Chinmaya Kumar

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • Development economics
  • Behavioural economics
  • Political economy
  • Labour economics

Biography

Chinmaya is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India. His research spans development, political, labour, and behavioural economics, with a focus on designing and evaluating scalable interventions that improve public service delivery and labour market outcomes.

A key strand of his work investigates the challenges of public sector delivery, particularly the agency problems that hinder effective governance. He studies how systems for citizen complaints and monitoring can increase state responsiveness and strengthen democratic accountability. Another area of his research explores the persistent underrepresentation of minorities in positions of leadership — across firms, bureaucracies, and elected offices — and examines the institutional and social factors that contribute to these disparities.

More recently, his work has focussed on the economics of informal labour markets — particularly how employers and workers bargain over wages and working conditions, how agreements break down, and the institutions workers develop to cope with the uncertainty and informality of employment contracts.

His research draws on field experiments, large-scale surveys, and administrative data, and is often carried out in collaboration with civil society organisations and government agencies.

Courses

Publications

Working Papers

  • Kumar, C. (2023). Selection, Sorting and Discrimination in Labor Supply Decisions: Experimental Evidence from India. [Working Paper].
  • Kumar, C., & Sharan, M. R. (2023). Complaint Resolution Systems: Experimental Evidence from Rural India. [Working Paper].
  • Kumar, C., & Sharan, M. R. (2023). The Distributional Consequences of Political Reservation. [Working Paper].

Work in Progress

  • Kumar, C., & Kapoor, V. (In progress). Why do Firms Hire Migrant Workers?: Evidence from India.
  • Kumar, C., & Shrivastava, A. (In progress). Stuck in the Queue: Behavioral Frictions in the Pursuit of Public Sector Employment in India.
  • Kumar, C., & Sharan, M. R. (In progress). Leader Led Growth: Social Identity and Performance of Economic Enterprises in Rural India.
  • Kumar, C., Dar, A., & Sharan, M. R. (In progress). Strengthening Citizen Led Monitoring: Experimental Evidence from India.
  • Kumar, C., Blattman, C., Bursztyn, L., Rajah, K., & Roth, C. (In progress). Persistent Prejudice: De-Biasing and the Demand for News.

Pre-Doctoral Publication

  • Ghatak, M., Kumar, C., & Mitra, S. (2016). Cash versus Kind: Understanding the Preferences of the Bicycle-Programme Beneficiaries in Bihar. Economic and Political Weekly, 51(11), 51 – 60.