Interview with Dilip Mookherjee

Dilip Mookherjee is Professor of Economics at Boston University. Originally from Calcutta, India, he has worked with the Indian government on its transition to a market economy and on tax reform in various countries. He actively participates in conferences, summer schools, and trainings for students of development economics around the world.

1. Name and current position.

I am a Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Economic Development at Boston University.

2. What does a typical day look like for you?

I spend my day teaching, working on my research with coauthors and students. I am also a research advisor, so I meet with about two students each day to discuss their research. I attend departmental meetings, spend about two hours each day responding to email. Additionally, there are administrative responsibilities in the department and university. I edit the Journal of Development Economics, the main international journal devoted to development. I also keep up contacts with research networks, associations and conferences. BU frequently hosts seminars, during which people come to present research. I attend two to three seminars and one or two faculty-student workshops every week.

3. What are the pros/cons of your work? What do you like? Dislike?

I really enjoy the fact that I have plenty to do in a given day. However, there is far too much to do, relative to the time available. There are days where I wish I could control the flow. Deadlines enable you to get things done, so the research can go on. But they create a lot of pressure and stress. There is a lot of planning, preparation and hard work, before you can enjoy the fruits --- the `aha’ moments, when you feel you have acquired a new perspective on an issue you really care about, that you can communicate to others. It’s like when you like to travel and spend a lot of time preparing for the trip and then trudge up the hill, for the thrill of a new view, a new horizon. It lasts a moment but it makes the whole journey worthwhile.

Another really nice thing about my work is the ability to travel to different countries, meet young people and be able to connect with them instantly using the language of economics. I look forward to every opportunity to travel to new lands, learn about new cultures, help teach and train students, and disseminate recent research. Quite frequently I participate in international summer schools for doctoral and postdoctoral students interested in development economics --- last year it was in Italy, the year before that it was Canada, and in previous years have included China, India and Germany.

Some of the negative aspects of my job are administrative issues: Negotiating with colleagues on appointments, going through the university administration, and so on. But it’s great when we do succeed in hiring or promoting genuine talent.

Interacting with people who make policy can both be rewarding and frustrating. It’s a lot of hard work, and the results are a matter of perception- the influence we academics have on policy is rarely concrete. There is considerable collective influence in the long run, but in the short run it is almost imperceptible. For example, when I was living in India, I worked as a consultant for a government tax reform committee. I wrote a report for them based on my research. The government only picked up on the administrative portion of the report, but on very little else. This was difficult, because the administrative part was not the main point of the report. They disregarded the rest, which was about ways to control corruption and close legal loopholes for tax evaders. I decided to keep researching and publish the work as a book. In 1997 my book “Incentives and Institutional Reform in Tax Enforcement” was published. In 2001, I met with a few senior officers, who told me that my work did in fact influence numerous changes the tax department has been making over the past decade. Additionally, my book was instrumental in reorganizing tax collection systems in many other countries around the world --- I occasionally hear from officials involved in the World Bank and country governments about how they have used it to structure their systems. The point of the story is that sometimes politics gets in the way of what is best. In India, empowering local communities will enable development, but the government doesn’t always see things that way. If the government doesn’t listen, then going public (with books and newspaper reports) will put pressure on them to change things.

4. Where are you from?

Well, I was born in Calcutta, but my father was in army, so we moved all over India. I went to university in New Delhi, and then went to the London School of Economics. After I got out, I got a job at Stanford University, but I wanted to go back to India, which I did in 1989. I was teaching in India and also acting as consultant to the Indian government as it was embarking on an ambitious set of economic reforms to deregulate the market economy. However, my interactions with the government (eg the tax reform committee I mentioned earlier) left me frustrated. Additionally, the government was making it difficult for me to get work with research. I was not well paid, in poor housing, and it was hard to travel internationally. Boston University made me a very good offer. I only intended to stay for a short time, but the University made a huge effort to get immigration permits for my family and myself, so I decided to stay.

I also think I can help India much more here in Boston than I can there due to the high number of people involved in the Boston area and the East Coast generally in international development. The MacArthur Foundation, for example, has given me a large grant to fund my ongoing research in India. I’m also a part of many research networks here. Boston is a host to one of the first development conferences in the country, called the NEUDC, which is now seen in many circles as “the” development conference. I have also been involved with BREAD- Bureau for Research and Economic Development- which is the greatest single concentration of academic talent in the field --- there are regular conferences and summer schools and the like.

5. Did you know this is what you were interested in way back when?

No, not at all. In college, I wanted to get a degree in economics and go to business school in preparation for a job in the private sector. I almost drifted into the field of international development. Whenever I completed undergraduate studies in economics, curiosity took over. It seemed as if the brightest people kept going on in academia, and those who dropped off weren’t good enough to go further. As I continued, I got more and more interested in the subject. I was never thinking about my career, I was just following my curiosity. I guess I was lucky that it ended up so rewarding.

6. Did you ever consider changing your major?

Well, I really liked science in high school. And I had this notion of going to business school and working as a private sector executive. Economics, at the time, was considered a “girlie” subject, but I really liked it and decided to stick with it.

7. What did you do after you graduated?

After undergraduate studies, I went to the London School of Economics. You really learn a lot from the type of people you study with, and I was in the same class with many good people.

8. Work – how did you break into/end up in ID?

Well, for the first 10-15 years of my career, I didn’t work in development. I worked on abstract economic theory. However, I had always been somewhat interested in helping India. I decided I wanted to be involved in something less abstract and less academic, so I got involved with the government. In 1991, India experienced massive economic reform. The economy went from closed to a globalized market economy very quickly. The current Prime Minister was the finance minister at that time, and I helped organize a number of seminars for him on topics of economic reform. This got me involved. After that, I worked for the Tax Reform committee, as I mentioned before. I felt kind of used. At that point, I was very interested in development. I left and fell into it at BU. Applied research had been increasing for over last 10 years, so there were a lot of opportunities for fieldwork and research on ground level development problems.

9. Do you have any advice for people who want to pursue this career?

In international development, there are two levels you can work on.
There is the ground level, which consists mostly of nongovernmental organizations. Working at this level is very valuable, and many people do it when young. However, it is very localized. You need more education to work at a higher level.

The second level of international development consists of think tanks, organizations like the World Bank, or academics. You can influence policy on either level. However, the best combination is a bit of both. It’s a good idea to have hands on experience before you earn your master’s. If you are from a developed country, you need to see first hand problems of poverty and underdevelopment in poor countries in order to gain perspective. This is why organizations like the Peace Corps are ideal. Then you can move on, get a masters or PhD and work at a higher level to influence policy. I of course grew up in India, so I experienced underdevelopment and poverty firsthand without having to work on some ground-level development mission.

You must also know the kind of discipline you want. Economics is very important in international development. Some of us at BU are trying to create multidisciplinary academic programs in international development. People in this field must have a larger vision, embracing politics, economics, public health and environmental studies. There are very few programs that bring these different disciplines into a single program. This is the kind of preparation students need to make a successful career in international development.