Maxwell School News and Commentary

"Attracting GSCs to India is actually very hard work, without having any attractive catchphrase. There is no strategy other than considerable additional investment and effort into infrastructure and skill-building, tackling power bottlenecks, reforms in labour and land regulations and keeping protectionist forces at bay," writes Devashish Mitra, professor of economics and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

"As reviving the economy is not possible without restarting production, there needs to be a phased exit from the lockdown through extensive testing that identifies people who can go back to work with the confidence that they won’t contract the disease from others," says Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

"I sincerely hope...India will soon decide to join RCEP at a future date, when it is also able to obtain better terms," says Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

"The economy’s temporary problems can easily become more permanent unless both long-term and short-term measures are taken simultaneously," says Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

According to Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, "the real challenge now for the prime minister [of India] and his colleagues is job creation and expansion of the manufacturing sector."

"No economist providing policy prescriptions can ignore the political constraint of the inevitability of redistribution to the bottom 20-30 percent," writes Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs. "Therefore, an important task before any policy economist is to suggest the most efficient form of this redistribution—one that hurts the rest of the society the least. Of course, it also has to be fiscally viable and responsible."

"If there is predatory dumping (along with injury to indigenous firms and local labour), there needs to be an anti-dumping tax (equal to the calculated dumping margin), which is similar to anti-dumping duties on internationally traded goods," says Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.