Independent Judiciary and Rent Seeking: Evidence from the Ninth Schedule of the Indian Constitution

CASI Seminar
Shruti Rajagopalan
Assistant Professor of Economics, State University of New York, Purchase College
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

About the Speaker:
Shruti Rajagopalan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at State University of New York, Purchase College. She earned her Ph.D. in economics in 2013 from George Mason University and was most recently a Bradley Visiting Researcher in the Department of Economics at New York University. 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. Shruti is currently working on the economic analysis of amendments to the Indian Constitution. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, law reviews, and books. She also enjoys writing in the popular press and has published opinion editorials on Indian political economy in The Wall Street Journal, Mint, The Hindu: Business Line, and The Indian Express.

About the Lecture:
In this lecture, Shruti will provide a general framework to analyze the role of an independent judiciary in rent seeking. Using evidence from Indian legislative and constitutional history, and the legislation in the Ninth Schedule, she will show that it is not the independence of the judiciary in isolation, but the constellation of constitutional rules enforced by an independent judiciary, that determines the amount and durability of rents and wealth transfers at the constitutional level. This discussion relates to the broader theme of constitutional maintenance in India.

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The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.