• Economic History
• Labour Economics
• Development and Political Economy – all from the vantage point of historically marginalized social groups

Following my MStat (Masters in Statistics) from Indian Statistical Institute, I went on to pursue my PhD in Economics from the University of California, Davis. As an applied economist, I seek to investigate how historical institutions, whether formal or informal, have persistent, long-run effect on inequality, human capital accumulation, growth, development, and diversity. For example, in one of the chapters of my doctoral research I use archived graduation records of students from elite universities to trace group-level social mobility in India for different caste and religious groups over the last 150 years. In fact, I find it fascinating to extract and analyse economic information from historical texts – whether these are pieces of ancient literature or boring records maintained by bureaucrats/​institutions. Therefore, fellow economists often classify me as an Economic Historian, however, my research spans several other fields such as Labour, Development and Political Economy as well. 

I love to teach as much and have taught several courses in Economics to both undergraduate and graduate students including a unique course, ​“How to Teach Economics” to PhD students at University of California, Davis. At Azim Premji University, I am currently teaching two courses: Intermediate Microeconomics (UG) and Economics of Identity (PG).

I am also a regular contributor of op-ed articles at Al Jazeera. At different turns of life, I wanted to be a poet, a theatre practitioner, or a filmmaker, but failed so bad, that I decided to become an Economist instead. Nevertheless, poetry, films and theatre continue to be my breathing space till date.