Pranab Bardhan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Educated at Presidency College, Kolkata, and Cambridge University, UK, he was on the faculty of MIT, the Indian Statistical Institute and the Delhi School of Economics, before joining Berkeley.

He has undertaken theoretical and field studies research on rural institutions in poor countries, on the political economy of development policies, and on international trade. A part of his work is in the interdisciplinary area of economics, political science, and social anthropology.

He was Chief Editor of the Journal of Development Economics for 1985-2003. He was the co-chair of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Network on the Effects of Inequality on Economic Performance for 1996-2007. He is the author of 17 books and editor of 14 others; and author of more than 150 journal articles, and is a frequent contributor to public media.

Charaiveti: An Academic’s Global Journey chronicles the academic journey of one of India’s most eminent economists and gives his reflections on the economy, his travels and the many interesting personalities he has interacted with.