Introduction

My work broadens behavioral economics to include the effect of culture on cognition and preferences. In a series of experiments, I showed that caste identities influence empathy for others, performance, and even in-group coordination and cooperation. I co-directed the World Bank’s World Development Report 2015:
Mind, Society, and Behavior, the first synthesis of applications of behavioral economics to the process of development. My forthcoming book, The Other Invisible Hand: How Culture Shapes Us and the Societies We Create, synthesizes natural experiments and lab experiments that quantify the impact of random events on culture and thereby on preferences and societal change. The concepts, categories, and narratives through which we process information and create common meanings are “the other invisible hand.” It may guide people to cooperate and achieve technological progress, or lead to dysfunctional behaviors such as non-cooperation, cheating, and discrimination. My work, which spans conceptual analysis and grassroots fieldwork, has been published in the American Economic Review, the Economic Journal, PNAS, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of International Economics, and many other journals. I co-edited two books—The Economics of Rura Organization and Poverty Traps. I earned a PhD in economics from Princeton University and was a National Merit Scholar. Since retiring from the World Bank, my main job has been to teach behavioral development economics at Columbia University.