Big challenges in society require big investments. However, quite often the institutions we rely on to fund these big solutions work slowly and cautiously and, as we’ve seen through the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of moving slowly can sometimes be deadly. What if there’s a better way?
Our guest on the podcast, Dr. Shruti Rajagopalan, joins us to share what happens when you take away the red tape and make high risk, high reward investments in change. Through a project called Emergent Ventures at the Mercatus Center, Shruti and others have been able to get world changing ideas off the ground in India and right here at home. She’ll talk about the importance of failure in the process of discovery and how placing bets on promising individuals has brought about life-saving solutions in crises like COVID-19.
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Show Notes:
- Public Choice Economics
- Socialist Calculation Debate
- Emergent Ventures
- Fast Grants
- What We Learned During Fast Grants – Patrick Collison, Tyler Cowen, Patrick Hsu
- Ideas of India Podcast
- You can follow Shruti on her website and on twitter.
About our guest:
Dr. Shruti Rajagopalan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a Fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU School of Law. Before joining the Mercatus Center she was an Associate Professor of Economics at State University of New York, Purchase College.
She earned her Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. She has a BA (Hons) Economics and LL.B. from University of Delhi; and an LL.M. from the European Masters in Law and Economics Program at University of Hamburg, Ghent University, and University of Bologna.
Shruti’s broad area of interest is the economic analysis of comparative legal and political systems. Her research interests specifically include law and economics, public choice theory, and constitutional economics. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, law reviews, and books. She is also the host of the Ideas of India podcast.
She also enjoys writing in the popular press and has a fortnightly column called The Impartial Spectator in Mint. She has also published opinion editorials on Indian political economy in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Real Clear Politics, Mint, The Hindu: Business Line, and The Indian Express.