Research Interests

• Development Economics
• Applied Microeconomics
• Institutional Economics
• Financial Economics
• Welfare and Poverty

Academic Qualifications

• Ph.D. Economics Columbia University 2005
• M.A. Economics Delhi School of Economics 1998
• B.A.(Hons.) Economics Miranda House, University of Delhi 1996

Academic and Professional Experience

• Director, HKUST Center for Economic Policy, Dec 2021 - present
• Member, Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, CGIAR, Jul 2021 - Jun 2024
• Associate Director, HKUST Center for Economic Policy, Oct 2020 - Nov 2021
• Associate Director, HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies, July 2020 - Jun 2021

Publications

• Evaluating the Distributive Effects of a Micro-Credit Intervention (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra and Dilip Mookherjee), Forthcoming, Journal of Development Economics.
• The Borrowing Puzzle: Why Do Filipino Domestic Workers in Hong Kong Borrow Rather than Dissave? (with Wooyoung Lim), Asian Development Review, 2020, Volume 37, Issue 2, pp. 77-79.
• Asymmetric Information and Middleman Margins: An Experiment with Indian Potato Farmers (with Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Maximo Torero), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2018, Volume 100, Number 1, pp. 1-36.
• When Mindsets and Identity Diverge: The Effects of Implicit Theories and Incentive Schemes in a Field Intervention (with Melody M. Chao, Anirban Mukhopadhyay and Rajeev Dehejia), October 2017, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Volume 146, Number 10, pp. 1402-1419.
• Financing Smallholder Agriculture: An Experiment with Agent-Intermediated Microloans in India (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Alberto Motta), Journal of Development Economics, July 2017, Volume 127, pp. 306-337.
          - Working paper featured in The NBER Digest, March 2015.
• Unintended Consequences of Rewards for Student Attendance: Results from a Field Experiment in Indian Classrooms (with Melody M. Chao, Rajeev Dehejia and Anirban Mukhopadhyay), Economics of Education Review, October 2016, Volume 54, pp. 173-184.
          - Media mention: How Do You Motivate Kids To Stop Skipping School? (by NurithAizenman), NPR, Washington DC, 22nd May 2015.
• The Distributive Impact of Reforms in Credit Enforcement: Evidence from Indian Debt Recovery Tribunals (with Ulf von Lilienfeld-Toal and Dilip Mookherjee), Econometrica, March 2012, Volume 80, Number 2, pp. 497-558.
• Legal Reform and Loan Repayment: The Microeconomic Impact of Debt Recovery Tribunals in India, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2009, pp. 59-81.
• Inter Country Comparisons of Poverty based on a Capability Approach (with Sanjay Reddy and Muhammad Asali). In Arguments for a Better World: Essays in Honour of Amartya Sen (editors: Kaushik Basu and Ravi Kanbur), 2009, Oxford University Press, pp. 7-29.
• Segregation, Rent Control and Riots: The Economics of Religious Conflict in an Indian City (with Erica Field, Matthew Levinson and Rohini Pande), American Economic Review, May 2008, pp. 505-510.

WORKING PAPERS

• Do Women Receive Worse Financial Advice? (with Utpal Bhattacharya, Amit Kumar and Jing Zhao), May 2022, Revision submitted, Journal of Finance.
• Decentralized Targeting of Agricultural Credit Programs: Private versus Political Intermediaries (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra and Dilip Mookherjee), Dec 2021, Revision requested, Journal of European Economic Association.
• Kin “Taxes”? Examining the Financial Behaviours of Filipina Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, (with Alvis Tsz Yeung Tang), Jan 2022.

WORK IN PROGRESS

• Clientelism and Ideology: Explaining the Rise of Hindu Nationalist Politics in an Erstwhile Communist Stronghold (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra and Dilip Mookherjee).
• The Effect of On-campus Student Accommodation on Academic and Non-academic Outcomes: A Regression Discontinuity Approach (with Xuanyi Jin, Amit Kumar, Kevin Kim-Pong Tam and Chen Xiang).
• An Empirical Examination of Votebuying in a Developing Economy (with Farzana Afridi, Shabana Mitra and Dilip Mookherjee).
• Borrowing in Functional v. Dysfunctional Families: How Migrant Domestic Workers Manage their Finances (with Utpal Bhattacharya).
• Air Pollution and Crime: Evidence from Bihar, India (with Tejendra Pratap Singh).
• Market Structure and Middlemen Margins in Potato Markets in West Bengal: Evidence from Trader Surveys (with coauthors).
• Assessing the Relative Importance of Information and Credit Constraints: An Empirical Study of Agricultural Sales (with coauthors).
   

NON-ACADEMIC WRITING

• Middleman Margins and Market Structure in West Bengal Potato Supply Chains (authors: Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, Maximo Torero and Sujata Visaria), VoxDev, August 2017.
• Agricultural Microfinance: An Alternative Trail (authors: Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, Alberto Motta and Sujata Visaria), Spore, January 2017.
• How Do You Motivate Kids To Stop Skipping School? (author: Nurith Aizenman, based on “Unintended Negative Consequences of Rewards for Student Attendance: Results from a Field Experiment in Indian Classrooms”), NPR, Washington DC, 22nd May 2015.
• Financial Inclusion for Agricultural Growth: An Alternative Approach (authors: Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, Alberto Motta and Sujata Visaria), Ideas for India, 8th December 2014.
• Helping Microfinance Fulfill Its Promise: Raising Borrower Incomes through Agent-Intermediated Lending (authors: Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, Alberto Motta and Sujata Visaria), IEMS Thought Leadership Brief, No. 3, October 2014. 
• Schooled Against Innovation (authors: Rajeev Dehejia and Sujata Visaria), The Indian Express, 20th September 2014.
• Agent Intermediated Loans: A New Approach to Microfinance (authors: Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, Alberto Motta and Sujata Visaria), ISB Insight, Jan-Mar 2014, Volume 1, Issue 2, pp. 33-37. (ISB Insight is the "Flagship Research Quarterly of the Indian School of Business".)

Affiliations

• Faculty Associate, HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies
• Research Affiliate, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD)

Teaching

• Writing as an Economist (co-taught with Center for Language Education), Undergraduate level.
  (ECON 4999W Summer 2021-22; ECON 3700 Spring 2022-23).
• Topics in Economic Development (ECON 5420), Masters level.
• Labour Economics & Human Resources (ECON 4234), Undergraduate level.
• Economic Development & Growth (ECON 4434), Undergraduate level.