Vamsi Vakulabharanam

Vamsi Vakulabharanam is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Previously, he taught at the University of Hyderabad (2008-14) and the City University of New York (2004-07). He was a grantee at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET, NY) between 2011 and 2014 on a project titled, 'Economic Development and Inequality: What Can the Asian Experience Teach Us?' He was a Fellow of the India China Institute of the New School (NY) between 2008 and 2010. He has worked on issues pertaining to agrarian change in the context of globalization in developing economies, agrarian cooperatives, and the relationship between economic development and inequality. His recent research focuses on inequality in the contemporary Asian economies, including India and China.

Professional Experience: 

• Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2014-present
• Associate Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad, India, 2011-2014
• Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad, India, 2008-2011
• Assistant Professor of Economics, Queens College, City University of New York, 2004-2007

Research Interests: 

• Political Economy
• Economic Development
• Economics of Inequality
• Economics of Asia

Honors and Awards: 

• Received the first Amartya Sen Award (Economics) given to Distinguished Social Scientists by the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), 2013

Grants: 

• From the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET, NY) between 2011 and 2014 for a project on "Development and Inequality: What can the Asian Experience Teach Us?"
• From the India China Institute (ICI) at the New School of Social Research, New York, 2007-2009 on "Inequality in China and India".

Presentations: 

• Presented a paper "Global Crises, Equalizing and Dis-equalizing Regimes: The Case of the 20th Century Asian Political Economy," on the Panel - "Economic Growth and Inequality Across Time and Space: Where Has Growth Led to Equality and Why?" INET Annual Conference, OECD, Paris, April 9, 2015.
• Presented a paper - "Economic Turbulence in Capitalism: Twentieth Century and Beyond," Beijing University, World Congress on Marxism, Oct 11, 2015.
• Presented a paper - "Class and Inequality in China and India," Azim Premji University, Conference on Regional Political Economy, January 10, 2016.
• Presented a paper - "A Spatial Fix? New Urbanization Initiatives in China and India", American Association of Geography 2016 meetings, San Francisco March 30, 2016.
• Presented a paper - "Urban Transformations in China and India", Conference on Intra-Asian Connections at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, August 22-24, 2016.
• Presented a paper "Babu's Camelot: Amaravati City and the Emerging Capitalist Dynamics in New Andhra Pradesh" in a session - "Urbanization of Inequity: Urban Processes in South Asia" American Association of Geography 2017 meetings, Boston, April 5, 2017.

Selected Publications: 

• Michael, Kavya and Vakulabharanam V. (2015). Class and Climate Change in Post-Reform India, Climate and Development, Published online, April 23, 2015.
• Vakulabharanam V. (2015). Merchant Capital in Neoliberal times: A mere appendage or a determining force? Studies in People’s History, Vol. 2(1).
• Vakulabharanam V. & Sreeraj A.P., 2015. Whither Kerala Model: High Growth and Rising Inequality in Kerala after 1980s, Oxford Development Studies, Published Online, November 2015, pp. 1-17.
• Vakulabharanam V. and Motiram S. 2016. Economic Mobility in Neoliberal India: An analysis of Class, Migration and Occupational Mobility. Contemporary South Asia (Special Issue on Mobility in India, edited by Nandini Sundar and Ravinder Kaur), Published Online August 2016.
• Vakulabharanam, V. and De, R. 2016. "Growth and Distribution Regimes in India since Independence." The Commonwealth Journal of International Issues for a special issue on China, India and Southeast Asia: Paths to Development and State-Society Relations Volume 105 (6).