I’m driven by curiosity — about how societies organize themselves, how economies function, and how the spaces we inhabit reflect both. My work spans, broadly speaking, development economics and the built environment.
Trained as a development economist (SOAS, Cambridge, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies), I have worked for international financial institutions (ADB, World Bank, EBRD) and taught courses on political economy, development, and cities (Temple University Japan). I have published on Tokyo’s urban economic history and on Yangon’s architecture.
What connects these threads is not a single discipline, but a habit of looking closely — tracing patterns across seemingly different worlds and finding the stories they tell about places and the people who inhabit them.
This blog has been my public notebook for 13 years, evolving with my interests and projects. You can explore my professional work on LinkedIn, my publications on ResearchGate, or follow shorter updates on Bluesky. Please feel free to get in touch — my email is “hello” at my domain name.
I sat next to you at Piketty lecture. Enjoyed talking to you and your wife. Anything happen after I left? Your blog is so diverse and very interesting–from Ukraine to Canadian architecture! Regards, Anne
Dear Anne – nice to meet you yesterday. I literally just published my thoughts on the Piketty debate on the blog: https://benbansal.me/?p=2649
Thanks for dropping by!
Hi Ben,
Just discovered your site after looking for information about construction going at the US Embassy in Tokyo in 1964.
Looking through your posts I noticed we have the same interests about urban history. I think you may like my sites MeijiShowa and Old Photos of Japan if you don’t know them already.
Cheers,
Kjeld ^_-
Could we use your photo for a report we a putting together on colonial buildings?
Thank you for your article on my father Norman Macrae. Dad was one of the last alumni of Keynes. If you have read the last chapter of Keynes General Theory you will know that Keynsians believe “increasingly only economists rule the world” ie their rules lock in exponentially most of what will be possible for youth out of particular places. We would welcome you joining gycommunity if you feel its about time youth took back what futures are possible! write me if i can introduce you to some GY members.
Ben,
You work is very interesting. I am urban historian/historic preservationist, and I am very fascinated by the cityscape of pre-war Tokyo. While I have encountered a plethora of images on notable spaces like the Ginza and Nihonbashi, I am looking for written descriptions of photographs of the more workaday residential and industrial areas of the Yamanote and Shitamachi. Any help one where to find these would be greatly appreciated.
Lieber Ben, bin tief beeindruckt von deinen Aktivitäten und akademischen Lorbeeren. Hab nur noch alte Nummern von dir, die wahrscheinlich nicht mehr funktionieren. Wollte mich melden zum Neuen Jahr, euch dreien Glueck und Segen Wünschen und den Kontakt wiederherstellen. Vielleicht erreicht dich das und du reagierst. Meine WhatsApp Nummer ist die alte +491711934325. Freu mich auf eine Nachricht von euch,herzlich dein Xaver