Dr. Shyamal Chowdhury

Biography

Professor Shyamal Chowdhury holds the Rajiv Gandhi Chair in South Asian Economics at the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, and also serves as the Director of the Australia South Asia Research Centre (ASARC). His primary research area is economic development, with a focus on topics such as seasonal migration, the development of non-cognitive skills in children, microfinance, and technology adoption. He has published in leading academic journals such as Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. His research has examined various countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Uganda, and Kenya. Shyamal graduated with a BSc (Hons.) in Economics from Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, earned an MA in Economics from the University of Kiel in Germany, and completed his PhD in Agricultural Economics at Bonn University in Germany. Before joining the Australian National University, he worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute from 2003 to 2006, the World Bank from 2006 to 2007 in Washington, DC, USA, and the University of Sydney from 2007 to 2024. He is also the Secretary of the Australasian Development Economics Association (ADEA) and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) in Germany.

Research Interests