This week Dustin speaks with Dr. Soumya Balasubramanya, senior economist at the World Bank based with its global environmental practice. Soumya is trained as a development economist and works on applied research projects at the intersection of environment, poverty and development across Asia and Africa. Before joining the Bank in 2022, Dr. Balasubramanya spent 10 years at the International Water Management Institute, a part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, rising to group leader in economics. Her work has demonstrated extraordinary range and rigour, in her own words focused on “advancing knowledge on understanding the fractal vulnerabilities faced by the poor”. We discuss this sweep of work in three major parts. We start with the spark for becoming a development economist and what it means to think like an economist in terms of evidence and connections to other fields. We continue by exploring why we know so little about key topics in water, agriculture and development. We discuss why it is important to learn from failure, taking a deep dive into India’s groundwater management and the uneven success of policy experiments with energy pricing reforms and solar irrigation. We conclude by discussing the insights for early career researchers seeking to work in development research and what it is like to work at large development organizations in this path.
Soumya's website: https://soumyabalasubramanya.com/
Further reading:
Balasubramanya, S., Buisson, M-C. 2022. Positive incentives for managing groundwater in the presence of informal water markets: perspectives from India. Environmental Research Letters, 17, 101001.
Balasubramanya, S., Brozovic, N., Fishman, R., Lele, S., Wang, Z. 2022. Managing irrigation under increasing water scarcity. Agricultural Economics, 53, 976-984.
Buisson, M-C., Balasubramanya, S., Stifel, D. 2021. Electric pumps, groundwater, agriculture and water buyers: evidence from West Bengal. Journal of Development Studies, 57, 1893-1911.
Balasubramanya, S., Stifel, D. 2020. Water, agriculture and poverty in an era of climate change: why do we know so little? Food Policy, 93.
Insight #15: Steven Alexander on qualitative data sharing
048: Indonesian science and the sociology of disaster risk reduction with Irina Rafliana
047: Split incentives, Rentlab and moving from government to the private sector with Jacqui Bauer
046: The sociology of science and interdisciplinarity with John Parker
045: Finding our niche and the importance of threshold concepts with Phil Loring
Insight #14: Fiona Nunan on institutional analysis
044: Policy processes and advocacy coalitions with Chris Weible
043: Team science in academia and resource management practice with Kenneth Wallen
042: Rethinking the monetary system for social and ecological equity with Joseph Ament
041: Antarctic marine conservation with Cassandra Brooks
040: Amplification processes and incorporating local knowledge in sustainability research with David Lam
Insight #13: Barry Ness on defining success in transdisciplinary research
039: Water, waste, Covid, and the invisibility of life support systems with Raul Pacheco-Vega
038: Case studies, polycentricity and governance of the Great Barrier Reef with Tiffany Morrison
037: Pracademics and patchiness with Jessica Cockburn
036: A social anthropological view on conservation and interdisciplinarity with Liana Chua
035: Bacteria, public goods, and Interdisciplinarity with Carey Nadell
034: Reflexivity and the digitalization of academia with Klara Winkler
033: Reflections on COVID19 from a sustainability science perspective with Henrik von Wehrden
032: Food systems, applied research, and open science with Meredith Niles
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Poetry of Science
Behavioral Grooves Podcast
Hidden Brain
Proxy with Yowei Shaw
The Science of Happiness