Research
Fields:
Development Economics, Labor Economics, Public Economics, Experimental Economics
Papers:
- "Where there is a will: Fertility behavior and sex bias in large families"
I propose and test an explanation for sex differences in survival and health outcomes in India. In a patrilocal society, family heads bequeath land to claimants with more sons to retain it within their lineage. Claimants, who are their adult sons, compete in the number of sons to maximize their inheritance. This fertility behavior implies that girls live in systematically larger households, generating differences in outcomes even if parents do not treat boys and girls differently. Tests using panel data from rural households confirm this hypothesis and account for 7 percent of excess female mortality in Haryana and Rajasthan. Bibtex
- "Incentive to discriminate? An experimental investigation of teacher incentives in India" (with Tulika Narayan)
This paper uses laboratory experiments to address the challenge of effectively designing performance based pay schemes for school teachers. We develop a theory of ``strategic discrimination'' where, due to imperfect information in a society with pervasive prejudice, teachers disproportionately help high-status students as a result of incentive design. We test this theory with experiments conducted in India with future teachers as participants. Preliminary findings confirm strategic discrimination on the basis of social identity against Scheduled Caste students, but not against Muslim students. Bibtex
- "Degrees of migration: Relationships and participation in the cycle rickshaw rental market" (with Ashima Sood)
Reviews:
- Book Review of "Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern India" by S. Thorat and K. Newman (eds.), for Economic and Political Weekly 45(9), Feb 2010