FACULTY DIRECTORY
Ravi Kanbur
T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics
Areas of Expertise
Public Economics, Development Economics
Contact Information
221 Warren Hall • Phone: 607.255.7966
E-mail: sk145@cornell.edu
Web Site
Vita
Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He holds an appointment tenured both in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and in the Department of Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford. He has taught at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Essex, Warwick, Princeton and Columbia.
Ravi Kanbur has also served on the staff of the World Bank, as Economic Adviser, Senior Economic Adviser, Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region of the World Bank, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. He has also served as Director of the World Bank’s World Development Report.
Professor Kanbur's main areas of interest are public economics and development economics. His work spans conceptual, empirical, and policy analysis. He is particularly interested in bridging the worlds of rigorous analysis and practical policy making. His vita lists over 200 publications, covering topics such as risk taking, inequality, poverty, structural adjustment, debt, agriculture, and political economy. He has published in the leading economics journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, and Economic Journal.
The honors he has received include the Quality of Research Discovery Award of the American Agricultural Economics Association and an Honorary Professorship at the University of Warwick.
Education
D. Phil., University of Oxford, 1981
B.A., University of Cambridge, 1975
Teaching
AEM 6670: Topics in Economic
Development
AEM 7350: Public Finance: Resource Allocation and Fiscal Policy
Selected Publications
Informal Labor Markets and Development (Co-editor with Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis and Elinor Ostrom), Macmillan, 2006.
“Community and Class Antagonism,” (with I. Dasgupta), Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 91, No. 9, pp. 1816-1842, 2007.
Arguments for a Better World: Essays in Honor of Amartya Sen (Co-Editor with K. Basu), Oxford University Press, 2008.
“Poverty, Disconnected,” Finance and Development, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 32-34, 2009
Regional Inequality in China: Trends, Explanations and Policy Responses (Co-Editor with S. Fan and X. Zhang), Routledge, 2009.
Equity in a Globalizing World (Co-Editor with A. M. Spence), World Bank for the Commission on Growth and Development, forthcoming, 2010.
“Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws,” (with A. Basu and N. Chau), Economic Journal, Volume 120, March, pp. 244-269, 2010.
Inequality: New Directions I (Co-Editor with F. Cowell), Symposium in Journal of Economic Inequality, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2011.
“Does Philanthropy Reduce Inequality?” (with I. Dasgupta), Journal of Economic Inequality, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1-22, 2011.
“Why Might History Matter for Development Policy?” in C.A. Bayly et.al. (eds), History, Historians, and Development Policy, pp. 117-121, Manchester University Press, 2011.
“Avoiding Informality Traps”, in E. Ghani (ed.), Reshaping Tomorrow: Is South Asia Ready for the Big Leap?”, pp. 260-278, Oxford University Press, 2011.
Working Papers
Professional Activities
- Editorial Board, Review of Development Economics
- Editorial Board, Revue d'Economie du Developpment
- Editorial Board, Journal of African Economies
Awards and Honors
- Quality of Research Discovery, American Agricultural Economics Association
- Honorary Professorship, University of Warwick
Visiting Positions
- Visiting Professor, Columbia University
- Senior Visitor, Nuffield College, St. Anthony's College and Center for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford
- Visiting Professor, Princeton University