Research
Published Articles and Revisions Requested at Peer-Reviewed Journals
Reinforcing Gender Norms or Easing Housework Burdens? The Role of Mothers-in-Law in Determining Women’s Labor Force Participation (2021). Accepted at Economic Development and Cultural Change. (with Divya Pandey). The latest draft is here. Coverage: Development Impact Blog
Does the Marriage Market Respond to Natural Disasters? The Impact of Flooding of River Kosi in Bihar, India (2021). Revision requested at Journal of Population Economics. (with Nishtha Kochhar). The latest draft is here. Coverage: India in Transition Blog (CASI, UPenn), The Print, Amar Ujala (Hindi)
Disruptions, restorations and adaptations to health and nutrition service delivery in multiple states across India over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: An observational study (2021). PLoS ONE. (with Rasmi Avula, Phuong Hong Nguyen, and others)
Decentralized facility financing versus performance-based payments in primary health care: A large-scale randomized controlled trial in Nigeria (2021). BMC Medicine. (with Eeshani Kandpal, Benjamin Loevinsohn, Elina Pradhan, Opeyemi Fadeyibi, Kevin McGee, Oluwole Odutolu, Gyorgy Bela Fritsche, Emmanuel Meribole, Christel MJ Vermeersch). Coverage: VoxDev
Cost-effectiveness analysis of the decentralized facility financing and performance-based financing program in Nigeria (2021). Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy. (with Wu Zeng, Elina Pradhan, Opeyemi Fadeyebi, Gyorgy Fritsche, Ayodeji O. Odutolu)
Caste-ing wider nets of credit: A mixed-methods analysis of informal lending and caste relations in Bihar (2020). World Development Perspectives. (with Shruti Majumdar)
A Retrospective Impact Evaluation of the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project (2015). The Journal of Development Studies. (with Nishtha Kochhar and Nethra Palaniswamy)
Current Projects
The Precocious Period: Impact of Early Menarche on School Enrollment in India
This paper studies the impact of early onset of menstruation on school enrollment in India, where the onset of menstruation (menarche) has immense socio-cultural importance, and menarche marks a child's transition into womanhood. Estimates based on a difference-in-differences model show that starting menses before age twelve decreases school enrollment by 13%. While understanding the role of menarche, a universal biological event for all women, in determining education is a critical end in itself, it also has implications for the effect of early nutrition on girls' well-being. Better-nourished girls typically reach menarche earlier, and if menarche impedes schooling, their gains due to better nutrition may be undercut. The effect of menarche on school enrollment is stronger if girls live in communities where the perceived safety among children is low or if they belong to social groups with restrictive gender norms. Conversely, dropout rates are lower in communities with higher expected wages for female-dominated professions. Jointly, these findings suggest that the interaction between cultural norms and the local economic opportunities shapes female education decisions in response to menses.
Presented at: SANEM-World Bank North America Discussion Forum, SDC, WGD, MEA, WADES, MWIEDC, GCER, Towson University, EMCON, SEA, IFPRI, Colgate University, IIT Kanpur
Coverage: Brookings, Ideas for India, Ideas for India (Hindi), Down to Earth (Hindi), SheThePeople
The intra-household allocation of children’s time in four developing countries (with Milan Thomas)
We document gendered differences in the intra-household allocation of children’s time in Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam, using the Young Lives Longitudinal study. Using household fixed effects regressions, we document a leisure deficit for girls, highlighting a gender gap that has received little attention. We use the concept of time poverty to further investigate the nature of the leisure deficit, applying a relative time poverty line. A gender gap in the incidence of time poverty emerges at an early age, and is spread along the wealth distribution. Our findings relate to the literature on time poverty of women in developing countries, and have implications for promoting gender equality under Sustainable Development Goal target 5.4 on unpaid care and domestic work.
Presented at: SDC
