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Contributor : Profile

Name Surname

E. Somanathan

Indian Statistical Institute
som@isid.ac.in

E. Somanathan received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1995 and taught at Emory University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor before joining the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi where he is a Professor in the Planning Unit.  His current research is in environmental and development economics. Ongoing research projects include the impact of global warming and aerosols on Indian agriculture and the distribution of income, and game-theoretic modeling of climate policies. Recent publications include Effects of Information on Environmental Quality in Developing Countries, (2010) Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 4(2): 275-292, and “Decentralization for cost-effective conservation” (2009) with R. Prabhakar and B.S. Mehta, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(11): 4143-4147. He is a Co-ordinating Lead Author for Working Group III of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Posts by E. Somanathan

Economics and the environment

Published in February 2021 by the UK government, the ‘Dasgupta Review’ calls for changes in how we think, act and measure economic success to protect and enhance our prosperity and the natural wor...

  • Podcasts

Economics and the environment

Published in February 2021 by the UK government, the ‘Dasgupta Review’ calls for changes in how we think, act and measure economic success to protect and enhance our prosperity and the natural wo...

  • Videos

Covid-19: Escaping the economic dangers

As long as the spread of Covid-19 is not controlled in India, there is a threat of new complete or partial lockdowns in response. In this post, E. Somanathan contends that any further lockdown risks i...

  • Perspectives

A tribute to Marty Weitzman

Prof. Martin Weitzman who was among the most influential economists in the world passed away on 27 August 2019. His work on the uncertainty about how bad the impacts of a changed climate could be has ...

  • Perspectives

The simple economics of clean air

One of the main reasons why north-western India chokes on smog every November is the burning of residue from the rice crop by farmers. In this article, Somanathan and Gupta contend that public auctio...

  • Perspectives

Happy Seeder: A solution to agricultural fires in north India

It is believed that much of the pollution in Delhi in November every year originates in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana where farmers burn their fields to dispose of crop residue. This ...

  • Articles

Coal and the climate change debate

In the run-up to the Paris Climate Summit, there has been a growing call among advanced nations to phase out fossil fuels. In this article, Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, Government of I...

  • Perspectives

Pricey diesel

India was recently ranked 174th out of 178 countries, on air pollution. A key contributing factor is diesel vehicles. This column shows that diesel subsidies benefit the rich more than the poor, and ...

  • Articles

Eliminating Delhi's November smog

Around this time every year, the air in Delhi becomes almost unbearable. As politicians and the press point fingers, this column offers up a happy solution.

  • Articles

Exploratory research on the impact of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, on deforestation, tribal welfare, and poverty, with implications for implementation

When the United Progressive Alliance came to power in the Indian general elections of May 2004, it published a Common Minimum Programme in which it promised to end the eviction of tribal and other for...

  • IGC Research on India