Pooja Balasubramanian

Writing

Long-form essays and reported features on migration, policy and the systems that quietly decide who belongs. Pooja's writing has appeared in outlets including The Wire, working at the intersection of personal narrative and structural analysis.

Op-Eds

Op-Ed

As the ideal German immigrant, I saw how the supremacist integration system enables the far right

The country is dependent on the labour force of young migrants but makes no effort to address racism and create an inclusive society for them.

2025, originally published in Scroll.in

Op-Ed

Speculative Money Has Been Turning Millions of People into Commodities

On microfinance, securitisation and household debt in Modi-era India

2024, originally published in The Wire

Op-Ed

Debt in everyday life: A critique on the increasing role of finance in social policy

One gap that is rarely discussed in research is the increasing penetration of finance within social policy that is further pushing individuals and households into a debt-poverty trap.

2021, originally published by German Development Institute (DIE)

Essays

Essay

80 Years of Bleeding Us Dry! The Bretton Woods Institutions, Austerity, and Social Protection

On how the World Bank and IMF's austerity conditionality has blocked rights-based social protection systems in the Global South — and what it would take to build one.

2024, Chapter 8, Towards a People’s History of the IMF & World Bank — IBON International

Academic Articles

Academic Article

From Peripheral Populations to Financial Fiefdoms: A Case Study from Southern India

India is undergoing a crisis of over-indebtedness. Peripheral populations increasingly rely on loans to meet their basic survival needs.

Forthcoming, Economic and Political Weekly

Academic Article

Does women’s economic empowerment promote human development in low- and middle-income countries? A meta-analysis

Reducing gender inequality in economic opportunities is considered valuable in its own right and a critical element in ending poverty and boosting economic prosperity.

2024, World Development

Academic Article

Does economic growth reduce multidimensional poverty? Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

The long-standing tradition of empirical studies investigating the nexus between economic growth and poverty concentrates mainly on monetary poverty.

2023, World Development

Academic Article

Poverty, Inequality and Growth: the East Asian experience

This chapter focuses on the poverty, inequality and growth trends in four low and middle-income countries in East and South East Asia.

2022, Book Chapter

Academic Article

Subjective Returns to Education: Rational Expectations of Disadvantaged Groups in India

This study uses data collected from school students in Mumbai to investigate how they perceive subjective expected returns for different levels of education.

2020, UNU-WIDER Working Paper 144