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I am a Research Associate at IIT Bombay, India. My research interests are firm performance, market competition, and the implications of industrial policy. My ongoing work examines the impact of small-scale industry policy on firm performance and the effect of foreign direct investment on the product quality of domestic firms. I am also keen on exploring research questions in international trade and labor economics. I completed my PhD from the Department of Economics at IIT Bombay in 2026.
I am currently on the job market.
Education:
PhD Economics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, 2026
M.Sc. Economics, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India, 2020
B.A. Economics, Fergusson College, Pune, India, 2018
Research Areas:
Research Areas:
Industrial Economics, Industrial Policy, International Economics
Topics: Firm behavior, Product quality, Productivity, SSI dereservation, International trade, Minimum wages
Working Papers
Working Papers
When Protection Ends: Evidence from Differentiated Products Markets (with Vidhya Soundararajan). SSRN working Paper. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6846300 (Job Market Paper)
We study how removing size-based industrial protection reshapes competition in differentiated product markets. Using the phased dismantling of India's Small Scale Industries product reservation policy between 2000 and 2007, we exploit product-level variation in the de-reservation timing in a difference-in-differences design. De-reservation induces significant quality upgrading, particularly among larger and more productive establishments, accompanied by greater capital and skill intensity. It also expands product variety through entry. While average prices do not decline, quality-adjusted prices fall significantly. Competitive responses depend on the scope for vertical differentiation: establishments in industries with longer quality ladders upgrade quality, while those with shorter ladders lower prices. Our welfare decomposition reveals substantial gains, driven primarily by quality upgrading and expanded variety.
Foreign Direct Investment and Firms' Product Quality Adjustment: Evidence from India (with Vidhya Soundararajan and K. Narayanan). SSRN working paper. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7543098
How domestic firms respond to foreign entry depends on where they stand relative to their foreign competitors on the quality ladder. Exploiting FDI liberalization across Indian manufacturing industries, we find that domestic product quality declines on average, but this masks sharply heterogeneous responses. Domestic firms substantially below the quality of foreign competitors upgrade following liberalization, while those near or above foreign quality downgrade. We uncover a new mechanism consistent with this downward response: foreign firms enter at intermediate quality levels but charge prices comparable to high-quality domestic producers, reducing the incentive to maintain quality substantially above foreign competitors. Thus, foreign entry can simultaneously generate positive quality spillovers among lower-quality producers and induce quality downgrading among higher-quality producers.
Work in Progress
Work in Progress
Minimum wages and product quality adjustment by Indian Manufacturing Firms.
Impact of Contract Labour Regulation on Employment and Wages in Small Manufacturing Firms in India.
Environmental Regulation and Firm Performance.
Conferences and Workshops
Conferences and Workshops
SERI Annual Conference, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, 2026
Royal Economic Society (RES) Annual Conference, United Kingdom, 2026
European Economic and Finance Society (EEFS) Annual Conference, Spain, 2026
Asian Economic Development Conference (AEDC), Hong Kong, 2026
7th Annual Economics Conference, Ahmedabad University, 2026
Global Labor Organization- JOPE Conference, online, 2025
SERI Annual Conference, Shiv Nadar University, 2025
Amitava Bose Memorial Annual Workshop, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, 2025
Pacific Conference for Development Economics (PacDev), 2025
2nd Meeting of Young Minds in Frontiers of Economics, IIT Bombay, Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET), 2025
6th Annual Economics Conference, Ahmedabad University, 2025
19th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development, ISI Delhi, 2025
Delhi Winter School, Delhi School of Economics, Econometric Society, 2024
2nd ISID National Conference on India’s Industrial Transformation, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID). 2024
7th IGIDR Ph.D. Colloquium, 2024
Teaching Assistantship
Teaching Assistantship
International Economics I (Instructor: Prof. Vidhya Soundararajan), Autumn 2022
Economics (Instructor: Prof. Rama Pal), Autumn 2023
International Economics II (Instructor: Prof. Radeef Chundakkadan), Spring 2024
Economics (Instructor: Prof. Tara Shankar Shaw), Autumn 2024
Indian Economy (Instructor: Prof. K. Narayanan), Spring 2025
Technical Skills
Technical Skills
STATA (Advanced); R (Intermidiate); Latex (Advanced); MS-Office
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