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Anirudh Krishna, Edgar T. Thompson Distinguished Professor of Public Policy  

Office Location: 212 Sanford Inst Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone: +1 919 613 7337
Duke Box: 90245
Email Address: ak30@duke.edu
Web Page: https://sites.sanford.duke.edu/krishna/

Areas of Expertise

  • International
    • Democracy
    • International Development
    • Poverty
  • Social Policy, Economic Inequality and Poverty

Education:
Ph.D., Cornell University, 2000
M.P.S., Cornell University, 1995
M.A., Delhi School of Economics (India), 1980
B.A., University of Delhi (India), 1978

Research Categories: Poverty and Democracy in Developing Countries

Current projects: Beyond Poverty: Prospects for Social Mobility, Connecting Democracy with the People: Institutions in the Middle, Internal Migration: How do People Move from Rural Areas to Cities, and What do they Experience?

Teaching (Spring 2024):

  • Pubpol 590s.03, Adv top in public policy Synopsis
    Sanford 102, Tu 03:20 PM-05:50 PM

Office Hours:
By appointment

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Krishna, A; Bonu, S. "Uneven Gains and Bottom-50 Districts: Intergenerational Educational Mobility in India." Economic and Political Weekly 58.42 (October, 2023): 34-45.  [abs]
  2. Krishna, A; Kumar, S; Rains, E. "A Range of Informality Across Cities and Slums: Understanding Precarity in Patna’s Slums Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Journal of South Asian Development 18.2 (August, 2023): 244-264. [doi]  [abs]
  3. Krishna, A; Kumar, S. "Why Do Poorer Kids Not Move Ahead Faster? Considering the Poverty of Opportunity in Bihar and Delhi." Economic and Political Weekly 58.19 (May, 2023): 35-40.  [abs]
  4. Krishna, A; Shukla, R. "Tracing the Geographies of Inequality in India Beneath the Urban–Rural Divide." Economic and Political Weekly 58.9 (March, 2023): 57-64.  [abs]
  5. Krishna, A; Agrawal, T. "The impact of Covid-19 on household poverty: examining impacts and resilience in a 40-year timeframe in rural Rajasthan (India)." Oxford Development Studies 51.3 (January, 2023): 217-232. [doi]  [abs]

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:

ANIRUDH KRISHNA is the Edgar T. Thompson Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University. His research investigates how poor communities and individuals in developing countries cope with the structural and personal constraints that result in poverty and powerlessness. His most recent book, The Broken Ladder: The Paradox and the Potential of India’s One-Billion (Cambridge University Press and Penguin Random House India), won the A. K. Coomaraswamy Award of the Association for Asian Studies. Krishna has authored or co-authored seven other books, including One Illness Away: Why People Become Poor and How they Escape Poverty, and more than eighty journal articles and book chapters. In 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Uppsala University, Sweden. Before returning to academia, Krishna spent 14 years managing diverse rural and urban development initiatives for the government of India. He has advised the World Bank, the United Nations, national governments, and non-government organizations. His recent research on talent ladders is described in this TEDx talk.

Bio/Profile
Anirudh Krishna is a professor of public policy and political science at Duke University. His research investigates how poor communities and individuals in developing countries cope with the structural and personal constraints that result in poverty and powerlessness. His most recent book, One Illness Away: Why People Become Poor and How they Escape Poverty (Oxford University Press, 2010), examines poverty dynamics at the household level, tracking movements into and out of poverty of over 35,000 households in 400 communities of India, Kenya, Uganda, Peru and North Carolina, USA.

Krishna has published more than 40 journal articles and book chapters. Other books include Poverty, Participation and Democracy: A Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2008); Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2002); Changing Policy and Practice From Below: Community Experiences in Poverty Reduction (United Nations Press, 2000); Reasons for Success: Learning From Instructive Experiences in Rural Development (Kumarian Press, 1998), and Reasons for Hope: Instructive Experiences in Rural Development (Kumarian Press, 1997).

Before turning to academia, Krishna worked for 14 years in the Indian Administrative Service, where he managed diverse initiatives related to rural and urban development. He earned a Ph.D. in government from Cornell University (2000) and a master's in economics from the Delhi  School of Economics (1980).

Anirudh Krishna