Surbhi Kesar (@SurbhiKesar) / X

Surbhi Kesar

5,527 posts

Surbhi Kesar

@SurbhiKesar

Development & political economist @soaseconomics, Past @SouthAsianUni @UMassAmherst| Informality, structural transformation, capitalism, decolonizing economics.

Joined November 2013

Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
May 27, 2025
Why’s everyone losing mind over whether India’s GDP rank is 5th or 6th? Our country has 35% child stunting, 80% informally employed & 50% w/o wage work (unchanged w/ growth), median income ~INR 11k, a whooping income & caste inequality, rising wealth inequality. Let that matter.
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Jul 6, 2025
India is not the 4th most equal country in the world. We re-did correct & comparable calculations: India ranks 176 (& not 4) out of 216 on income inequality. On calorie consumption inequality, it ranks 102 out of 185. I explain this in @thewire_in
No, India Is Not the Fourth Most Equal Country. Here’s the Real Data - The Wire
From m.thewire.in
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Jul 6, 2025
Irresponsible reporting from @the_hindu @IndianExpress @bsindia & others about Indian being 4th equal country. They compare India’s CONSUMPTION inequality Gini of 25.5 with INCOME inequality of other equal countries. INCOME inequality of India is 62! Thread explaining: 1/8
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Oct 2, 2022
🚨🚨 Worker Unity, Groundxero, & Notes on Academy have published a brilliant book on the Farmers' Rebellion in India. Not only does it document the protest by way of interviews on the Farmers' movements, it provides key insights into agrarian question (of labour & land) in India.
Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Oct 14, 2024
The "good" institutions that AJR promote implicitly/explicitly in their work are capitalist institutions, e.g., private property rights. It also leaves intact the bias that underdevelopment in South has been produced through the common process that produced development in North.
The Nobel Prize
@NobelPrize
Oct 14, 2024
BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.”
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Aug 16, 2023
If someone was to set up an academic institution by hiring all of the currently suspended / resigned academics in India that have been in the news in the last few week / months, it would make for a fantastic institution. 1/2
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Feb 20, 2023
Iconic moment today at SOAS, with @jeremycorbyn and @Shut_downAmazon When Capital goes global, labour needs to go global too. ✊🏾
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Jun 28, 2022
Final countdown to submitting the draft of our book on decolonising economics: @ingridharvold @cacrisalves @devikadutt
Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Oct 18, 2024
Unless an economist/development researcher has spent 5-10 years studying a specific country & an issue in that country, they should not be making policy suggestions on it. The cursory-researched policy briefs & bold claims of wt global South should do needs to stop.
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Mar 18, 2023
Noah Smith w/ his non-rigorous poverty measures & cultural imperialism. There is no trusted data on poverty in India. The last consumption data was pulled back by the gov when it showed a rise in poverty. Jean Dreze and others calls BS on Bhalla et al measures he uses. 🔗 👇🏽 1/7
Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼
@Noahpinion
Mar 17, 2023
This is just an incredible graph. India is making absolutely amazing strides against poverty. (ht @scienceisstrat1)
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Aug 28, 2021
Some personal news: I am excited to share that I am joining the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London @SOASEconomics as a Lecturer. It's an engagement that I am keenly looking forward to. 1/3
Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Oct 14, 2024
You know what a practical case of implementation AJR's intuition of economic development as importing "good capitalist institutions" looks like? Afghanistan: USA tried to control and develop it by importing these so-called good institutions. We all know how that turned out.
The Nobel Prize
@NobelPrize
Oct 14, 2024
BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.”
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Oct 19, 2024
Reflecting on the recent AJR Nobel for @epw_in, @ingridharvold, @devikadutt & I write about the colonial origins of economics, We argue that AJR get the dynamics of capitalist dev wrong, are Eurocentric, & the inclusive institutions are not quite so.
The Colonial Origins of Economics
From epw.in
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Surbhi Kesar
@SurbhiKesar
Oct 1, 2023
Very happy to be International Economic Association's @IEA_economics featured economist for the month October 2023. In this profile, I reflect on why I do economics, relevance of my work, and how to think about the issue of diversity in the discipline. iea-world.org/Featured%20Eco…
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