Publications

The Role of Mothers-in-Law in Determining Women’s Work: Evidence from India (2021) (with Madhulika Khanna). Accepted at Economic Development and Cultural Change. The latest draft is here. Coverage: Development Impact Blog; The Economist

Abstract: In India, a coresiding mothers-in-law may restrict women’s labor force participation as the custodian of gender-specific social norms, but may also help by taking on house-work responsibilities. We use the exogenous variation in the coresiding mother-in-law’s death to investigate which effect dominates. We use difference-in-differences strategy along with individual fixed effects to find a 10 percent decrease in women’s labor force participation following their mother-in-law’s death. We provide suggestive evidence to show that while mothers-in-law restrict their daughter-in-law’s autonomy, by sharing their housework burdens, coresiding mothers-in-law also free up their daughter-in-law's time, allowing them to work.

Ongoing Research

The Effects of Communal Violence on Women's Marital Outcomes (with Devaki Ghose). Revise and Resubmit. The latest draft is here.

Abstract: This study examines the effects of communal violence on women's marital outcomes. Using individual-level survey data from India and a difference-in-differences approach, the study shows that the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 led to a decrease in women's age of marriage and an increase in the probability of getting married before the age of 18. Event study and synthetic control methods suggest that these effects are prominent two years after the riots and have increased over time. Women married after the riots also had fewer years of education and poorer social and economic status, such as a lower probability of employment and lower autonomy in household decision-making.

Play to Learn - Improving Foundational Learning with Technology Aided Formative Teaching (with Ramiro Burga, Gauri Kartini Shastry and Sheetal Sekhri)

Intergenerational Participation in Household Weaving Businesses and Productivity: A Case-study

from Chitrika (with Jane Hammaker, Chandan Jain, Tarun Jain and Fatema Patel)

Coverage: Ideas for India