I grew up in Dhaka – raised in that loud, sprawling megacity that is one of the most densely populated in the world. Dhaka, also means hidden, in Bengali. A little bit of a surprise city, terrible traffic notwithstanding. And that double meaning feels exactly right. A hidden economist, I shall be.
As for me, I have had a few big changes in life – moved, got a job, and am a parent. These days, I no longer spend my time in a classroom, but working with data to help a university understand itself. It’s applied economics and analysis in its own way. Answering questions about what decisions the institution can make, and how well it might work, and for whom.
Dhaka is still home, though I have been away for almost 20 years, and New England is where I live now. I arrived in the most Boston of ways, here for grad school, arriving in the middle of a snowstorm, 15 inches of snow on the ground and the T barely working. Dragging a suitcase through snow to find an apartment that involved walking up three flights of stairs. Grad school was interesting – made it most of the way, but it was not meant to be. Life intervened. And suddenly I was at a job that paid, had a growing family, and different priorities.
What you’ll find here is economics applied to things that catch my eye: how markets work (and when they don’t), why prices are the way they are, what the data is saying when the headlines aren’t. If I write about higher ed, it’s because that is what I think about every day. I try to write the way a good economist thinks – carefully, with evidence, and explaining what the simplified models are leaving out. I also try to write what a good reader wants to read – something new and surprising, sprinkled with some humor.
Beyond economics, I read widely and think about philosophy, technology, and physics more than is probably practical. Good writing is a form of thinking – not just the recording of thoughts, and sometimes this involves me writing things out in my head because I have a toddler in my arms and can’t reach for a device. Yes, my daughter, the Toddler Economist, who as yet has no formal training but very strong opinions about allocation of berries and labor (mine).
I started this site nearly a decade ago to be a place where I think out loud. Using the lens of economics. And some affectionate snark and snide.
Leave a comment or shoot me an email at: admin@dhakaeconomist.com