Ph.D. in Law and Economics from University of Hamburg, Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Bologna (Erasmus Mundus Fellow); LL.M from Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Hamburg, University of Manchester (Erasmus Mundus Fellow); Bachelor of Technology from SV National Institute of Technology, Surat.
BIO
Yugank is Associate Professor – Public Policy at FLAME University. In 2009, he joined O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) as one of its founding faculty member, steering a range of institution building efforts, in particular its research infrastructure and international collaborations. Prior to JGU, he worked with a major private bank, consulting its rural infrastructure projects in eastern India.
He pursued his Master’s and PhD in law and economics, both as Erasmus Mundus Fellow from Europe. His doctoral thesis was titled, Essays in Informal Institutions. After his doctorate, he re-joined JGU, helping build its School of Liberal Arts & Humanities.
Yugank publishes in reputed journals, and also contributes to national dailies and other popular fora. His research interests include regulation, law and development, institutional economics, knowledge structure and psephology. He enjoys teaching interdisciplinary subjects, including institutions, futures studies and ethics. He is a visiting faculty in several institutions including IIMA and IIMK.
He sits on the board of the Indian School of Public Policy, which he helped establish. He routinely engages with the government on public policy issues. Yugank is however, most passionate about small towns and education in India. Recently, he cofounded a philanthropic, crowdfunded school in rural, western UP.
Yugank is also the founder of Centre for Knowledge Alternatives at FLAME University, which maps local data and cultures across India.
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS
Recent Journal Articles
- Informal land leasing in rural India persists because it is credible, Land Use Policy 120, 106299 (with P. Choudhury and R. Ghosh)
- Public Procurement during the Pandemic: Experience of India and China, Journal of Public Procurement. (2022).
- Why do Informal Markets remain Informal? Lessons from an Indian Footwear Cluster, Journal of Evolutionary Economics 31(2): 639-659 (2021) (with Klaus Heine)
- Oliver Williamson: the man who reduced transaction costs of economics, Economic and Political Weekly 55(28-29): 22-25 (2020) (with R. Ghosh)
- Telecom Woes in India: What does it tell us about regulation, Economic and Political Weekly 55(1): 16-21 (2020).
- Of Modernity, House Prices and Suspending Singularity of Time, Journal of Human Values 26(1): 1-14 (2020)
- Responsibilization through regulatory intermediary in informal markets – Examining the informal prostitution market in India, Regulation & Governance 14(1): 1-18 (2020)
- How governments promote monopolies: Public procurement in India, American Journal of Economics and Sociology Vol. 78(5): 1135-1169 (2019)
- The Desirability of one-nation, one-election in India, Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies 44(1-2): 110-120 (2019) (with A. Kaushik).
- The coal mine mafia of India: A mirror of corporate power, American Journal of Economics and Sociology 77(2): 541-574 (2018).
- Examining Electoral Data: An Inquiry into People’s Preferences of Communist Parties in West Bengal and Kerala, Economic and Political Weekly 53 (36): 38-46 (2018) (with A. Kaushik)
- Are Small Firms Willing to Pay for Improved Power Supply? Evidence from a Contingent Valuation Study in India, Energy Policy 109: 659-665 (2017) (with Ranjan Ghosh et. al.)
- Informal Institutions in the Regulatory State: the Case of Bureaucracy in India, Law and Development Review 10(1): 147-177 (2017)
- Institutional Costs of International Space Law, Journal of Space Law 41: 57-92 (2017) (with S.G. Sreejith)
Select Book Chapters
- Of entrepreneurs, knowledge commons and informal markets: the case of informal trade credit in India, in ‘Governing Market as Knowledge Commons,’ by Pavel Kuchar and Erwin Dekker (eds.) Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)
- Of footwear clusters, trade credit and institutional tenacity, in ‘Invisible Institutionalisms. Collective reflections on the shadows of legal globalization,’ by Sara Dezalay and Swethaa Balakrishnen (eds.) Hart Publishing (2021)
- Neighbourhood in Space-Time: A case of House Prices and Latent Aspirations, in ‘Neighbourhoods in Urban India’, by Sadan Jha, D.N. Pathak and A.K. Das (eds.) Bloomsbury (2020)
- The Enchantment of Urbanization: Closer look at market’s narrative in Indian cities, in ‘Investigating Developmentalism: Notions of Development in the Social Sphere,’ by D.N. Pathak and A.K. Das (eds.) Palgrave Macmillan (2019).
- The Informal Domestic Workers in India: A Descriptive Mapping of NSSO Data, in ‘Recognition of the Rights of Domestic Workers in India: Challenges and the Way Forward’, by U. Mahanta and I. Gupta (eds.) Springer (2018) (with Rakesh Kumar).
- The Phoenix of Interdisciplinarity in Higher Education, in ‘The Future of Indian Universities: Comparative and International Perspectives,’ by C. Raj Kumar et al (eds.) New Delhi: Oxford University Press (2017).
- A Short Note on Concept of Validity in Informal Markets, in ‘Legal Validity and Soft Law’, Jaap Hage et. al. (Eds.). Springer (2017) (with Pauline Westerman)
- Ethics and Governance in Climate Change Debate: Need for institutional shift from Nation-States to Individuals, in Hugh Breakey et al (ed.), Ethical Values and Integrity of the Climate Change Regime. Ashgate (2015)
Book Reviews
Select Newspaper Op-eds
Winds of change in urban India that demand close investigation, Live Mint, March 2022
Far too many small businesses in India stumble on loan eligibility, Live Mint, January 2022
What our Constituent Assembly Debates reveal of a vital process, Live Mint, November 2021
A policy to regulate coaching centres, Hindu, June 2019
Dear government, can we have some real liberalization, Deccan Herald, July 2018
Filmy Family Business, Indian Express, September 2017 (with
Hindus and Muslims: the True Picture of Divorce, Live Mint July 2017
Access to Excellence. the Hindu, June 2017
BJP in 2017 is a worthier winner than SP in 2012. Quartz, March, 2017.
The Algebra of UP Assembly Elections, Live Mint, March, 2017.
The Ivy League’s dark history shows it is not easy to reject charity that involves dirty money. Quartz, February 2017.
Enriched by the Outsider. Indian Express, February 2017
Govt., give me a tax bargain. DNA, December 2016
The air we breathe: if not now, then when? Live Mint, November 2016
Shadow Education, Indian Express, June 2016
Group Captive Plants can solve Industrial Units’ Power Woes, Deccan Herald, March 2016
The Algebra of Bihar Assembly, Live Mint, 16 November 2015
For Pleasure or For Profit: The Promises and Perils of Art Markets, the Caravan, August 2015.