Chit Funds are indigenous financial institutions in India that combines credit and savings in a single scheme. In a chit fund scheme, a group of individuals come together for a predetermined time period and contribute to a common pool at regular intervals. In order to understand the intricacies...

This paper uses random assignment of students to investigate the impact of study groups and roommates on academic achievement. We find that informal social interaction with roommates has a significant positive impact on academic achievement while study group peers have no discernible impact, a...

In this paper we analyze women as political candidates in a representative democracy. Using 50 years of assembly elections data at the constituency level from the Indian states, we show that women are more likely to contest elections in those constituencies where gender ratio of the electors is...

This paper studies the causal impact of credit constraints on exporting firms. We exploit a natural experiment provided by two policy changes in India, first in 1998 which made small scale firms eligible for subsidized direct credit, and a subsequent reversal in policy in 2000 wherein some of...

This paper tests the impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on rural-urban migration and urban unemployment in India. We use the Harris-Todaro framework to analyze labor market outcomes of this policy intervention. Using data from two rounds of National Sample Survey, we...