I have completed my Ph.D. from New York University in May 2019 and I will be joining as an assistant professor of economics at Ashoka University in Fall, 2019.
My primary research interest is to understand and analyze both theoretically and empirically impact of costly learning strategy on the individual decision maker. In my recent paper, I have analyzed the apparent sub-optimal behavior of Indian cotton farmers, whose learning strategy lead to overuse of inputs that reduces the profitability. Based on a theoretical model of learning I have been able to rationalize the learning behavior under a cost of learning constraints and then tested the implications of the learning strategy in a laboratory setting. In another work, I have explored the implication of interaction between private and social learning and used the theoretical framework to analyze the labor market decision of Indian women.
My broad research interest involves understanding how constraints in learning affect decision-making behavior and subsequent payoff of decision-makers in a developing economy context. Introducing a learning constraint makes certain behaviors considered sub-optimal under standard neoclassical assumptions rational. Under the assumption of rationality, it becomes possible to make policy analysis that has external validity.
I have earned my BSc in Economics from Presidency College, Kolkata in 2011 and MS(Quantitative Economics) from Indian Statistical Institute in 2013.
