Research Interests

Game theory, Industrial organization, Bargaining, Development economics - micro-finance, land acquisition.


Working Papers

  • Gradual Repayment and sequential lending in micro-finance (joint with Shyamal Chowdhury and Kunal Sengupta). Revise and re-submit.
  • Micro-finance competition: motivated micro-lenders, double-dipping and default (with Brishti Guha).
  • Does the Market Kill Bad Ideas? An Institutional Comparison of Committees and Markets in Network Industries (joint with Debdatta Saha).
  • Incentives and competition in micro-finance (with Kaniska Dam).
  • Managing Micro-finance (with Dyuti Bannerji).
  • Holdup and Gradualism (with Kunal Sengupta).
  • Aid in the time of terror (joint with Jaideep Roy).
  • Borrower Empowerment and Savings: A Two-stage Micro-finance Scheme, MPRA Paper # 3405.
  • Spatial Inequality and Economic Development (joint with Namrata Gulati).




Accepted and Published Papers


Journals

  • Micro-finance competition: motivated micro-lenders, double-dipping and default (with Brishti Guha). Forthcoming, Journal of Development Economics.
  • Land Acquisition: Political Intervention, Fragmentation and Voice, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, 85, 63-78, 2013.
  • Innovation and social desirability of merger (with Arijit Mukherjee), Economics Bulletin, 33,, 248-260, 2013.
  • Deterrence, Preemption and Panic: A Common-Enemy Problem of Terrorism (with Satya P. Das), forthcoming, Economics Enquiry.
  • Transparency, Complementarity and Holdout (with Kunal Sengupta), Games and Economic Behaviour, 75, 598-612, 2012.
  • Porter Hypothesis and Hyperbolic Discounting, Economics Bulletin, 31, 167-176, 2011.
  • Mixed Duopoly and Price Competition (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury), Arthaniti, 10, , 16-37, 2011.
  • Firm Size and Pricing Policy, Bulletin of Economics Research, 62, 181-195, 2010.
  • Public-private Partnerships in Micro-finance: Should NGO Involvement be Restricted? (with Jaideep Ray), Journal of Development Economics 90, 200-208, 2009.
  • Bertrand Competition with Non-rigid Capacity Constraints, Economics Letters 109, 55-58, 2009.
  • Mixed Oligopoly with Distortions: First Best with Budget-balance and the Irrelevance Principle, Economics Bulletin 29, 1885-1900, 2009.
  • Financial Intermediation and Employment (with M. Pant and G. Singh), Review of Market Integration 1, 61-82, 2009.
  • Firm Size and Pricing Policy, Bulletin of Economic Research 62 , 181-195, 2010
  • Joint Venture Instability and Monitoring, Indian Growth and Development Review 2, pages 126-140, 2009.
  • Bertrand - Edgeworth Equilibrium with a Large number of Firms, International Journal of Industrial Organization 26, 746-761. 2008.
  • Adoption of New Technology and Joint Venture Instability (with Tarun Kabiraj), Research in International Business and Finance 22, 108-123, 2008.
  • Controlling Collusion in Auctions: The Role of Ceilings and Reserve Prices, Economics Letters 98, 420-426, 2008.
  • Group-lending with Sequential Financing, Contingent Renewal and Social Capital, Journal of Development Economics 84, 487-507, 2007.
    • Winner of the JDE Best Paper Award, 2007.
  • Alliances Among Asymmetric Countries. Defence and Peace Economics 18, 253-263, 2007.
  • Patents and R&D: The Tournament Effect. Economics Letters 89, 120-126, 2005.
  • Bertrand -Edgeworth Duopoly with Linear Costs: A Tale of Two Paradoxes. Economics Letters 88, 61-65, 2005.
  • Group-lending: Sequential Financing, Lender Monitoring and Joint Liability. Journal of Development Economics 77, 415-439, 2005.
  • Coalition-proof Bertrand Equilibria (with Kunal Sengupta). Economic Theory 24, 307-324, 2004.
  • Asymmetric Capacity Costs and Joint Venture Buyouts (with Sugata Marjit). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 54, 425-438, 2004.
  • Strong Bertrand Equilibria. Keio Economic Studies 41. 59-64, 2004.
  • Import Protection as Export Promotion (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). Keio Economic Studies 40, 17-35, 2003.
  • Bertrand-Edgeworth Equilibrium in Large Markets with Non-manipulable Residual Demand. Economics Letters 79, 371-375, 2003.
  • Bertrand Equilibrium with Entry: Some Limit Results, (with William Novshek). International Journal of Industrial Organization 21, 795-808, 2003.
  • Inefficiency in a Model of Team Formation. Group Decisions and Negotiations 12, 195-215, 2003.
  • Limit Pricing as Bertrand Equilibrium. Economic Theory 19, 811-822, 2002.
  • International Joint Ventures: A Welfare Analysis (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). Policy Reform 5, 51-60, 2002.
  • Consistent Stability in Generalized Assignment Models. Keio Economic Studies 39, 9-22, 2002.
  • Government Intervention in Technology Transfer. Indian Economic Review 37, 2002.
  • A Theory of Joint Venture Life-cycles (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). International Journal of Industrial Organization 19, 319-343, 2001.
  • A Learning based Theory of Joint Venture Life-cycles (joint with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). Group Decision and Negotiation 9, 457-470, 2000.
  • Joint Product Development: Some Dynamic Issue. Keio Economic Studies 37, 37-50, 2000.
  • Assignment Models and Reneging. Economic Theory 14, 393-415, 1999.
  • Bertrand-Edgeworth Equilibria With Unobservable Output, Uncoordinated Consumers and Large Number of Firms. Economics Letters 63, 207-211, 1999.
  • Learning, Liberalization and Joint Ventures, (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). Keio Economic Studies 36, 33-52, 1999.
  • Firm Size, Synergy and Joint Ventures, (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). Seoul Journal of Economics 12, 257-269, 1999.
  • Externalities and Bargaining Disagreement. Economics Letters 61, 61-65, 1998.
  • Contestability and Bertrand Equilibrium: A Unified Approach. Keio Economic Studies 35, 61-70, 1998.
  • Management Union Bargaining Under Minimum Wage Regulation in Less Developed Countries, (with Saikat Datta). Indian Economic Review 33, 169-184, 1998.
  • Generalized Assignment Models: With an Application to Technology Transfer. Economic Theory 10, 335-360, 1997.
  • Dynamic Auditing. Keio Economic Studies 34, 1-15, 1997.
  • The Contestable Outcome as a Bertrand Equilibrium. Economics Letters 50, 237-242, 1996.
  • Foreign Collaborative Ventures and Quality of Technology. Journal of Quantitative Economics 13, 11-28, 1997.
  • The Outside Option, Bargaining Skill and the Nash Bargaining Solution. Keio Economic Studies 33, 19-37, 1996.
  • Learning-by-doing and Dynamic Incentives for Joint Product Development, (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury). Decisions 23, 120-136, 1996.
  • Technological Asymmetry and Joint Product Development. International Journal of Industrial Organization 13, 23-39, 1995.
  • Pricing of Electricity: Is Two-part Tariff the Answer? (with Uma Viswanathan). Indian Economic Review 29, 57-69, 1994.

Papers in Edited Volumes
  • Sequential Lending: Dynamic Institutions and Micro-finance. In ``Emerging Issues in Economic Development: A Contemporary Theoretical Perspective (Essays in Honour of Amitava Bose and Dipankar Dasgupta)'', Eds. S. Marjit and M. Rajeev, forthcoming, Oxford University Press.
  • Edgeworth Market Games: Price-taking and Efficiency. 2011, "Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science'' Ed. Marc Kilgour, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  • Micro-finance: The SHG-linkage Program. 2012, ``The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy'', Ed. Chetan Ghate, Oxford University Press (New York), 149-168.
  • Entry Liberalization, Export Subsidy and R&D, in A. Dhar (ed.) Some Contemporary Issues in Development and Growth Economics, 444-463, Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2010.
  • A Theory of Buyouts in Joint Ventures (with S. Marjit), in J.F. Hutchet, X. Richet and J. Ruet (Eds.) Globalization in China, India and Russia, Academic Foundation 260-283, 2007, New Delhi.
  • Marriage Markets with Externalities, in Operations Research with Economic and Industrial Applications: Emerging Trends Eds. S.R. Mohan and S.K. Neogy. Anamaya Publishers, New Delhi, India, 148-155, 2005.
  • Reciprocal Dumping : A Generalized Approach (with Udaybhanu Sinha), Economics of Globalization, eds. Manas Chatterji and Partha Gangopadhyay, Ashgate Publishers, 2006.
  • Joint Venture Instability: A Life-cycle Approach (with Indrani Roy Chowdhury), in Effects of Globalization on Industry and Environment Eds. Rajat Acharyya and Bhaswar Moitra, Lancer's Books, New Delhi.43-72, 2001.

Other Writings:
  • Review of Indian Microfinance: The Challenges of Rapid Growth by Prabhu Ghate, The Book Review, May 2008.
  • Review of Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, Founder of the Grameen Bank by Muhammad Yunus (with Alan Jolis), The Book Review, October 2007.
  • Micro-finance in India: A different route compared to the Grameen (Bengali), Anandabazar Patrika, 15th November, 2006.

Feedback or accessibility issues: email pu [at] isid.ac.in
Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute
7, S.J.S. Sansanwal Marg, New Delhi 110 016, India