Publications

My research focuses on three broad areas: (1) human capital and education policy in colonial India and the contemporary United States; (2) the regulation and management of infrastructure, railways in particular; and (3) the regulation of credit markets in colonial India. A majority of my work involves digitizing historical records and applying micro-econometric techniques to help us better understand how economic, political and social conditions influence policy choices and how policies in turn affect outcomes such as literacy, railway performance, and wages. My work on colonial India often calls into question grand narratives on the effects of colonialism. Rather, the effects of colonial rule are contingent on initial conditions, sector, time period and region of study.

HUMAN CAPITAL AND EDUCATION POLICY

BOOKS

Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia. Edited by Latika Chaudhary, Tirthankar Roy and Anand V. Swamy. Cambridge University Press (under contract).

A New Economic History of Colonial India. Edited by Latika Chaudhary, Bishnupriya Gupta, Tirthankar Roy and Anand V. Swamy. Routledge, 2016.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Cellini, Stephanie and Latika Chaudhary. “Commercials for College? Advertising in Higher Education.” Brookings Report, May 19, 2020.

Chaudhary, Latika, Jared Rubin, Sriya Iyer and Anand Shrivastava. “Culture and Colonial Legacy: Evidence from Public Good Games,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 173 (2020), 107-129.

Castelló-Climent, Amparo, Latika Chaudhary and Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay. “Higher Education and Prosperity: From Catholic Missionaries to Luminosity in India,” Economic Journal 128, issue 616 (2018): 3039-3075.

Bacolod, Marigee and Latika Chaudhary. “Distance to Promotion: Evidence from Military Graduate Education,” Contemporary Economic Policy 36, no. 4 (2018): 667-677.

Chaudhary, Latika and Jared Rubin. “Religious Identity and the Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from the Indian Princely States,” Journal of Comparative Economics 44, no. 3 (2016): 461-483.

Chaudhary, Latika and Manuj Garg. “Does History Matter? Colonial Education Investments in India,” Economic History Review 68, no. 3 (2015): 937-961.

Cellini, Stephanie and Latika Chaudhary. “The Labor Market Returns to a For-Profit College Education,” Economics of Education Review 43, (December 2014): 125-140.

Chaudhary, Latika, Aldo Musacchio, Steven Nafziger and Se Yan. “Big BRICs, Weak Foundations: The Beginning of Public Elementary Education in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, 1880–1930,” Explorations in Economic History 49, no. 2 (2012): 221-240.

Chaudhary, Latika and Jared Rubin. “Reading, Writing and Religion: Institutions and Human Capital Formation,” Journal of Comparative Economics 39, no. 1 (2011): 17-33.

Chaudhary, Latika. “Land Revenues, Schools and Literacy: A Historical Examination of Public and Private Funding of Education,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 47, no. 2 (2010): 179-204.

Chaudhary, Latika. “Taxation and Educational Development: Evidence from British India,” Explorations in Economic History 47, no. 3 (2010): 279-293.

Chaudhary, Latika. “Determinants of Primary Schooling in British India,” Journal of Economic History 69, no. 1 (2009): 269-302.

Chaudhary, Latika. “Education Inputs, Student Performance and School Finance Reform in Michigan,” Economics of Education Review 28, no. 1 (February 2009): 90-98.

REGULATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Bogart, Dan and Latika Chaudhary. “Extractive Institutions? Investor Returns to Indian Railway Companies in the Age of High Imperialism,” Journal of Institutional Economics 15, no. 5 (2019):751-774 .

Bogart, Dan and Latika Chaudhary. “Off the Rails: Is State Ownership Bad for Productivity?” Journal of Comparative Economics 43, no. 4 (2015): 997-1013.

Bogart, Dan and Latika Chaudhary. “Engines of Growth: The Productivity Advance of Indian Railways, 1874-1912,” Journal of Economic History 73, no. 2 (2013): 340-371.

Bogart, Dan and Latika Chaudhary. “Regulation, Ownership and Costs: A Historical Perspective from Indian Railways,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 1 (2012): 28-57.

CREDIT MARKETS

Chaudhary, Latika and Anand Swamy. “A Policy of Credit Disruption: The Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900,” Economic History Review 73, no. 1 (2020), 134-158.

Chaudhary, Latika and Anand Swamy. “Protecting the Borrower: An Experiment in Colonial India,” Explorations in Economic History 65, no. 3 (2017): 36-54.