Bio
I am an applied microeconomist. My research spans (i) political economy, where I study how institutions shape policy choices; (ii) development and culture, where I study how norms and informal institutions shape behavior; and (iii) gender, where I study inequality within households and labor markets. I use experimental and observational methods, drawing on administrative data, text-as-data, and machine-learning tools. My current projects focus on India, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.
I am joining Princeton University as a postdoctoral researcher in 2026.
Research
Political Economy Development and Culture Gender Covid
Political Economy
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Government by Discussion: Deliberation, Media, and Policy-Making
with Elaheh Fatemipour
This paper studies whether parliamentary deliberation affects policy-making, and whether its effects depend on public exposure. Using quasi-random variation from the computerized ballot that determines which policies are discussed during Question Hour in the Indian Parliament, we show that debated issues are more likely to appear in subsequent bills and that related bills progress faster through the legislative process. These effects are substantially stronger when debate receives media coverage. Reductions in news attention cut the policy impact of debate by roughly half, implying that public exposure is an important mechanism through which deliberation shapes policy.
Development and Culture
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Political Empowerment and Marital Practices
Journal of Development Economics, 2026
This paper examines whether expanding women’s political representation affects marital practices in rural India. Exploiting the reservation of village council leadership positions for women under India’s 1992 constitutional amendment, I show that exposure to female leaders delays marriage by improving women’s economic opportunities, but also increases dowry payments. The increase in dowry is concentrated in more patriarchal settings, where the social costs of delayed marriage are higher. The results suggest that political empowerment can shift marital behavior, but that its effects are constrained—and partly offset—by entrenched social norms. -
The Cultural Premium: How Cultural Distance, Economic Contributions and Value Alignment Shape Immigration Attitudes
with Elaheh Fatemipour
This paper quantifies a cultural premium in immigration attitudes: the additional income a culturally distant immigrant must earn to be equally preferred to a culturally close immigrant for remaining in the host country. Using a representative survey experiment in the United Kingdom, we estimate that this premium exceeds £20,000 when the immigrant’s personal values are unobserved, but falls by 73% when respondents learn that his values align with UK norms. Information on value alignment also reduces concerns about cultural erosion by 35%. The findings indicate that opposition to culturally distant immigrants reflects, to a large extent, beliefs about their underlying values rather than origin per se.
Gender
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Postpartum Depression and the Motherhood Penalty
R&R, The Review of Economics and Statistics
with Sonia Bhalotra, N. Meltem Daysal, Louis Fréget, Jonas Cuzulan Hirani, Mircea Trandafir, Miriam Wüst, and Tom Zohar
This paper studies how postpartum depression affects mothers’ labor-market trajectories after childbirth. Using Danish administrative records linked to validated postpartum depression screenings, we show that depressed and non-depressed mothers follow similar pre-birth employment trends but diverge sharply after birth, generating persistent employment gaps. These effects are larger for less educated mothers and for women in less family-friendly jobs. The results identify postpartum depression as an important and unequal contributor to the motherhood penalty.
Covid
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The Role of Nudges in Reducing Exponential Growth Bias and Increasing Safety Compliance
Review of Behavioral Economics, 2026
with Ritwik Banerjee and Satarupa Mitra
This paper studies whether low-cost behavioral nudges can reduce exponential growth bias and improve safety compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an online experiment with participants in India, we evaluate numerical feedback, graphical feedback, and forecast-range prompts. The interventions reduce misperceptions about exponential growth and are associated with higher self-reported compliance with safety guidelines. The results suggest that simple changes in how public-health information is communicated can improve risk perception and behavioral responses during health emergencies. -
Exponential Growth Bias in the Prediction of COVID-19 Spread and Economic Expectation
Economica, 2023
with Ritwik Banerjee
This paper studies exponential growth bias in beliefs about COVID-19 transmission and examines how reducing this bias affects economic expectations and risky investment. Using four experimental interventions, we show that simple feedback and forecast information substantially reduce misperceptions about epidemic growth. Correcting the bias also dampens expectations of macroeconomic deterioration and reduces risky investment. The results highlight how errors in processing non-linear growth can shape economic beliefs and choice under uncertainty. -
Exponential-Growth Prediction Bias and Compliance with Safety Measures Related to COVID-19
Social Science & Medicine, 2020
with Ritwik Banerjee and Joydeep Bhattacharya
This paper studies exponential-growth prediction bias in beliefs about COVID-19 transmission and its implications for compliance with protective behavior. Using an incentivized online experiment spanning countries at different stages of the pandemic, we show that respondents systematically underestimate infection growth, and that larger bias is associated with lower compliance with safety measures. A simple information intervention that presents prior case counts in raw numbers rather than graphs significantly reduces the bias. The findings suggest that how epidemic information is presented can improve risk perception and public-health behavior.