Two investments stand out for their power to improve economic outcomes: higher education and stocks. In the absence public funding, though, both are seen as the preserve of the wealthy. As a result, higher education in particular is, in many countries, heavily subsidized with the explicit aim of promoting equality of opportunity. An important point, however, is that differences in learning ability, preparedness, and wealth are likely to affect individuals’ capacity to take advantage of investment opportunities and improve their economic well-being. This seminar will examine and present the effect of access to college and the stock market on individual earnings, wealth, and mobility. Does the power of college to increase well-being exceed that of stocks, as large subsidies to the former suggest?

This Development Seminar @ Brookings India featured Urvi Neelakantan, Senior Policy Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, U.S.A.

Speaker profile: Urvi Neelakantan is a Senior Policy Economist in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 2010, she was an Assistant Professor of Consumer Finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Urvi’s expertise is in the areas of consumer finance, labor and demographic economics, and macroeconomics. Urvi has published several academic articles in reputed journals, including the Journal of Population Economics and Economic Inquiry, and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Consumer Affairs. She received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pune in 1997, an M.A. in Economics from Delhi University in 1999, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2005.

About Development Seminars Series @ Brookings India

The Development Seminars Series @ Brookings India is a platform for global scholars to present their work to a curated audience of senior government officials, politicians, journalists, academics and policy enthusiasts. The format of the seminars includes a senior researcher as a lead presenter and a government/industry expert to discuss the results and relevance within the Indian context. The fundamental focus of the seminar series is to draw research-based insights to shape and influence policy dialogues in India, through purposeful and pointed discussions.

Previous Development Seminar Series Photographs

Previous Development Seminars

• Who Benefits from College and the Stock Market?
• Indian Migration to the United States
• The Real Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policy, By Viral Acharya
• Immigration and its Discontents
• America’s Economic Anxiety
• Using Technology to Strengthen Democracy
• The Online Education Revolution and India
• Environmental Challenges in India
• Corporate social responsibility in India: Law, implementation and evidence
• Pathways to Reducing Poverty and Sharing Prosperity in India
• Launch of paper ‘Building Smart Cities in India’
• D. Subbarao on leading the RBI through 5 turbulent years
• Disguised Corruption: Evidence from Consumer Credit in China
• Transporting India to the 2030s by Rakesh Mohan