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Poulomi Dasgupta has completed her Ph.D. in Economics with specialization in Development Economics and Political Economy from the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC). She is keenly interested in developing alternative approaches to understanding economic development and using these approaches to evaluate the impact of various development programs in developing countries. Her areas of interest are labour and unemployment in developing economies, issues of environmental sustainability and development, and political economy of rural development.  She has presented her work on topics like labour markets in colonial India, public employment, and hunger at conferences including the International Initiative to Promote Political Economy, Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT), and European Labour History Network. 

She has taught a number of  economics courses at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and St. Peters University, New Jersey. She leads academic travel courses to India and Bhutan on topics of sustainability and development. She has 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. She is a research scholar at the Global Institute of Sustainable Prosperity (http://www.global-isp.org/)

She is also an alumnus of the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE)

2020-2021 Courses:

ECN 101	Principles of Microeconomics	FALL 2020
This is an entry-level course in economics, covering fundamentals of microeconomics and aimed at students who choose it as an elective or plan to continue their studies in economics. This course helps students develop basic analytical skills in economics and microeconomics. It provides students with a basic understanding of the market system in advanced capitalist economies. It examines the logic of constrained choice with a focus on the economic behavior of individuals and organizations. After a theoretical analysis of the determinants and the interaction of supply and demand under competitive conditions, alternative market structures will be investigated, including monopolistic and oligopolistic forms. The course examines the conditions under which markets allocate resources efficiently and identifies causes of market failure and the appropriate government response. The introduction to the role of government includes its taxing and expenditure activities as well as regulatory policies.
ECN 256	Managerial Economics (Intermediate Microeconomics)	FALL 2020
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 2020
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 530	Development Economics	FALL 2020
Issues of growth and development, labor and employment, and measurements of poverty and inequality. An in-depth study of theories and contemporary issues in the field of development economics. This course will investigate topics in development from both a micro and a macro perspective and will engage with debates around issues of growth and development, labor and employment, education and health and measurements of different development indicators.
ECN 341	International Trade	SPRING 2021
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 355T	Political Economy: Theories and Issues (Switzerland)	SPRING 2021
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 Classical, Institutional, Marxian, Post-Keynesian and Austrian. Students will also explore the works of Polanyi, Kalecki and Minsky. 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, financialization and political economy of cryptocurrencies, gender inequality, the relationship of the economic sphere to the ecology, political economy of poverty and uneven development, food regimes and globalisation, and labour and unemployment. This course will allow students to analyse major contemporary issues from different political economy perspectives. This course will also have a travel component, where students will visit sites in Switzerland to understand the position of Switzerland in the development of the capitalist system (example: Mont Pelerin). In addition, students will also investigate some of the issues discussed in this course like ecological economics, postcolonial economics and political economy of cryptocurrencies by visiting relevant sites like organic farms, the crypto valley and international organisations. Site visits will tentatively include visits to the Geneva, Zurich and Zug regions.
ECN 101	Principles of Microeconomics	SUMMER 2021
This is an entry-level course in economics, covering fundamentals of microeconomics and aimed at students who choose it as an elective or plan to continue their studies in economics. This course helps students develop basic analytical skills in economics and microeconomics. It provides students with a basic understanding of the market system in advanced capitalist economies. It examines the logic of constrained choice with a focus on the economic behavior of individuals and organizations. After a theoretical analysis of the determinants and the interaction of supply and demand under competitive conditions, alternative market structures will be investigated, including monopolistic and oligopolistic forms. The course examines the conditions under which markets allocate resources efficiently and identifies causes of market failure and the appropriate government response. The introduction to the role of government includes its taxing and expenditure activities as well as regulatory policies.

Publications:

Dasgupta, P and Vogelaar, A. Reimagining Labour for a Sustainable Future. Routledge (Forthcoming Monograph 2021)

Dasgupta, P and Vogelaar, A. “Brand Bhutan and the Political  Economy of Sustainable Tourism” Chapter in Planning and Managing Sustainability in Tourism, Springer (Forthcoming 2021)

Dasgupta, P. “Using travel to teach Sustainable Economic Development” Chapter in ‘Rethinking economics- experiences from plural socio*economic higher education’. Springer VS. 2020 (in press)

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.

Conferences and Invited Talks:

Dasgupta,  P  (with     Vogelaar,  A).    "Reimagining     Labour: Cooperatives as Sites of Resilience and     Intervention,    2020    European    Association for    Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE)

Dasgupta, P. “Food Security and Employment  Generation in India”, Paper presentation at the International Initiative for Promoting    Political    Economy (IIPPE), 2016    in Lisbon, Portugal.   

Dasgupta,  P.     “Labour  in India:  Lessons from  the Colonial Period”,  Paper presentation  at  the European Network of Labour Historians    (ENLH),    2015 in    Turin, Italy

Dasgupta, P. “Applying    the capability approach    to India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Program”, February 2013 at Siena College,    New York.   

Dasgupta, P. “Labor  Institutions  in  Colonial  India”, Paper  presentation  at Association     for Institutional    Thought    (AFIT)    2011    in    Salt Lake City,    Utah.

Dasgupta, P. “Rethinking Development    Economics”, March 2013  at State University of    New York, Potsdam

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.