Ashok S. Rai

Photo of Ashok S. Rai

Professor of Economics

413-597-2270
Schapiro Hall Rm 318

On leave, spring 2019.

Education

B.A. Stanford University (1992)
Ph.D. University of Chicago, Economics (1997)

Areas of Expertise

  • Development, Contract Theory, Commodity Trade

Courses

ECON 521 SEM

Incentives and Development Policy (not offered 2023/24)

Professional Affiliations

Member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity working group on Inequality at the University of Chicago.

Affiliate of ThRED (Theoretical Research in Development Economics).

Academic Publications:

“Designing Insurance for Commodity Farmers”  in More Fair by Design: Market Design Perspectives on Inequality, edited by Scott Kominers and Alex Teytelboym, Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

“Redesigning Microcredit” (with T. Sjöström), in Handbook of Market Design,  edited by Z. Neeman, A. Roth and N. Vulkan, Oxford University Press, 2013.

Do Spouses Make Claims? Health-seeking and Microfinance in South India (with S. Ravi), World Development 39:6, 913-921.  June 2011.

Borrower Runs (with P. Bond), Journal of Development Economics 88: 185-191 March 2009.

Cosigned or Group Loans (with P. Bond), Journal of Development  Economics, 85: 58-80. February 2008.

Is Grameen Lending Efficient? Repayment Incentives and Insurance in Village Economies (with T. Sjöström), Review of Economic Studies, 71: 217-234, January 2004

Does Microcredit Reach the Poor and Vulnerable? Evidence from Northern Bangladesh. (with S. Amin and G. Topa),Journal of Development Economics, 70:59-82, February 2003

Targeting the Poor Using Community Information, Journal of Development Economics, 69: 71-84, October 2002

Work Experience:

Professor of Economics, University of Göttingen, 2011-12

Visiting Scholar, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, 2006-07

Research Fellow, Center for International Development at Harvard, 1999-2002

Institute Associate, Harvard Institute for International Development, 1997-1999

Visiting Lecturer/Research Scholar, Yale University, 2002-03

Short term consultant for USAID and Asian Development Bank