Regional Political Economy

“Region” is one methodological pathway to economic structure. If we see economies as particular constellations of classes, institutions, and relations of production, then regions give us particular ways to conceptualise how those elements fit together and to what effect. Multiple conceptions of space/region are of course possible and this research cluster currently follows three lines of enquiry – (1) Primate cities and their hinterlands or core periphery relations within India; (2) Mapping key commodity national supply chains using GST data; (3) Mapping credit system relations in their hierarchy.

Within this research cluster, we also ask how formal banks in cities and rural moneylenders are connected, for instance? How do credit conditions in different regional systems affect other regions? Do some regions set credit conditions for others? This research cluster is also interested in questions of federalism, public goods and public sphere and also hosts labour and economic historians among others who add to the interdisciplinary knowledge base of the research cluster.