Arjun Ramani (@arjun

Arjun Ramani

624 posts

Arjun Ramani

@arjun_ramani3

Econ PhD Student @MIT | Prev @TheEconomist in 🇬🇧 & 🇮🇳 | Hoosier4life

Cambridge, MA

Joined May 2015

Pinned
Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Aug 21, 2025
Last week I led a trip for 20 friends across India w/@SparshAgarwall and @arjunssoin We explored Delhi, Bangalore and Darjeeling, meeting people doing cool things across Indian politics, tech and civil society Was especially fun intro'ing first-time visitors to India! 🧵1/
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Aug 20, 2024
Personal update: I'm beginning an economics PhD @MITEcon! Crazy to think that exactly 3 yrs ago on this day I joined @TheEconomist. At the time I thought it would be a 3m internship, but it turned into one of the most rewarding experiences of my life 1/
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Apr 27, 2024
Excited to share what I've been up to this year! On the cover of this week's @TheEconomist is a 6-part special report on India’s economy by Tom Easton+me. It asks - What it would take for India beat 6% growth? - And is Modi up to the task? 🧵on the key arguments 1/
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Jul 24, 2025
NEW ESSAY: "Dispatches from India" A year ago I was living in New Delhi, India 🇮🇳. I traveled across 10 states and 30 cities+villages writing for The Economist, including a cover story on the economy Since then I’ve been chewing on how to capture what I learned It still
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Jan 14, 2023
New piece in @TheEconomist! An important second-order impact of remote work: Firm “boundaries” are blurring. Remote work changes the calculus of what to do, and crucially, what not to do. It boosts freelancing, outsourcing and offshoring, just as Coase would predict: 1/
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Feb 4, 2023
NEW in @TheEconomist. Industry labs have driven rapid progress in large-scale AI leading to @OpenAI's ChatGPT. I ask: 1. Why did academia pass the baton to firms? 2. Does Google's LaMDA (which I got access to) or ChatGPT give better dating advice? 3. Where are things headed? 1/
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Apr 4, 2024
In most countries, college-educated voters have turned against right-wing populists Not so in India. Call it the Modi paradox My piece in @TheEconomist this week, inspired partly by countless convos with family/friends in India who 😍 Modi but 😬 Trump economist.com/asia/2024/03/2…
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
May 27, 2023
Excited to share my biggest project for @TheEconomist to date: ~10k words on the future of digital finance! Looking past the hype around crypto/CBDCs, I argue that good-old banks, state-led networks and fintechs are quietly transforming global payment systems worldwide 1/6
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Apr 23, 2025
Humlum/Vestergaard link AI adoption data with Danish admin data till june 2024--amazing data! they find: -widespread adoption (most workers use AI and a third of firms have their own models) -2.8% surveyed time savings -but impact on wages/hours in admin data is 0!
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Oct 30, 2022
I looked at the literature on science funding models for this week's @TheEconomist. Key point: there is a big opportunity in testing new funding models in ways that can be rigorously evaluated--for example with randomised control trials (RCTs)
How to escape scientific stagnation
From economist.com
Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Apr 27, 2024
Replying to @arjun_ramani3
3/ Ch 2+3 continues on India's relative strengths--the financial and corporate sectors Contra to narratives of crony capitalism, mkt concentration is actually falling in India. Modi favours national champions, but less than you might think economist.com/special-report…
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Apr 27, 2024
Replying to @arjun_ramani3
6/ Our final chapter lays out a reform agenda touching on everything form innovation policy to beefing up city governance A striking stat: only 15% of Indian govt employees work at the local level vs 60% in 🇨🇳 or 🇺🇸 leading to poor state capacity
India must make much deeper changes if it is to sustain its growth
From economist.com
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Jul 24, 2025
Replying to @arjun_ramani3
Essay:
arjunramani.com
Dispatches from India
What I learned covering the world's biggest country for The Economist
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Arjun Ramani
@arjun_ramani3
Apr 27, 2024
Replying to @arjun_ramani3
2/ India is growing at 6-6.5% a yr, slower than China’s heyday of 10%+ But that's still solid. Growth is harder today bc manufacturing is less of a route to riches India has the world's #5 economy, by 2027 it will be #3. #1 is even plausible by 2070 economist.com/special-report…
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