Anand Murugesan
research, teaching & other updates here.
Associate Professor of Economics
Department of Public Policy, Central European University, Vienna
B-412, Quellenstraße 51, 1100 Vienna
Phone: +43.1.25230.2054
Senior Researcher
Vienna Center for Experimental Economics, University of Vienna
Office 5.332, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna
Affiliate Faculty: Democracy Institute and Social Mind Center
Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies Vienna (Insights Austria)
Here is a link to my CV
email: murugesana@ceu.edu
Twitter: @tapasiva
News
Demystifying causal inference (availabe on Amazon)
Research
Fields of Interest
| Development | Public Economics |
| Political Behavior | Experimental Economics |
Current projects
From Enlightenment to Cameralism: Compliance and Tax Morale as Imperial Legacy, with Michael Dorsch
Valuing Democracy, with Jean-Robert Tyran
- Why votes are (not) for sale? Evidence from an Institutional Discontinuity in Southern India, with J-R Tyran
- Fighting Cash-for-Votes: Information Interventions, with J-R Tyran
- Voters’ Dilemma, with Thiagu Ranganathan and J-R Tyran
Emotions in Politics: Experimental validation of surveys, with Jean-Robert Tyran
Holy Cow! Conflicts, Markets, and Social Costs of Intolerance, with Jitendra Singh
Give or Take: Experimental examination of bribery vs. extortion, with Robert Innes
Let them play games! Experimental methods to elicit social norms, with Mahendran Chokkalingam, Christophe Heintz and Mia Karabegovic
The sticky self and the icky other! Using coordination games to elicit self-image signals with C. Heintz and M. Karabegovic
Yes, in my backyard! An empirical study of citizen efforts for environmental restoration, with T. Centofanti
Book
Demystifying causal inference: Public Policy Applications with R (2023), with Vikram Dayal, Springer [Number of Accesses: >5000 since 1 October 2023]
Publications
“Leader and citizens participation for the environment: Experimental evidence from Eastern Europe,” with Tiziana Centofanti, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, October 2022 Replication files on Mendeley Data
“Drain on your health: Sanitation externalities from dirty drains in India,” with Vikram Dayal and Tauhidur Rahman, Review of Development Economics, November 2022 Replication files on Mendeley Data
“Air Pollution Trade-Offs in Developing Countries: An Empirical Model of Health Effects in Goa, India,” with Sanghamitra Das, Vikram Dayal and Uma Rajarathnam, Environment and Development Economics, June 2021 Replication files
“Electoral clientelism and vote buying,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 2020
“Use of Weather Information for Agricultural Decision Making,” with George Frisvold, Weather, Climate and Society, 5, January Issue, 55-69, 2013.
Working papers
“Markets For Children: International Adoptions, IVF, and U.S. Foster Care,” with Robert Innes (under review)
Paying cash for votes with Jean-Robert Tyran (forthcoming, Elgar Encyclopedia of Public Choice)
Other
Understanding our Political Nature: How to put knowledge and reason at the heart of political decision-making, author of the economics team report with Martina Barjaková and Michael Vlassopoulos, 2019 (the report was a foundation for the European Democracy Action Plan)
Recent and upcoming presentations/research visits
Workshop on “Uncovering the Historical Mechanisms of Persistence (18 - 19 January, 2024)
Econ CAKE talk, University of Utah (February 23, 2024)
Workshop on Experiments in Research and for Policymaking, EUBA Bratislava (March 21, 2024)
European Public Choice Society Meeting (April 2 - 5, 2024)
Azim Premji University, Bangalore (August 20, 2024)
Slovak Economic Association Meeting (SEAM 2024) (September 12 - 13, 2024)
CRADLE, Cornell University (Oct 3 - 5, 2024)
Sciences Po, Paris (Research visit, 10 October - 3 November, 2024)
Vienna Behavioral Circle, Wirtschaftsuniversität (15 November 2024)
Winter School 2024 (DSE and Econometric Society) (12 - 14 December)
BREW-ESA 2024 (15 - 17 December)
Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development 2024, New Delhi (19 - 21 December)
Links to recent collaborators
| Vikram Dayal | Michael Dorsch |
| Robert Innes | Jean-Robert Tyran |
Teaching
Central European University, Vienna
Winter 2025
Impact Evaluation: Policy Applications with R
Economic Analysis for Public Policy
Bio
PhD, University of Maryland, College Park
[Economics of Society: Essays on Health, Marriage, and Child Adoption]
MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
BCom, Bangalore University (St. Joseph’s College)
Born 1980, Bangalore, Indian citizenship
Various and sundry
Between December 2023 and February 2024, I was shuttling (actually, riding or pillion-riding a motorbike) across the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border (Palakkad-Pollachi), conducting fieldwork for the Valuing Democracy project. Some stills from the field:
Debriefing and training enumerators at the field office in Vengodi, Palakkad. Our go-to lunch place was Hotel Venkatesh Bhavan – uses a wood-fired stove for cooking and redolent of Malgudi Days.
We interviewed scores of politicians: here is one with Libin and a stopover for the famed Ramasseri idli with Sreenivasan Ji. Is it an idli or a dosa?
An impromptu discussion at a tea stall (with the stall owner, an insightful, white-bearded, old friend of Sreenivasan Ji’s father) and the trusted Honda that got us around.
An inspiring visit to the Khadi cottage industry next door (we bought handmade fabric for made-to-fit shirts by a local tailor) and taking in the moment with a view of the Silent Valley.
Here is my sketch (below) of a bestselling book my daughter recommended I read, and I recommend you do; it’s a short read.
And a dated picture of traditional seed sowing on my parents’ farm in Tamil Nadu, India (below, on the left) and me breaking traditions (on the right).
My brother worked on the effect of angular momentum or spin velocity in the formation of galaxies; more recently on examining the interactive effect of angular momentum and gravitation in the formation of celestial bodies. My brother lives in the part of the world where, in theory, water flowing down the drain is expected to spin in the opposite direction compared to the drains in parts I am in… ;)
Shoutout to places I love eating at:
- Dosa at SN Refreshments
- Filter coffee at a neighborhood A2B (Adyar Ananda Bhavan, a chain in south India).
- Pizza at Doma
- Gelato at Carapina (two doors down from Doma – an incredibly delightful corner)
- Phad krapow at Kamala Thai Imbiss
- Sacher torta at Hotel Sacher
And where I’d be happy to go back:
- Kwon and Kodawari Tsukiji, Paris
- Rasika, DC and Semma, NYC
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.” - Richard Feynman at Caltech, 1974
Photo credit: Me flying a kite (Sabya); Fieldwork in Palakkad (Sreenivasan ji, Libin or me)