I am an applied econometrician, interested in topics in labor and development economics. A recurrent theme in my research has been the focus on social identities, be they gender, caste, or immigrant status, and how identities impact economic outcomes. Additionally, I am fascinated with causal inference in and of itself. Causal inference is the science, and art, of building ‘what if’ scenarios in the same vein as Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. While Frost anticipated that he would never know how life would have unfolded had he taken the other road, the job of an econometrician is precisely to build such a counterfactual picture given the limitations of data, scientific knowledge, and imagination. I have used techniques such as Regressions, Difference-in-differences, Fixed Effects models, and Regression Discontinuity, to answer causal questions embedded in Labor, Education, and Transportation. 

Here is my Goggle Scholar page.

Published articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

1.  Improving survey quality using paradata: Lessons from a field survey in India. (with Rosa Abraham), Development Policy Review (2025) https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12813  

We show how paradata, namely data on the process of data collection itself, can improve enumerator performance, using a household survey in India as a case study. We designed indicators (flags) from the paradata to mark potential deviant enumerator behavior in the early stages of the survey. Flagged enumerators were contacted by supervisors who provided constructive feedback. We then measured the performance of the flagged enumerators over the remainder of the survey. Our feedback improved enumerator behaviour in the field: flagged enumerators subsequently spent more time on a core module of the questionnaire.

2. Did the Nationwide Implementation of electronic fund management in the Indian Employment Guarantee Scheme Result in Reduced Expenditures? A Re-Examination of the Evidence (with JV Meenakshi and Zaeen de Souza), Review of Development Economics (2024)  https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13105 

We use the recent econometric literature that highlights the shortcomings of the two-way fixed effects model, to show that, contrary to the claim made in section IV of Banerjee et al. 2020, E-governance, Accountability, and Leakage in Public Programmes: Experimental Evidence from a Financial Management Reform in India, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, there is no conclusive evidence that implementation of the electronic fund management system within the Indian Employment Guarantee Scheme led to huge savings to the national exchequer. 

3. Social Identity and Perceived Income Adequacy (with Ashwini Deshpande), Review of Development Economics (2020) 24(2): 339-361 (accepted December 2018)

In India, an individual's caste is an important dimension of their identity. We examine how (rupee) amounts considered as remunerative earnings from (self-owned) businesses were shaped by the respondent's caste. As expected, we find that lower-ranked caste groups perceived lower amounts as being remunerative. Additionally, MGNREGS, India's flagship workfare program, improved the perceptions of Other Backward Classes (in that they reported higher amounts as being remunerative) by directly influencing their 'notions' of remunerative earnings, rather than by impacting economic conditions on the ground. 

4. The Impact of MGNREGA on Agricultural Outcomes and the Rural Labour Market: A Matched DID Approach (with JV Meenakshi and Deepak Varshney), The Indian Journal of Labour Economics (2018)  61(4): 589–621 

We find that MGNREGA, India's flagship workfare program, lead to modest changes in cropping patterns that were state and period specific. Additionally, we find no systematic impact on wages, and therefore no evidence that public works employment in MGNREGA crowded out casual labour in agriculture. 

5. Bad Karma or Discrimination? Male-Female Wage Gaps among Salaried Workers in India (with Ashwini Deshpande and Shantanu Khanna), World Development (2018) 102: 331-344 (accepted July 2017). Blog: Ideas for India

We examine gender wage gaps among salaried workers and find a ‘sticky floor’, i.e., higher gender gaps among low-wage earners compared to high-wage earners. Moreover, a large part of the gender wage gap could not be explained by gender differences in human capital and were possibly due to gender discrimination in the labour market. 

6. Social Ties and the Job Search of Recent Immigrants (with Kevin Lang), ILR Review (2019) 72(2): 355-381 (accepted December 2016) 

For recent immigrants to Canada, we study a specific mechanism via which their social networks helped in job search. We find that having a close relative or friend in Canada increased the likelihood of receiving a job offer, but did not change the type of offer (high or low paying) received. 

7. Decomposition Analysis of Earnings Inequality in Rural India: 2004-2012 (with René Morissette and Shantanu Khanna), IZA Journal of Labor & Development (2016)  5:18. Blog: Ideas for India

We study (wage) earnings inequality in rural India and find that it declined between 2004/5 and 2011/12. The decline was mainly because workers at lower quantiles experienced greater improvements in how the labour market rewarded their characteristics. 

8. The Effect of Metro Expansions on Air Pollution in Delhi (with Sonam Gupta) The World Bank Economic Review (2017) 31 (1): 271-294 (accepted August 2015). Blog: Ideas for India

We analyze whether the Delhi Metro led to localized reduction in transportation source pollutants. Using a regression discontinuity approach, we find that one of the larger rail extensions led to a reduction in localized carbon monoxide at a major traffic intersection in the city. 

9. Perceptions of Immigrants in Australia after 9/11 (2010), Economic Record 86: 596–608 

I examine whether the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) in the United States changed the perception of discrimination among Muslim immigrants in Australia. I find that consequent to 9/11, relative to other immigrants, Muslim men and those who 'looked like' Muslims reported an increase in religious and racial discrimination. 

Working Papers

1. Estimator of What? A Note on Teaching Regressions in Introductory Econometrics, SSRN Working Paper, (2025).

2. Drivers of Student Performance: Evidence from Higher Secondary Public Schools in Delhi (with Bidisha Barooah), IZA Discussion Papers  (2018) DP No. 11670.

Other Publications

1. Improving Survey Quality using Para Data: Lessons from the India Working Survey (with Rosa Abraham and Rahul Lahoti), NCAER National Data Innovation Centre Institutional Research Grant Report Number 03, 2021.

2. Inequality: India, Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, 2nd Edition, Macmillan Reference USA, 2013.

3. Book Review of Pranab Bardhan and Dilip Mookherjee (eds.), Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries: A Comparative Perspective, Indian Economic Review, 46(2): 359-362, 2011.

4. Why Randomized Experiments are worth the Cost, with Nachiket Mor, Alliance, 14(1): 48-49, 2009.