Sir Partha Sarathi Dasgupta (born 17 November 1942) is an Indian-British economist who is Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, United Kingdom, and a fellow of

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

Personal life

He was born into a

Baidya Baidya or Vaidya is a Bengali Hindu community located in the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent. A caste (''jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, the Baidyas have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the coloni ...

Brahmin family in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, and raised mainly in

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

, India, and is the son of the noted economist Amiya Kumar Dasgupta. He is married to Carol Dasgupta, who is a

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

. They have three children, Zubeida (who is an educational psychologist), Shamik (a professor of philosophy), and Aisha (who is a demographer and works on the practice of family planning and reproductive health). His father-in-law was the Nobel Laureate

James Meade James Edward Meade FBA (23 June 1907 – 22 December 1995) was a British economist who made major contributions to the theory of international trade and welfare economics. Along with Richard Kahn, James Meade helped develop the concept of ...

Education

Dasgupta was educated in Rajghat Besant School in Varanasi, India, obtaining his Matriculation Degree in 1958, and pursued undergraduate studies in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Hans Raj College Hansraj College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, in Delhi, India. Established in 1948 and situated in the Delhi University North Campus, it is considered as one of the best colleges in India having produced a large and not ...

, University of Delhi, India, graduating in 1962 and in Mathematics at Cambridge (Trinity College), graduating in 1965. He was elected a member of the Apostles, a well-known discussion society at the university. He obtained a PhD in economics at Cambridge in 1968 with thesis titled ''Population, growth and non-transferable capital (investigations in the theory of optimum economic growth)''. His PhD supervisor was Sir James Mirrlees, also a member of the Apostles.

Career

Research

His research interests have covered welfare and

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

economics; the economics of technological change; population, environmental, and resource economics;

social capital Social capital is a concept used in sociology and economics to define networks of relationships which are productive towards advancing the goals of individuals and groups. It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interper ...

; the theory of games;

ecological economics Ecological economics, bioeconomics, ecolonomy, eco-economics, or ecol-econ is both a transdisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field of academic research addressing the interdependence and coevolution of human economy, economies and natural ec ...

, and the economics of

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...

. His work has been mainly applied-theoretical, but often highly mathematical, and many of his publications have been collaborative, among his co-authors being

Kenneth Arrow Kenneth Joseph Arrow (August 23, 1921 – February 21, 2017) was an American economist, mathematician and political theorist. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1957, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972, along with ...

, Scott Barrett, Ken Binmore, Aisha Dasgupta, Paul David, Paul Ehrlich, Lawrence Goulder,

Sanjeev Goyal Sanjeev Goyal FBA is an Indian-British economist, best known for his pioneering research on networks. He is currently Arthur C. Pigou Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He rece ...

, Peter Hammond, Geoffrey Heal, Simon Levin, Stephen Marglin,

Eric Maskin Eric Stark Maskin (born December 12, 1950) is an American economist and mathematician. He was jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson "for having laid the foundations of mechanism d ...

Peter Raven Peter Hamilton Raven (born June 13, 1936) is an American botanist and environmentalist, notable as the longtime director, now President Emeritus, of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Early life On June 13, 1936, Raven was born in Shanghai, China, ...

, Debraj Ray,

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions ...

, and

Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2 ...

. Dasgupta had a long-standing collaboration with the late Karl-Goran Maler, with whom he developed the concept of 'inclusive wealth' as a measure of human well-being and helped to establish (with a grant from the McArthur Foundation, channelled through the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm) the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), based in Kathmandu, which since 1999 has conducted annual teaching and research workshops on ecological economics for young economists based in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Simultaneously, Dasgupta and Maler helped to launch the journal Environmental and Development Economics (Cambridge University Press) so as to enable economists in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to publish original research in a western journal. Although Dasgupta has worked on research problems in a number of fields, his long-standing interest has been ecological economics, beginning with his Ph.D. thesis in which he placed he problem of optimum population and saving in a model of economic possibilities in which the biosphere set limits on economic growth. His 1982 monograph, 'The Control of Resources', set an agenda for future research at the nexus of population, consumption, and the natural environment, which he has pursued step by step in a series of journal articles and books. In 2019 he led production of a report on the economics of biodiversity, commissioned by the UK government, and published in February 2021 with the title 'The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review'. An important objective was to develop a new measure to account for the capital inherent in the natural world (economist today call that '

natural capital Natural capital is the world's stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms. Some natural capital assets provide people with free goods and services, often called ecosystem services. All of t ...

') that could be used as an ingredient in, among other things, the evaluation of investment projects and assessment of the sustainability of economic programmes. However, as Dasgupta writes in the Preface, the Review is an investigation into a larger concern, in that it reconstructs contemporary growth and development economics and the economics of poverty by recognising that the human economy is embedded in Nature, it is not external to Nature. The Review explores the far reaching implications of the altered perspective.

Appointments

Dasgupta taught at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(Lecturer 1971–1975; Reader 1975–1978; Professor of Economics 1978–1984) and moved to the

in January 1985 as Professor of Economics (and Professorial Fellow of St John's College), where he served as Chair of the Faculty of Economics between 1997 and 2001. From 1989 until 1992 he was on leave from the University of Cambridge and served as Professor of Economics, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Program in Ethics in Society at Stanford University, USA. In October 1991 he returned to Cambridge, on leave from Stanford University, to re-assume his chair at Cambridge. He resigned from Stanford in 1992 and has remained in Cambridge since then. In 1994 his chair was named by the University of Cambridge the Frank Ramsey Professorship of Economics.

Academic activities

During 1991–97 Dasgupta was Chairman of the (Scientific Advisory) Board of the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

, Stockholm. During 1999–2009 he served as a Founder Member of the Management and Advisory Committee of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), based in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

. In 1996 he helped to establish the journal Environment and Development Economic

published by Cambridge University Press, whose purpose has been not only to publish original research at the interface of poverty and the environmental-resource base, but also to provide an opportunity to scholars in poor countries to publish their findings in an international journal. During 2008-2013 he was a Professorial Research Fellow at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

's Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI). He was also an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large from 2007 until 2013 at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and from 2010 until 2011 President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE). He has been a patron of the population concern charity

Population Matters Population Matters, formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust, is a UK-based charity that works at the intersection of population, environmental sustainability, and human rights, including women's empowerment and leadership, sexual and repr ...

(formerly the Optimum Population Trust) since 2008. During 2011-2014 he was Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the

International Human Dimensions Programme The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) was a research programme that studied the human and societal aspects of the phenomenon of global change. IHDP aimed to frame, develop and integrate social science ...

(IHDP) on Global Environmental Change, Bonn. He served as Chair of the Central Government Expert Group on Green National Accounting for India which submitted its report in 2013. He is Chairman of the Management Committee of the

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is a research centre at the University of Cambridge, intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present or future technology. The co-founders of the centre are Huw Price (B ...

at the

Honours

Dasgupta has been honoured by elections as: Fellow of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools in the practice of econometrics. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians o ...

(1975); Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

(1989); Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(2004); Fellow of the

Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory The Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory abbreviated as SAET is a non-profit membership society founded to "advance knowledge in theoretical economics and to facilitate communication among researchers in economics, mathematics, game theor ...

, 2013; Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economics, 2017; Fellow of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics, 2019; Fellow of the Society for Cost-Benefit Analysis; Member of the

Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (, or PASS) is a pontifical academy established on 1 January 1994 by Pope John Paul II and is headquartered in the Casina Pio IV in Vatican City. It operates much like other learned societies worldwid ...

(1997); Fellow of

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a North–south research partnerships, merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 1 ...

(formally the Academy of Science for the Developing World), 2001; Member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

(2009); Foreign Member of the

(1991); Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

(1991); Foreign Associate of the

US National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

(2001); Foreign Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

(2005); Foreign Member of Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (2009); Honorary Fellow of the

(1994); Honorary Fellow of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

(2010); Honorary Member of the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

(1997); Distinguished Fellow, CES,

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, 2011; and President of the

Royal Economic Society The Royal Economic Society (RES) is a professional association and learned society that promotes the study of economics. Originally established in 1890 as the British Economic Association, it was incorporated by royal charter on 2 December 1902. ...

(1998–2001), the

European Economic Association The European Economic Association (EEA) is a learned society, professional academic body which links European economists. It was founded in the mid-1980s. Its first annual congress was in 1986 in Vienna and its first president was Jacques Drèze. ...

(1999), Section F (Economics) of the BA (

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...

) Festival of Science (2006), and the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2010–2011). Dasgupta was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

2002 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in sup ...

for services to economics. He was appointed

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(GBE) in the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to economics and the natural environment. Two collections of essays have been published in his honour: "Environment & Development Economics: Essays in Honour of Sir Partha Dasgupta," edited by S. Barrett, K.-G. Maler, and E.S. Maskin (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2014. "Sustainable Consumption: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives in Honour of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta," edited by D. Southerton and A. Ulph (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2014.

Prizes and awards

Dasgupta was co-recipient (with Karl-Göran Mäler) of the 2002

Volvo Environment Prize The Volvo Environment Prize is a highly regarded annual scientific award. The prize is awarded to individuals who "''explore the way to a sustainable world''." The prize is awarded by the Volvo Environment Prize Foundation which was instituted in ...

; and (also with Mäler) of the 2004 Boulding Award of the

International Society for Ecological Economics International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

;, co-recipient (with Geoffrey Heal) of the

Association of Environmental and Resource Economists The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) was founded in 1979 in the United States as a means of exchanging ideas, stimulating research, and promoting graduate training in environmental and natural resource economics. The major ...

' "Publication of Enduring Quality Award 2003" for their book, Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources; recipient of the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, 2007, of the

American Agricultural Economics Association The Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is a professional association of people working in agricultural and applied economics. History In 1910, the American Farm Management Association was founded at Iowa State University ...

; recipient of the Zayed International Environment Prize (II: scientific and technological achievements) in 2011; and recipient of the European Lifetime Achievement Award (in Environmental and Resource Economics) from the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2014. In 2007, together with

he was awarded the Erik Kempe Award in Environmental and Resource Economics, a joint prize of the Kempe Foundation and the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE). He was awarded the 2015

Blue Planet Prize The Blue Planet Prize recognises outstanding efforts in scientific research or applications of science that contribute to solving global environmental problems. The prize was created by the Asahi Glass Foundation in 1992, the year of the Rio Ear ...

for Environmental Research, the 2016 Tyler Prize, and the Kew International Medal, 2021 of the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew. In 2022 he was honoured by Freedom of the City of London by Special Invitation. The same year he was awarded the

Champions of the Earth The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established Champions of the Earth in 2005 as an annual awards programme to recognize outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors and from civil society. Award details T ...

award for Science and Innovation by the

UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

. For 2023 he was awarded the

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...

in the category "Economics, Finance and Management".BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2023
/ref> Dasgupta was awarded a Doctorate (Honoris Causa) by

Wageningen University Wageningen University & Research (also known as WUR) is a public university, public research university in Wageningen, Netherlands, specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. It is a globally i ...

, 2000;

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, 2007; Faculte Université Saint-Louis, 2009;

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

, 2010;

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a Catholic research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg, Netherlands. Tilburg has a student population of about 19,1 ...

, 2012; Harvard University, 2013; University of York, 2017.

Selected publications

* ''Guidelines for Project Evaluation'' (with S. A. Marglin and A. K. Sen), United Nations, 1972. * ''Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources'' (with G. M. Heal), Cambridge University Press, 1979. * "Utilitarianism, information and rights" in
''The Control of Resources''

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

, 1982. * ''An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution''. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993.
Pub. description
* ''Social Capital: A Multifaceted Perspective'' (co-editor with Ismail Serageldin). Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2000. *
book preview
except pp. 217–401, 403–25) * ''Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, Rev. ed. 2004. * ''Economics: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
OUP Website
* ''Selected Papers of Partha Dasgupta: Vol.1, Institutions, Innovations, and Human Values; Vol. 2, Poverty, Population, and Natural Resources''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

References

External links

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 6 April 2010 (video)
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasgupta, Partha 1942 births Living people Indian knights 20th-century Bengalis Bengali knights Academics of the University of Manchester Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge British economists 20th-century Indian economists Indian development economists Environmental economists Members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society Delhi University alumni Knights Bachelor Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics 21st-century Indian economists Scholars from Varanasi TWAS fellows Members of the American Philosophical Society Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Indian emigrants to England