15 Facts About Sanjaya Lall

Sanjaya Lall was a development economist and Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford.

One of the world's pre-eminent development economists, Sanjaya Lall was one of the founding editors of the journal Oxford Development Studies and a senior economist at the World Bank.

Sanjaya Lall was born in Patna, Bihar, India, and graduated from Patna University in 1960 with a BA in economics, receiving the Gold Medal for ranking first in the university.

Sanjaya Lall then read for a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at St John's College, Oxford University, graduating with first class honours in 1963.

Sanjaya Lall subsequently achieved a distinction in the MPhil in economics at Oxford in 1965.

Sanjaya Lall's career began working as an economist at the World Bank.

Sanjaya Lall was one of the most productive economists at the university, writing or co-authoring 33 books between 1975 and 2003, publishing 75 listed articles in reputable refereed professional journals, 72 chapters in books, 67 reports for international agencies or governments, and another 27 articles.

Sanjaya Lall acted as adviser or consultant to a wide spectrum of governments and international development organisations, from the World Bank, UNICEF and the OECD to the European Commission and the Commonwealth Secretariat; he served as the Principal Consultant to UNCTAD on its World Investment Report, and to UNIDO on its Industrial Development Report.

Sanjaya Lall made contributions to development economics in three major areas.

Sanjaya Lall stands in a fine line of thinkers who have challenged the black-box, reductionist view of technology in economic theorising.

Sanjaya Lall argued that, far from just "picking" industrial winners, the East Asian tiger economies had carefully and proactively "created" winners through the generation of technological capability and the acquisition of industrial competitiveness.

Sanjaya Lall tends seriously to question the automaticity of any such benefit transfer; he shows the relevance of an active state policy vis-a-vis the domestic manufacturing and technology sectors.

Sanjaya Lall did not balk at taking on positions that were unpopular among the neo-liberal unfettered-globalisation school.

From start to finish, Sanjaya Lall remained a passionate, but scientifically rigorous, advocate of Third World industrial development.

The Sanjaya Lall Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford, created to honour Lall's academic legacy, has established itself as one of the most prestigious visiting appointments in economics.