than the person who is a waiter or waitress and half of their income comes from tips," he says.
Has the Government Gotten Too Good at Collecting Taxes?
Inc.
2017-08-02
I recently spoke to one of the authors of this study, Sutirtha Bagchi, an assistant professor of economics at Villanova University's School of Business. He told me that state income tax withholdings are a relatively new phenomenon that have only been around for about 70 years and there hasn't been much research into how effectively they help states raise revenues.
Cab Drivers and Owners Get Caught in the Headlights of a Troubled Taxi Lender
Crain's New York Business
2017-07-09
Sutirtha Bagchi, an economics professor at Villanova University who recently conducted a study on medallion prices, estimates the asset's value at $400,000. His calculations combine data on fare-box totals, medallion-loan interest rates, labor costs and Google Trends search results, which he used to track Uber's growth.
Why Some Billionaires Are Bad for Growth and Others Aren't
The Washington Post
2015-08-20
Using an inventive new way to measure billionaire wealth, Sutirtha Bagchi of Villanova University and Jan Svejnar of Columbia University find that it's not the level of inequality that matters for growth so much as the reason that inequality happened in the first place.
No, Billionaires Don't Drive Economic Growth—and Crony Billionaires Strangle It
The Guardian
2015-07-15
Is a greater presence of billionaires in a country a positive, as some might argue? Or is there evidence that it is a negative?... This is the set of questions that I, along with my colleague Sutirtha Bagchi of Villanova University, have examined. Using data on billionaires published by Forbes Magazine, we applied econometric techniques and arrived at a finding that will perplex some and delight others: a greater presence of billionaires in a country actually slows down its economic growth.
Research Grants (3)
Villanova University Summer Research Grant
Villanova University
Summer 2018
Freshman Match Program
Villanova University
Spring 2016
Office of Tax Policy Research Grant
University of Michigan
Fall 2012
Select Academic Articles (4)
The Effects of Political Competition on the Funding of Public-Sector Pension Plans
Financial ManagementSutirtha Bagchi
2020 "In politically competitive jurisdictions, there can be strong electoral incentives to underfund public pensions in order to keep current taxes low. I examine this hypothesis using panel data for over 2,000 local pension plans from Pennsylvania spanning the period 1985–2017. The results suggest that more politically competitive municipalities tend to have pension plans that are less funded. The effects of political competition are driven by municipalities that have a higher proportion of uninformed voters and are absent for pension plans offered by municipal authorities. The negative relationship between political competition and funding status is present for state pensions as well."
A Tale of Two Cities: An Examination of Medallion Prices in New York and Chicago
Review of Industrial OrganizationSutirtha Bagchi
2018 "This paper examines the institution of taxicab medallions in two of the largest cities of the U.S.—New York and Chicago—and changes in the prices of those medallions during the period 2009–2016 (for New York City) and 2007–2016 (for Chicago). We document a drop of roughly 50% in the prices of these medallions in New York and roughly 80% in Chicago from their peak in 2013/2014 to the present. We also find that medallion prices are positively correlated with taxicab revenues (for New York City) and negatively correlated with proxies for the intensity of adoption of Uber and Lyft and interest rates in both cities."
Barriers to Entry and Competitive Behavior: Evidence from Reforms of Cable Franchising Regulations
The Journal of Industrial EconomicsSutirtha Bagchi, Jagadeesh Sivadasan
2016 "Between 2005 and 2008, 19 of the 50 states... reformed the franchising process for cable television, significantly easing entry into local markets. Using a difference-in-differences approach that exploits the staggered introduction of reforms, we find that prices for 'Basic' service declined systematically by about 5.5 to 6.8 percent following the reforms, but we find no statistically significant effect on average price for the more popular 'Expanded Basic' service. We also find that the reforms led to increased actual entry in reformed states, by about 11.6% relative to non-reformed states."
Does Wealth Inequality Matter for Growth? The Effect of Billionaire Wealth, Income Distribution and Poverty
Journal of Comparative EconomicsSutirtha Bagchi, Jan Svejnar
2015 "A fundamental question in social sciences relates to the effect of wealth inequality on economic growth. Yet, in tackling the question, researchers have had to use income as a proxy for wealth. We derive a global measure of wealth inequality from Forbes Magazine's listing of billionaires and compare its effect on growth to the effects of income inequality and poverty. Our results suggest that wealth inequality has a negative relationship with economic growth, but when we control for the fact that some billionaires acquired wealth through political connections, the relationship between politically connected wealth inequality and economic growth is negative, while politically unconnected wealth inequality, income inequality, and initial poverty have no significant relationship."
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