Sharan, International Economic Policy

Coming from India, Sharan Banerjee has graduated in International Economic Policy. He is PhD Candidate in Applied Economics at Cornell University in Ithaca, USA.

>Why did you choose to pursue a PhD? 

I’ve always wanted to get as far as I could with economics considering I’ve been drawn to the subject for a long time since my high school days. The quest to become an economist and a researcher around economics motivated me to take the logical next step from a masters into a PhD in order to dip my feet into core research questions around economics.

How did you select your PhD? 

For my PhD, I largely focused on funding + scope for interdisciplinary research in the different departments when I was applying. I did apply to  few schools which were ranging from core economics PhD programs, to government and applied economics PhD programs as well which would allow me to combine the rigour of research around economics with the added benefit of interdisciplinarity in my research.

What is the most fascinating and/or surprising aspect at working in research?

As a student working on international finance and firms, the past 2 years have been absolutely fascinating in translating my research not just into potential implications for a post-COVID economy, but also drawing a lot of inspiration from a lot of the dynamic movements in the global economy and society, and how that could help me identify and answer important questions, especially around emerging markets which have been grappling with so many issues around the economy since 2020.

How did your PSIA experience help you? 

My PSIA experience helped me in a few ways. It allowed me to root my research trying to ask questions which might be important to wider and fundamental problems facing society. A lot of my research ideas come from my PSIA coursework and my interactions with people at PSIA. The community here allowed me to think very critically outside of my areas of interest for 2 years, and a lot of the thoughts I had back then (not just while doing my readings but also at the cafés at RSG with the wonderful people I met there) still come back to me when I think through my potential research. The coursework allowed me to think of questions from a more practical and policy perspective, and also from a non-economist and pluralist perspective. I joined PSIA in order to ground my training in economics by combining my existing pedagogy with international affairs and politics, and that has translated into so many of my research discussions and ideas post PSIA at Cornell.

What advice would you give to others? 

My advice to people at PSIA would be to think through your choices in tailoring your coursework keeping larger themes in mind. I always tried to tailor my coursework to themes each semester in terms of what sort of courses I wanted to study. Even though I always had one eye on post-PSIA life when I was picking my courses, the vast array of courses at PSIA always require some level of mental disciplining in terms of what one wants in terms of skills and expertise from their two years at PSIA. Additionally, being able to make yourself friendly with data and visualisation techniques in the modern day job-market will always be an added bonus. The idea of picking courses should not be based on whether they offer the deepest and most rigorous research opportunities but what concepts they might introduce you to and how you could potentially use those concepts to your benefits beyond the horizon of a 10-12 week semester.

• About the Master in International Economic Policy