"Missing Women, Missing Growth: Female Labor Force Participation and Manufacturing Stagnation Across India" (with Shreya Bhattacharya) 

Abstract: Historically, manufacturing sectors in developing countries have provided large-scale employment opportunities for semi-skilled women, and stagnation within the sector restricts non-agricultural employment options for low-skilled female workers, compounding the challenge of low female labor force participation (FLFP). In turn, persistently low FLFP further constrains the growth of labor-intensive manufacturing, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that traps many developing economies. The paper asks the question of whether these two phenomena are interconnected. Does low female labor force participation directly constrain manufacturing sector growth in low-income countries? We provide empirical evidence supporting this phenomenon by examining Cross-country variation as well as state-level variation within India. The paper also develops a heterogeneous agents structural transformation model in which male and female workers encounter distinct labor market conditions, with implications for unbalanced sectoral growth trajectories, and conducts several counterfactual analyses to derive policy recommendations. 

Presentation: Australian Gender Economics Workshop 2026 | 90th Annual Meetings of the Midwest Economic Association 2026 | 

“Policy Distortion, Misallocation, and Aggregate Productivity”

 Abstract: Government policies in the form of size-dependent tax rebates or subsidies lead to the misallocation of resources in favor of subsidized, ineffective firms, which in turn reduces the aggregate productivity growth in the economy and stalks the overall structural transformation. Using a monopolistic competition model, I demonstrate that the size-dependent distortion accentuates the fat left tail of the firm-size distribution, trapping resources in low-productivity firms and sectors, and leading to low aggregate productivity.

"Do Food Imports Perpetuate Subsistence Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa?” (with Mohamed Salat)

Abstract: Despite dominating employment, Sub-Saharan African agriculture suffers from low productivity. This paper examines the potential role of food imports and high domestic inter-region transportation costs in the sluggish growth of Total Factor Productivity (TFP), potentially offering crucial insights for reviving Sub-Saharan African agriculture.

"From Shadow to Spotlight: Digitization of India's Informal Economy" (with Shreya Bhattacharya)  

1. GPSS Research Award 2025: The award by the Graduate and Professional Student Senate at ISU recognizes 3-5 graduate students every year who vastly contribute to their field by engaging in a community of scholarship through research, posters, talks, & publications.

2. Most Engaging Presentation Award 2024: The award by the Economics Graduate Student Association (EGSA) at Iowa State University recognizes exceptional ability to involve the audience in the Graduate Student Research Seminar Series.

3. STEG IGC CEPR 5th Ideas for Transformation (I4Ts) 2023 - Project #489 with Spandan Roy 

4. James R Prescott Scholarship 2023: The scholarship of $5,000 is awarded by the Department of Economics at Iowa State University for demonstrating impressive creativity in research 

Enrollment Research Analytics, Iowa State University, 2019 -2022 and 2024-2025

Advisor: Gregory Forbes

Key Responsibilities: Data Analysis, Model Development, Elasticity Analysis, Literature Review on Higher Education, Business Intelligence Dashboard development in Enrollment Research and Management, Competition Analysis

Projects: Developing econometric models, collecting and organizing data, and conducting analysis on student populations to determine the impact of cost, financial support, demographics, academic performance, and socio-economic status on decisions to apply, matriculate, and persist in their college/continued education