Faculty Spotlight

About Ravi Batra

Ravi Batra has been a professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University since 1972, when he was hired with the promise that he would never have to endure a snowy winter in Dallas. Even though that promise was broken several times over, he stayed on, watching the research productivity of the university grow significantly.

One of Batra’s favorite memories of SMU is being here during that time of research growth. He believes SMU will continue to rise in research productivity, exceeding all expectations.

Batra has taught thousands of students over the course of his career, and served as Chair of the Economics Department from 1977 to 1980. His favorite class to teach is Principles of Macroeconomics, instructing students in short-term business cycles and long-term economic growth, and has written several popular books on the subject.

Batra is known for thinking against the grain. Since the 1980s, he has been writing about the recessionary effects of wealth inequality in advanced economies. He has used his theories to predict events such as the 2008 Great Recession and its inflationary after-effects. His unconventional way of thinking has led to interviews with nearly all major news outlets. Batra intends to spend his retirement remaining active by researching solutions to U.S. poverty.