Papers:
Publication:
"Unpacking economic mobility: The short- and long-term impacts of trade liberalization (2025)", Economics Letters, 251, 112327 (with Bidisha Lahiri)
Trade liberalization impacts economic growth, inequality, and mobility, typically examined separately. By breaking down absolute economic mobility into these three areas, we explain how each component contributed to real per-capita expenditure changes due to tariff reductions. Using Indonesia’s IFLS data, we connect individuals over the short term (1993–2000) and father-son pairs over the long term (1993–2014). Our analysis also considers if non-coresident father-son pairs behaved differently relative to coresident pairs. Further, we explore if the economically vulnerable segments were able to participate in the overall patterns experienced by the economy. We find that tariff reductions fostered absolute economic mobility of real per-capita expenditures by promoting regional growth, reducing inequality, and enhancing relative economic mobility, particularly benefiting the individuals and households in the lowest quartile. Over time, regional disparities in the effects of tariff cuts diminished as regions converged.
“Status of Women in Oklahoma”, United WE project, April 2022, (with Laura Ahlstrom)
I examine the socio-economic status of women in Oklahoma across five major categories, namely, employment and earnings, childcare, healthcare, poverty and social insurance and civic engagement. We find that gender gap in earnings is larger while participation is lower among women in Oklahoma against national average. Such disparities across genders were also witnessed in terms of availability/ accessibility to health insurance and poverty rates. The women in Oklahoma perform poorly in terms of representation in political arenas as well.
Dissertation Chapters:
“The Nexus Between Trade Liberalization, Women labor Force Participation and Child Health: The Case of Indonesia”, (Job Market Paper, Revise and Resubmit at World Economy)
In my job market paper, I examine whether trade liberalization, affects child health outcomes and the critical role played by mothers in determining the outcomes. Current literature shows maternal engagement in the labor market would have positive income effects, and negative effects of less time devoted to childcare activities, making the direction of the effect of trade liberalization subject to empirical investigation. In Indonesia, which underwent large tariff reductions, significant positive impact of such tariff changes is observed for child health indicators but once the trade-induced changes in mother’s workforce participation is accounted for, the positive effects of tariff disappear. Thus, the positive effects of trade liberalization on child health flow through positive changes in maternal labor market engagement. More nutritious diets for the children, facilitated by an increase in employment of mothers in the informal sector post trade liberalization are found to be the mechanisms underlying the observed positive effects. Our findings are robust across alternate specifications. Our results indicate that domestic policies promoting greater accessibility to healthcare facilities and greater opportunities for less skilled women facilitate positive effects of trade liberalization on child health outcomes in developing countries.
“The Effects of Highway Removal in Monroe County, NY: Housing Prices and other Neighborhood Effects”, (work in progress with Rui Du and Brent Norwood)
In this paper, we estimate the impact of highway removal on housing prices and overall economic development of an area after removal. We find that with removal of a segment of a highway in Monroe County, New York, housing prices in the region increased. This might reflect the aversion of residents to bad air quality, noise pollution or congestion effects for being close to the highway. We also analyze other amenity effects stemming from highway removal that might have triggered housing prices. We notice that the hospitality industry (arts, entertainment and recreation), financial industry and healthcare industry have flourished in the area both in terms of greater number of establishments and also greater proportion of workers sorting into those industries. We also notice that the proportion of people who use bikes in the area have increased which might have longer term beneficial impacts on health due to reduction of air pollution. Another interesting finding in terms of economic significance lies in the fact that we notice that the number of black inhabitants in the area has increased.
Mimeographed:
“Aspects of Informal Sector and Economic Development: A Brief Survey of Theoretical Models under General Equilibrium”, (with Kausik Gupta)
A theme-based literature survey on theoretical models on informal sector has been done in the present paper. The survey is confined to some important theoretical general equilibrium trade models in the context of the informal sector. We have started from relevant portions of Chandra and Khan (1993) model and have shown that how other models of informal sector differs from Chandra and Khan (1993). Next we have examined the validity of Brecher-Alejandro (1977) proposition in terms of various general equilibrium models of informal sector. We have also considered issues of informal wage and development policies in the context of informal sector in order to examine the relevance of the issues in the context of a developing economy. The scope for future research has also been discussed in the paper.
Other works in progress:
"MNC Activity and Female Labor Force Participation: Global Evidence from a Heckman Selection Model (with Senf, B. and Sansom, J.)." Winner at Minnesota Economic Association Research Paper Contest
"An investigation into the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on bargaining power of women: Evidence from Indian states"
"Conditional Cash Transfer and Child Marriage in India: Kanyashree Project in West Bengal"