Thiagu Ranganathan

Professor

Email:thiagu@cds.edu, thiagu@cds.ac.in, thiagu.ranganathan@gmail.com

Areas of specialisation: Agriculture and Plantation Crops, Employment and Social Security

Education:

PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay)

MBA from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore)

BE from Mumbai University

Employment:

Professor at Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram – June 2024 to Present

Associate Professor at, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram – October 2019 to June 2024

Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Management Nagpur (IIM Nagpur)

Assistant Professor at Institute for Economic Growth (IEG, New Delhi)

Research Projects:

Completed Projects

  • Climatic Stress, Structural Change and Farm and Non-farm Enterprise Uptake by Farmers in India and Bangladesh (funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)). Other Investigators: Dr. Ram Ranjan, Macquarie University, Dr. Asif Reza Anik, BSMRAU and Dr. Brajesh Jha, IEG
  • Knowledge, Perception, and Usage of Pesticides: Study among Cotton Farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra (funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). Other Investigators: Dr. Sarthak Gaurav, IIT Bombay and Dr. T V Venkateswaran, Department of Science and Technology (DST))
  • Farmers’ Income in India: A Summary of Evidence from Secondary Data (funded by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture)

Ongoing Projects:

  • A Comparative Assessment of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Community Action using Norms (funded by ICIMOD, Nepal). Other Investigator: Dr. S Krithi, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad – December, 2020 to December 2022
  • Co-Project Director (PD) in the project Flexible work arrangements and gendered outcomes: Impact of COVID-19 in India. Project Director: Dr. Avina Mendonca, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur (IIM Nagpur) – March, 2021 to December 2021

Publications:

Books

Gaurav, S., & Ranganathan, T. (2023). Accidental Gamblers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Chapters in Books

  • Ranganathan, T. (2021). Risk and Risk Management in Agriculture. In Chakraborty et al. Eds. (2021) Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Development: The Case of India. Routledge Publications.

 Journal Articles

  • Mendonca, A., Redkar, A., & Ranganathan, T. (2023). Negotiating working motherhood and doing work from home at the intersection of class, gender and crisis in India. Women’s Studies International Forum, 99, p. 102793.
  • Ranganathan, T., & Mendonca, A. (2023). Does being educated more than the Spouse give Women Higher Autonomy? Findings from India. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 66(3), 833-853.
  • Joshi, K., & Ranganathan, T. (2023). Higher-order risk preferences and livelihood choices of farmers from West Bengal, India. Journal of Social and Economic Development. 
  • Joshi, K., Ranganathan, T., & Ranjan, R. (2021). Exploring Higher Order Risk Preferences of Farmers in a Water-Scarce Region: Evidence from a Field Experiment in West Bengal, India. Journal of Quantitative Economics, 1-28.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Gaurav, S. (2019). The Curious Case of Cocktails, Weedicides, and Tonics: Pest Management Practices of Cotton Farmers in Vidarbha. Economic and Political Weekly. 54(44), pp. 1-16.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Pandey, G. (2018). Who Leaves Farmland Fallow and Why? An Empirical Investigation using Nationally Representative Survey Data in India. European Journal of Development Research. 30(5), pp. 914-33.
  • Ranganathan, T., Ranjan, R. and Pradhan, D. (2018). Water Scarcity and Livelihoods in Bihar and West Bengal, India. Oxford Development Studies. 46(4), pp. 497-518.
  • Ranganathan, T., Gaurav, S. and Singh, A. (2018). Anomaly in Decision Making Under Risk: Violation of Stochastic Dominance among Farmers in Gujarat, India. IIMB Management Review. 30(3), pp. 258-69.
  • Ranganathan, T., Gaurav, S. and Halder, I.I. (2018). Patterns of Pesticide Usage by Cotton Farmers in India: Changes over a Decade. Economic and Political Weekly. 53(19), pp. 43-51.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Pandey, G. (2017). Tenancy and Fallow Land. World Development Perspectives. 7-8: 28-31.
  • Ranganathan, T. (2017). Antibiotic Treatments for Short-Term Morbidity in India. Economic and Political Weekly. 52(47), pp. 77-80.
  • Ranganathan, T., Tripathi, A. and Pandey, G. (2017). Income Mobility among Social Groups in Indian Rural Households. Economic and Political Weekly. 52(41), pp. 73-76.
  • Ranganathan T. and Ananthakumar, U. (2017). Hedging in Presence of Crop Yield, Crop Revenue, and Rainfall Insurance. Journal of Quantitative Economics. 15(1), pp.151-71.
  • Ranganathan, T., Rao, N.C. and Pandey, G. (2017). Pilot Project to Ascertain the Use of Diesel for Irrigation. Agricultural Situation in India. 74(3), pp. 42-44.
  • Ranganathan, T., Gaurav, S. and Singh, A. (2016). Demand for Price Insurance among Farmers in India: A Choice Experiment-Based Approach. Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research. 10(2), pp.198-224.
  • Ranganathan, T. (2015). Farmers’ Income in India: Evidence from Secondary Data. Agricultural Situation in India. 72(3), pp. 30-70.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Ananthakumar, U. (2014). Market Efficiency in Indian Soybean Futures Markets. International Journal of Emerging Markets. 9(4), pp.520-34.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Ananthakumar, U. (2014). Does Hedging in Indian Futures Market benefit Farmers? Studies in Economics and Finance. 31(3), pp.291-308.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Gaurav, S. (2013). An Inquiry into the Composition of Farm Revenue Risk: The Case of Six Western Vidarbha Districts. Economic and Political Weekly. 48(26:27), pp. 125-28.
  • Shivaani, M, V., and Ranganathan, T. (2019). Facilitation and whistle-blower protection by Indian Firms. Economic and Political Weekly. 54(15), pp.15-17.
  • Shivaani, M, V., and Ranganathan, T. (2018). The Words that made Budget Speeches in the last 5 years. Economic and Political Weekly. 53(9), pp. 1-6.
  • Anik, A.R., Ranjan, R., and Ranganathan, T. (2018). Estimating the Impact of Salinity Stress on Livelihood Choices and Incomes in Rural Bangladesh. Journal of International Development. 30(8), pp. 1414-38.
  • Pandey, G. and Ranganathan, T. (2018). Changing Land-use Pattern in India: Has there been an expansion of Fallow Lands? Agricultural Economics Research Review. 31(1), pp. 113

Other Publications

  • Chatterjee, T. and Ranganathan, T. (2020). Didreservationin Higher Educationchange the prospects for OBCs in getting better jobs?A Study using Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in India. CDS Working Paper 500.
  • Ranganathan, T. and Mendonca, A. (2020). Relative Educational Status and Women’s Autonomy: Evidence from India. CDS Working Paper 494.
  • Ranganathan, T., Mishra, A.K., and Kumar, A. (2019). Crop Insurance and Food Security: Evidence from Rice Farmers in Eastern India. Invited Paper prepared for presentation at the 2019 annual meeting of the Allied Social Sciences Association, Atlanta, GA, January 4-6, 2019.
  • Ranganathan, T. (2020). “The Invisible Hand”–A proposition or a Superstition?. Commentary on India’s Economy and Society Series, 12.
  • Ranganathan, T. (2020). “Measurement without a “Gini” – Is it time to put the Gini back to the bottle?, Commentary on India’s Economy and Society Series, 14.
  • Ranganathan, T. (2021). Growth, Inequality and some “Curious” Correlations, Commentary on India’s Economy and Society Series, 19.

Current Research

  • Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Impact Evaluation

Current Teaching

  • Agricultural Economics, Behavioral Economics, Game Theory, History of Economic Thought.