Anthony P. D’Costa is the Eminent Scholar in Global Studies and a Professor of Economics in the College of
Business at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Previously he was the Chair and Professor of Contemporary
Indian Studies and Director of Development Studies at the University of Melbourne. From 2008- 13 he was the A.P.
Moller- Maersk Foundation Chair and Professor of Indian Studies at the Copenhagen Business School. From 1990
until 2013, he was a Professor of Comparative International Development at the University of Washington, Tacoma
and Seattle. He also taught at the National University of Singapore, Bordeaux Ecole de Management, and the
Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
He has published on the political economy industrial change and economic development in India and Asia. Of his
twelve books, his most recent are Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State: New Perspectives on
Development Dynamics (coedited Springer 2019), The Land Question in India: State, Dispossession, and Capitalist
Transition (coedited, OUP, 2017), International Mobility, Global Capitalism, and Changing Structures of
Accumulation: Transforming the Japan- India IT Relationship (Routledge, 2016, supported by Abe Fellowship), and
After- Development Dynamics: South Korea’s Contemporary Engagement with Asia (edited, OUP, 2015). He has
been a fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies, Fulbright- Hays, Korea Foundation, UN World Institute of
Development Economics Research, Helsinki; Japan Foundation, and the East West Center in Honolulu. Currently he
is researching India’s employment challenges, wealth and inequality, and Indian business under “compressed
capitalism”, and the space economy.
Award Information
The primary objective of this research is to examine how the mobility of skilled labor is changing the structural relationship between rich and poor countries by specifically examining Japan's growing dependence on foreign workers and India's increasing ability to supply skilled professionals to the global economy. Two key policy questions that drive the investigation are: how should Japan adjust its immigration policy while benefiting economically from inflows of skilled labor and supporting development overseas; and how could developing countries capture the benefits of technology and foreign exchange earnings through this labor mobility. This study will examine labor shortages in the Japanese information technology (IT) industry and India's growing ability to supply skilled IT workers for the world market. Consequently, this transnational study is expected to offer a fresh perspective on globalization, labor mobility, and development and identify the areas of cooperation between Japan and India for mutual benefit. The study is designed to obtain primary data through a three-phase, firm-level survey in India and Japan. Secondary data will be collected from published sources, policy researchers, and government officials. Total project duration is 11 months.
