Swagata Bhattacharjee is Assistant Professor of Economics at Ashoka University. She has completed her PhD in May 2016 from the University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research interest lies in Applied Microeconomic Theory and Experimental Economics.
Professor Bhattacharjee’s current research discusses the allocation of ambiguity and decision rights through an effective design of contracts in innovation-intensive sectors, theoretically analysing situations where the true nature of ‘risk’ is unknowable beforehand. She has also conducted laboratory experiments to explore the possibility of delegation of decision rights in a contractual environment. Apart from these, she has worked on projects examining the welfare effects of online reviews. Broadly, her research attempts to explore and analyse real life issues using theoretical models and experimental methods.
In her current projects, Prof. Bhattacharjee explores economic situations which are so unique in nature that it is difficult to even identify the underlying probability distribution using past data. She considers how economic institutions respond to this unique form of uncertainty, referred to in literature as ‘Knightian Uncertainty’ or ‘Ambiguity.’ She examines the role of government policy in presence of this ambiguity.
Prof. Bhattacharjee has earned her B.Sc. From Presidency College, Kolkata in 2008, MS (Quantitative Economics) from Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi in 2010 and MS from University of Texas at Austin from 2012.
