Dr  Arghya (Argo) Bhattacharya is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Krea University. Prior to Krea, he was affiliated with Ashoka University. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Irvine, a Master of Science in Quantitative Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, and a BA (Honors) in Economics from Jadavpur University. Before academia, he worked as an Associate Research Manager at IMRB International, now Kantar. 

Dr Bhattacharya is a monetary theorist and macroeconomist who uses frameworks grounded in microeconomic foundations. He works on both topical issues and enduring questions pertaining to money (or liquidity), markets, and the macroeconomy. These include topics in dual payment systems: cash versus electronic money, dollarization, fintech credit, electronic money & e-commerce, macroeconomics of platforms, to name a few. Dr Bhattacharya has presented his work at various national and international conferences, workshops, and departmental seminars.

• Research 

Dr  Bhattacharya’s research sits at the intersection of monetary theory and macroeconomics, grounded in microeconomic foundations, with a particular focus on incomplete-markets models and markets with frictions. A core strand of his work examines competing financial assets. For example, in his recently published paper in Economic Modelling, he studies cash and electronic money as imperfect substitutes that differ in holding costs and cost of use, showing that e-money adoption is not always welfare-enhancing when a profit-maximizing payment network charges a transaction fee. Related work extends into currency competition and dollarization, studying how regions and currencies interact strategically in international trade, as well as the determinants of black-market currency premiums using micro-founded open-economy models. In macro-labor, he explores frictiona (Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides-type) labor markets, including endogenous union bargaining power and the rising role of gig work on unemployment and wages. Looking ahead, Dr. Bhattacharya plans to move further into macro-finance, an interdisciplinary space combining monetary economics, financial intermediation, and industrial organization.

• Publications 

1. Bhattacharya, A. (2026). E-money: the role of payment networks and the transaction fee. Economic Modelling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2026.107815
2. Bhattacharya, A., Jackson, P., & Jenkins, B. C. (2018). Revisiting unemployment in intermediate macroeconomics: A new approach for teaching Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides. The Journal of Economic Education.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2017.1397574

• Teaching Modules 

1. Graduate Macroeconomics II
2. Advanced/ Graduate Monetary Theory
3. Monetary Theory
4. Financial Markets & Asset Pricing
5. Intermediate Macroeconomics/ Macroeconomics I
6. Macroeconomics II
7. Introductory Economics
8. Probability & Statistics

Read more – https://www.arghyab.in/