Research and Policy

• Dongre, Ambrish, Karan Singhal, and Upasak Das. 2024  “‘Missing’ Women in Economics Academia in India.” Feminist Economics

Media/ Coverage: Ideas for India (co-authored), The Hindu BusinessLine (co-authored), Ahmedabad Mirror

• Singhal, Karan, Ankur Sarin, and Advaita Rajendra. 2023. "What money couldn't buy: Social Protection for Migrants in India's lockdown"  Canadian Journal of Development Studies

• Das, Upasak, and Karan Singhal. 2023. “Solving It Correctly: Prevalence and Persistence of Gender Gap in Basic Mathematics in Rural India.” International Journal of Educational Development 

Media/ Coverage: Ideas for India (co-authored), The Hindu (co-authored), Indian Express, Careers 360, The Ken, Soch by Mohak Mangal (Youtube), Tagesspiegel

• Dongre, Ambrish, Ankur Sarin, and Karan Singhal. 2022. “Barriers in Translating Mandate for Inclusion in Practice: Evidence from India’s Right to Education Act.” International Journal of Inclusive Education

• Singhal, Karan, and Upasak Das. 2019. “Revisiting the Role of Private Schooling on Children Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Rural India.” South Asia Economic Journal 

• Singhal, Karan, and Eva Sierminska. 2024. "Inequality in Economics as a Profession" In Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, edited by Klaus F. Zimmermann, Springer (forthcoming)

Media/Coverage: IZA Newsroom

• Sierminska, Eva, and Karan Singhal. 2023. “Does it pay to be beautiful?” IZA World of Labor. 

Media/ Coverage: New York Times, Les Echos, Le Point, Yahoo Finance, InFranken

• Vernekar, Nisha, and Karan Singhal. 2018. “Married Women’s Education Levels and Agency Outside the Home: Evidence from Rural India.” In Advances in Finance & Applied Economics, edited by N.R. Bhanumurthy, K. Shanmugan, Shriram Nerlekar, and Sandeep Hegade, 161–73. Singapore: Springer

Working papers 

• Vernekar, Nisha, and Karan Singhal. Breaking the Night Barrier: Night-Shift Reforms and Women's Work in India, First Draft, CINCH Working Paper Series, 2025(04)

• Dongre, Ambrish , Ankur Sarin, and Karan Singhal. “Can a Mandate for Inclusion Change School Choices for Disadvantaged Parents? – Evidence from Urban India.” 

Media/ Coverage: Ideas for India (co-authored); HT Mint

• Vernekar, Nisha, Pooja Pandey, Karan Singhal, Aditya Narayan Rai, and Avinash Reddy. “Parental Engagement in Early Childhood Education During COVID-19: Learning from Structured Tech and Teacher Support Programs in Urban Maharashtra”

Media/ Coverage: The Hindu (co-authored), Ideas for India (co-authored)

Work in progress

Field specialization in Economics and differences based on country of origin (with Eva Sierminska)

Gender gap in intergenerational wealth transfers in Germany (with Markus Grabka and Eva Sierminska)

Deregulation of nightshift bans and female employment in India (with Nisha Vernekar)

Can "big push" development programmes improve schooling outcomes? (with Upasak Das and Parul Gupta)

• Working Without Borders-The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work: Short Note Series Number Six-Spotlight on Gender Gaps in Online Hourly Rates (World Bank, 2024)

• Clearing the Air: A Synthesised Mapping of Out of School Children during COVID-19 in India (Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, 2022)

Media/ Coverage: Podcast - "Decoding Exclusion" (co-conceptualized), Live Mint (co-authored), The Print, Business Standard, Deccan Herald 

• Starting from Scratch | The Role of Parents, Teachers, and Tech in Early Childhood Education during COVID-19  (Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, 2021)

Media/ Coverage: The Hindu (co-authored), Ideas for India (co-authored), Indian Express, The Times of India, The Ken

• Analysing Discretionary Expenditure of Municipal Councillors (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat) (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2021)

• Situation analysis on Anganwadi workers in Gujarat during COVID-19 (dipstick assessment) (UNICEF, 2021) (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2021)

• Democratic Responsiveness in Urban Governance: COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond (Seminar and policy brief)  (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2020)

• Rapid Survey to assess the needs and circumstances of low-income households in Ahmedabad during COVID-19 (IIM Ahmedabad, 2020)

Media/ Coverage: Indian Express, The Print, The Times of India, Deccan Herald,  Careers360, Rajasthan Patrika, Scroll, Business Insider, Business Standard, The Week, Financial Express, Outlook, News18, Money Control, India Today

• Access to learning experiences for children from low-income households during COVID-19 school closures: Case of Ahmedabad (rapid survey) (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2020)

Media/ Coverage: The Independent, NDTV, The Times of India, Indian Express (+ follow-up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Gujarat Samachar, Patrika, TV9, LiveLaw, Bar and Bench

• Voluntary Sector Response to Food Scarcity during COVID-19 (rapid survey of 100+ organisations) (IIM Ahmedabad, 2020)

Media/ Coverage: Indian Express, The Times of India, Outlook, Down to Earth, Patrika

• Civil Society Leaders Perceptions and Experiences during COVID-19 (survey of over 65+ leaders) (IIM Ahmedabad, 2020)

Media/ Coverage: The Times of India, Ahmedabad Mirror, Deccan Herald, Outlook, The Print

• Social Protection Schemes for Children in Urban Gujarat (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2020)

• Handbook for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Councillors: Handy Dossier for City Representatives (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2020)

Media/ Coverage: Indian Express 

• City and ward-level profiles on health, education and basic infrastructural amenities (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2019)

• Prioritizing Child Welfare in Urban Local Bodies in India (Seminar and policy brief) (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2019)

• Making First 1000 days count for all children (Seminar and policy brief) (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2019)

• On the Implementation of Vidya Lakshmi Yojna in Gujarat: Field-based insights from Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat, 2018)

Media/ Coverage: Indian Express (quoted), Indian Express (part-2) 

• Two chapters in the "State of the Nation 2017: Right To Education Act Section 12(1)(c)" (Central Square Foundation and IIM Ahmedabad, 2017)

2024: ASSA 2024 Annual Meeting*, American Economics Association ; Association for Social Economics World Congress (UMass Boston)

2023:  Income and wealth inequality: drivers and consequences (Gdansk Univerity of Technology) (scheduled); FLAME University, Pune (India) (Invited)

2022: International Association for Research on Income and Wealth (IARIW) General Conference (STATEC, Luxembourg)*, International Conference on Sustainable Development (University of Michigan)*,  XVII International Conference on Public Policy and Management (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)*

2021: Annual Conference on Economics and Public Policy (OP Jindal University, Sonepat); 6th International Conference on South Asian Economic Development (South Asian University, New Delhi)*; Dvara Research (Invited), NCAER (Invited)*

2020: Papers in Public Economics and Policy (PPEP) (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy) (cancelled)

2019: Eighth Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ)  (Paris School of Economics); 5th International Conference on South Asian Economic Development (South Asian University, New Delhi); 9th Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad); Vietnam Economists Annual Meeting (Da Lat University); 10th Annual International Conference of Comparative Education Society of India (JNU, New Delhi) 

2018: 14th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development (ISI Delhi); XXVIIIth Annual General Conference on Contemporary Issues in Development Economics (Jadavpur University, Kolkata)*; XIII International Conference on Public Policy and Management (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore); International Seminar on Quality and Excellence in Higher Education (New Delhi)*; Takshashila Institution, Bangalore (invited)

2017: 3rd International Conference on South Asian Economic Development  (South Asian University, New Delhi); 13th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development (ISI Delhi); Winter School, Delhi School of Economics (New Delhi); Gender and Education Association annual conference (Middlesex University, London)*; XII International Conference on Public Policy and Management (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore); 3rd International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP) (National University of Singapore);  National Conference on Applied Economics and Finance (The Indian Econometric Society and IMERT Pune); IARIW-ICRIER Conference on “Experiences and Challenges in Measuring Income, Inequality, and Poverty in South Asia (New Delhi, India)

2016: 12th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development (ISI Delhi)

*presented by co-author

Research Grants

2023: International Economics Association - Women in Economics initiative ($20,000) (Co-PI with Upasak Das and Ambrish Dongre): https://iea-world.org/evidence-papers-on-women-in-economics/

Conferences and workshops (grants received for travel and accommodation)

2024: Association for Social Economics (ASE) - Ingrid Rima fellowship (Boston)

2022:International Association for Research on Income and Wealth (IARIW) general conference (STATEC, Luxembourg)*

2020: Papers in Public Economics and Policy (PPEP) (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy) (New Delhi)

2019: Eighth Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ)  (PSE, Paris); Vietnam Economists Annual Meeting (Da Lat University, Vietnam)

2018: Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) Conference (Benin) (not undertaken); 14th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development (ISI Delhi) 

Kerala Migration Survey training programme "Methods and Approaches to Research on Migration" (CDS, Trivandrum)

2017: Winter School, Delhi School of Economics (DSE, New Delhi); International Conference on South Asian Economic Development  (South Asian University, New Delhi); IARIW-ICRIER Conference on “Experiences and Challenges in Measuring Income, Inequality, and Poverty in South Asia (New Delhi); Lee Kuan Yew grant for Asian scholars at the International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP)  (NUS, Singapore)

2016: 12th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development (ISI Delhi)

2015: CAFRAL – IGIDR Winter School in Economics and Finance (IGIDR Mumbai)

*co-author

Past fellowships

2014-2017: Summer School for Future Leaders in Development fellowship (IIM Udaipur and Duke University) (not undertaken); Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament (LAMP) fellowship (not undertaken); Gandhi Fellowship (not undertaken)

Educational Research, Education Economics