Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan Returns to Booth

Welcome back to Chicago, Raghuram Rajan. Following a three year stint as India’s top central banker, he returned to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance.

Rajan first joined Chicago Booth in 1991, but left his post when he was selected as governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to September 2016. He served as the chief economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2006.

Chicago Booth recently sat down with Rajan to discuss his return. A few excerpts can be found below.

How does it feel to be back in Chicago?

“This has been my home for 25 years. It’s a great city. I have great colleagues. And it’s a wonderful school. It’s different every time you come back. If it wasn’t different, it wouldn’t be doing its job.”

What will be the focus of your research now that you’re back in academia?

“I’m interested in a number of issues that I was interested in before I left, but of course you are influenced by the real world. And what we see out there is a strengthening of populist movements around the world. You see some concerns about the market. Is the free market really what we want to have as a society?

In an era of widespread democracy you cannot have a system which works only for some, and not for others. The markets need political support. We need to further that debate. And Chicago has always played an important role in that debate. We need a better solution, and that is part of what I hope to think about.”

How have your experiences as governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of India and as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund affected your approach to teaching Chicago Booth’s International Corporate Finance course this winter?

“I am teaching a course I taught before. I always made it a point to change two or three cases every year, so at the end of five years, the course would be quite different. That’s true this year also.

The course is on international corporate finance, but there’s a fair amount of thinking about the political environment, about the strategic/political decision making, when you’re making large investments in emerging markets, in countries around the world. I hope it introduces the nuances in other countries to our students. Clearly we can’t go to every country in the world and see what’s different. But what I do want them to understand is not every country works like the United States. Many of them have international experience and know that, and my job really is to bring their collective wisdom into the classroom through cases, so that we can understand how we should approach some of these issues in a country we’ve never been to.”

Click here to read the complete interview with Booth.

regions: Chicago

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