Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan’s name has figured in the list of this year’s nominees for Nobel Prize for Economics brought out by Clarivate Analytics, which will be announced on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Rajan is one of the six economists to make their way to the list this year. The reason for Rajan’s entry into the list is his “contributions illuminating the dimensions of decisions in corporate finance”.
Rajan wasn’t considered good enough for a second term as the RBI governor by the Centre’s Narendra Modi government and was allowed to leave the job in September last year. The charismatic economist had then chosen to return to teaching in Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.
Clarivate Analytics, earlier a Thomson Reuters unit, publishes a list of possible Nobel Prize winners based on research citations, ahead of the formal announcement by the Nobel committee, reported IANS.
New additions to its list this year were Colin Camerer of the California Institute of Technology and George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University (“for pioneering research in behavioral economics and in neuroeconomics”); Robert Hall of Stanford University (“for his analysis of worker productivity and studies of recessions and unemployment”); and Michael Jensen of Harvard, Stewart Myers of MIT and Raghuram Rajan of the University of Chicago (“for their contributions illuminating the dimensions of decisions in corporate finance”).
According to information available on Clarivate’s website, in the last 15 years, 45 of the selected researchers had gone on to receive a Nobel – nine in the same year in which they were tipped by Clarivate and 18 within two years of the distinction.
Exactly one year after his term as RBI governor came to an end, Rajan published a book with his “commentary and speeches” to convey what it was like to be at the helm of the central bank in “those turbulent but exciting times”.
Rajan, who was considered a vocal RBI Governor, in his book “I Do What I Do” said “The demonetisation tool used by the Indian government to drive out black money could have long-term benefits but its short-term economic costs would outweigh them.”
“I was asked by the government in February 2016 for my views on demonetisation, which I gave orally. Although there might be long-term benefits, I felt the likely short-term economic costs would outweigh them, and felt there were potentially better alternatives to achieve the main goal,” he wrote.
A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Rajan served as visiting professor at Stockholm School of Economics and at Kellogg School of Management. He was also a visiting professor at MIT Sloan School of Management.