Kaushik Basu, professor of economics and the Carl Marks professor of International Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and SC Johnson College of Business, has received the 2021 Humboldt Research Award for economics.
Sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation based in Bonn, Germany, the Humboldt Research Award recognizes excellence through an entire career and offers research collaboration opportunities. Earlier winners of the award in economics include Gerard Debreu, Hal Varian and Francis Diebold.
Basu was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016, and Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government from 2009 to 2012. He is currently serving as President of the International Economic Association (from 2017 to 2021). He has published widely in the areas of development economics, game theory, law and economics, and industrial organization. His most recent book is “The Republic of Beliefs: A New Approach to Law and Economics” (Princeton University Press, 2018). In July this year, Simon and Schuster will be publishing the diary of his policy years, “Policymaker’s Journal: New Delhi to Washington D.C.”
Basu was nominated for this award by Prof. Dr. Hans-Bernd Schäfer of Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany.
To promote international scientific cooperation, Humboldt Research Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany. Basu said that he plans to use the award to do research on moral philosophy and game theory, and on law and economics.
