Faculty Profile

I continue to pursue interests in the role of social identity in economic interaction using survey and experimental data. My current work focuses on post recruitment discrimination in a lab setting. In collaboration with Prof. Sheheryar Banuri, I am exploring how colleagues and supervisors may undervalue the merit of members of subaltern groups. In another study, with Prof. Husnain Fateh, I am exploring whether the success of members of subaltern groups generates a backlash from colleagues.

I remain interested in the link between political identity, labor rioting violence and economic outcomes. Using repeated cross-sectional survey data, data on violence and election data, I am exploring whether political groups can use violence or the threat of it to secure better economic outcomes for the members of their group.

My interest in identity and economics has led me to question the robustness of disciplinary boundaries, and to reconsider the link between economic, cultural and political change. This is reflected in my work only to the extent that my econometric specifications allow for categories identified by social sciences other than economics. However, I am keenly interested in more substantive discussions on the poverty of methodological individualism and questioning how markets handle (or fail to handle) basic problems of resource allocation.