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Poulomi Dasgupta received her doctoral degree in 2012 with a dissertation titled National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Long term Development in India. She is keenly interested in developing alternative approaches to understanding development and consequently using these approaches to evaluate the impact of various developmental programs in developing countries. In her research, she uses the capability approach to evaluate the impact of an employment generation program on development in rural India. This approach involved identifying the expansion of real freedoms of the beneficiaries of this program. In order to utilize this approach, she has also conducted village level surveys in two states in India.

She has taught various economics courses at University of Missouri, Kansas City and St. Peters University, New Jersey and worked for different research institutes including the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability, Kansas City and the Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation, Mumbai. 

2019-2020 Courses:

ECN 199	Fair Trade: Fighting Poverty or Shoppers’ Guilt?	FALL 2019
International free trade is an integral part of the modern economic system. It is believed that free trade leads to many economic benefits including lower prices and greater product variety for the consumers, lower production costs for firms and economic growth for the countries involved. However, there are many critics who believe that free trade often leads to loss of livelihoods for many, increases economic inequality within and between nations and impacts the environment adversely. In the wake of such criticisms, fair trade is seen as a viable alternative to the traditional free trade model. This course will introduce students to the idea of fair trade and the ideology behind it. Through this course, students will learn about the processes that are involved in getting a fair trade certification and how this helps the final producers of goods. Students will learn about cooperatives and consumer groups involved in the fair trade movement. This course will also examine the impact of fair trade on development, poverty, role of women and the environment. Finally, students will also be exposed to the criticisms of fair trade. The course will use different teaching tools including lectures, class activities, field trips, documentaries etc. Like all First Year Seminars, this course will cultivate fundamental critical and academic skills necessary for succeeding at the university level.
ECN 256	Managerial Economics (Intermediate Microeconomics)	FALL 2019
This intermediate-level course in microeconomics builds upon the introductory two-semester sequence and, in conjunction with ECN 225, prepares students to upper-level economics. It is a program requirement for the majors in International Banking and Finance and International Economics, as well as for Economics as a combined major. It is also one of the options towards Economics as a minor. This course completes the theoretical background on microeconomics and introduces students to more advanced topics, with an emphasis on the practical relevance and application of theory. The essence of the course is, in particular, the study of the interaction between rational individual decision-making (e.g. consumers, firms, the government) and the working of economic institutions like markets, regulation and social rules. Topics covered include an introduction to game theory, strategic behavior and entry deterrence; analysis of technological change; the internal organization of the firm; economic efficiency; public goods, externalities and information; government and business.
ECN 303	Development Economics	FALL 2019
The course will introduce students to the evolution of theory and practice in economic development in three stages. First, models of economic growth and development including work by Harrod-Domar, Robert Solow, Arthur Lewis, and Michael Kremer are compared to provide students with a feeling for how economists have conceived of the development process. The class then proceeds to examine particular development issues such as population growth, stagnant agriculture, environmental degradation, illiteracy, gender disparities, and rapid urbanization to understand how these dynamics reinforce poverty and deprivation. In the final stage, students will read work by supporters as well as critics of international development assistance and use the knowledge and perspective they have gained thus far to independently evaluate efficacy of a specific development intervention.
ECN 331T	Sustainable Economic Development (India and Bhutan)	SPRING 2020
Traditionally, efficiency has been given priority over sustainability in orthodox economics. With the declaration of Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, the idea of sustainability has become central in mainstream economic and policy discussions, thereby challenging many fundamental building blocks of economics. This course will examine the different approaches used in economics to study sustainability within the context of economic development. This will include both mainstream approach that uses neoclassical assumptions of market clearing and the rational choice theory and non-mainstream schools of thoughts that include Marxian economics, Ecological economics and Institutional economics. The course will then explore the relationships between sustainability and various economic and political issues like employment generation, property and resource rights, mode of production, economic growth and poverty. The aim of this course is to provide tools to students that will allow them to critically examine the various approaches to sustainable development. A grade of at least C is highly recommended in the prequisite ECN 100. This Travel carries a supplemental fee: CHF 1365 (for students invoiced in CHF) or USD 1450 (for students invoiced in USD).
ECN 341	International Trade	SPRING 2020
This course will introduce students to the major theories and tools used in the study of international trade. Particular attention will be paid to deriving, analyzing, and assessing the empirical evidence for and against the Ricardian and Heckscher-Ohlin conceptions of comparative advantage, the Stolper-Samuelson Factor-Price Equalization Theorem, and New Trade Theories based on assumptions of imperfect competition. Students will become skilled at using a variety of graphical devices including offer curves to describe the effect which variations in government policy, factor dynamics, country size, technology, tastes, and transport costs will have on the terms of as well as the magnitude and distribution of the gains from trade. (With professor permission, students may take this course with no ECN 256 prerequisite.)
ECN 355W	Political Economy: Theories and Issues	SPRING 2020
This course is designed to introduce students to the foundations of political economy. In this course, students will study the economic system from a critical, historical and interdisciplinary perspective and in doing so will gain a greater understanding of our current economic system. Students will learn about different theories in political economy and how these theories help us understand the transformation of a pre capitalist system to a capitalist system. Some of the schools of thoughts that students will be introduced to are Institutional, Marxian, Post-Keynesian and Austrian. This course will also draw from these various theories and examine their implications for different issues that arise from the current economic formation. Some of the issues that will be considered in this course are social and economic inequality, gender inequality, the relationship of the economic sphere to the ecology, power relations and conflict in modern society, political economy of poverty and uneven development. (This writing intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements).

Publications:

Dasgupta, P. "Employment Generation Scheme and long term Development-A Case Study in India", Book Chapter in The Job Guarantee: Toward Full Employment, Volume II, Palgrave Publication. 2013

Dasgupta, P. "Trade, Environment and Development: An Ecological economics perspective", Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Missouri Kansas City, 2012

Dasgupta, P. "Democracy in Developing country-Which way is it headed?", Oeconomicus Department of Economics, University of Missouri Kansas City, Vol VIII, 2008.

Book Review "How rich countries got rich...and why poor countries  remain poor?", Heterodox Economics Newsletter, Issue 52, November 8, 2007.

Honors and Achievements:

Awarded Graduate Teaching Assistantship at UMKC, Department of Economics (2007-2011)

Chancellors GTA Fee Remission Award, UMKC (2007-2012)

Chancellors Non Resident Scholarship, UMKC (2007-2012)

Selected and participated in the African Program on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE) in Durban, SA. (Summer 2010).

Research Interests:

Political Economy, Developmental Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Post colonial studies.