

Kaushik Basu was born in Calcutta in India in 1952 and holds a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE). He lectured for many years in India and as Visiting Professor in various universities in the USA (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Princeton), Belgium (Louvain) and the UK (LSE). He has retired from Cornell University and chairs the International Economic Association. He was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016, as well as advisor to the Indian Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2012. He has published a number of books on topics including development, the game theory, industrial organization and child labor. In 1992, he founded the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, which he headed until 1996. He is editor of Social Choice and Welfare, associate editor of The Japanese Economic Review, and member of the editorial board of The World Bank Economic Review.