Colin Powell School
New Economics Chair Prabal De: Using Interdisciplinary Research to Address Social Problems in the Global South and the U.S.
As a high school student in Kolkata, India, Professor Prabal De took interest in the writings of the renowned Indian economist Amartya Sen. After completing his undergraduate studies in economics, he came to the U.S. and completed a Ph.D. in economics at NYU. Having grown up amidst the immense cultural diversity of India, he now considers himself an adopted New Yorker. As an economist, he has pursued a level of interdisciplinary research uncommon to the field, drawing links between poverty, inequality, mental health, education, and more both in Global South countries and among marginalized groups within the U.S. After a decade of teaching the principles of macroeconomics, his enthusiasm for explaining the major economics headlines of the day hasn’t waned in the slightest. Professor De looks forward to forging new institutional and community partnerships as the new chair of the Economics and Business Department at the Colin Powell School.
Please share something about your personal and professional background, and what brought you to CCNY and the Colin Powell School.
I grew up in Kolkata, a colonial, cosmopolitan city rich in diversity and cultural history. I briefly lived in New Delhi, India’s capital, while completing my master’s degree. Although my life in Delhi exposed me to the kaleidoscope of broader Indian culture and customs, where people speak dozens of languages, eat, dress, and socialize in many ways, I never felt at home there. I did feel at home in NYC immediately, though. I came here in 2002 to start my Ph.D. in Economics at NYU and never left. I live in the City with my wife and twin daughters, and consider myself an adopted New Yorker.
How did you decide to pursue a Ph.D. and discover a passion for your field?
I have been studying economics for a (perhaps embarrassingly) long time. I did my undergraduate at Presidency College, Calcutta, which has produced many prominent economists, including two Nobel laureates. Although I knew very little about economics in high school, I was influenced by some of the writings of one of them, Amartya Sen. I also understood at a rudimentary level that economics combines the rigor of hard science with the more fluid curiosity of disciplines like philosophy. During my graduate studies in Delhi, I interacted with a large swath of economics practitioners — academics, government policymakers, economists working in the private sector, and researchers in think tanks. I realized that I wanted to do independent research, exploring, in particular, the causes and consequences of poverty. I was fortunate to have a couple of mentors who advised me to apply to some of the top U.S. universities, and NYU made an offer with a generous fellowship.
Can you please briefly describe your scholarly work and findings? What’s most meaningful to your field — and to you — about your work?
I am a bit of a maverick when it comes to research. Modern economists are generally hyper-specialized. My work, on the other hand, is extremely interdisciplinary. My early work was in development economics, which examines economic issues like poverty, inequality, and lack of access to health and education in low-income countries of the world. But early in my career at CCNY, I realized that, unfortunately, some of these issues ail large parts of American society too. Fortuitously, a couple of collaborations happened with my colleagues at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) through a National Cancer Institute grant. We jointly examined the economic aspects of health inequality, particularly in cancer care. That work expanded into larger works on health inequality and discrimination. For example, some of my work shows how patients who feel discriminated against not only based on race/ethnicity but also gender, gender identity, and immigration status report lower physical and mental health outcomes.
Can you say a bit about what you like about CCNY and the Colin Powell School? Perhaps speak to your work with students.
I am very grateful to my department for supporting my interdisciplinary work, particularly in my early days as a junior scholar. And now, the Colin Powell School has assembled an amazing group of scholars that share many of my research interests, such as health justice and immigration. I am still an economist at my core, though. I have been teaching principles of macroeconomics for over ten years now and still get excited to explain headline items to my students — inflation, unemployment, GDP, the Federal Reserve. And my research is linked. If you study economics, you will learn great tools to analyze many societal problems in a rigorous, often evidence-based way. It is a unique discipline. For example, in a recent paper, my student and I showed how the Great Recession of 2008 increased mental health problems, and drinking.
Share something about your plans — regarding research, teaching, engagement — for the next couple of years?
I have just been elected as Chair of the Department of Economics and Business, for which I feel humbled and honored. I will devote a significant amount of my energy to the service of my students and colleagues. I do plan to continue my research and mentoring and complete the projects I am pursuing with my collaborators, particularly my former Ph.D. students. On the research front, I will continue to explore themes in health economics, such as links between education and health, the benefits of expanded access to insurance, and policies that promote economic and health equity. I just submitted two big federal grants jointly with my collaborator MSKCC. Keeping my fingers crossed.
What would you want to make sure everyone knows about what makes the Colin Powell School special?
I plan to focus on creating robust collaborations with an array of partners: academics, community, government, etc. It will involve a multi-pronged strategy. Some examples of such a strategy would involve overhauling our website to make it more informative, reaching out to high school counselors in our area to let them know about the fantastic things happening at CPS, and working with the CCNY media office to promote the innovative work of CPS among the wider public. Through different collaborations, we can ensure that a wide range of stakeholders appreciate CPS's uniqueness.