Research
Working Papers
Structural Transformation and Climate Change in India
Abstract
Climate change is expected to have heterogeneous effects on economic sectors and across geographic locations. India is primarily an agrarian country with second largest population, seventh largest in area and seventh highest risk to climate change in the world. Estimating heterogeneous effect of Climate change across sectors and genders directly impacts policy making for a large population. I develop a spatial equilibrium model emphasizing the link between climate change, “food problem” and structural transformation and empirically estimate the impact of temperature on labor shares by sector, gender, and migration status. I find that labor share in agriculture increases at extremes of temperature, inhibiting structural transformation. “The food problem” gets exacerbated due to climate change pushing labor into agriculture. While trade can solve this problem, I find that inefficiencies in Indian agricultural market keeps trade from becoming a helpful tool and causes disadaptation to climate change. I also find that women in India do not have access to migration as an adaptation tool but they are able to adapt to heat through sectoral reallocation.
Stumped by the Sun, Saved by the Side: Estimating the role of peer and adversarial effects in adaptation to heat
Abstract
Literature has conclusively established that temperature has negative impact on individual’s labor productivity. However we rarely work in isolation, most jobs require working with peers or against an adversary. This paper provides first estimates of the magnitude of peer and adversarial effect on individual’s productivity under heat. Utilizing rich data, institutional details, and team dynamics of the sport of cricket, I find that even though temperature affects individual’s productivity negatively, it doesn’t seem to have any effect on equilibrium outcomes that are affected by the individual, their peers and adversaries. A further analysis reveals that peer effect increases significantly at temperature above 25C while adversarial effect has no significant difference between below 25C and above 25C temperature games. This finding suggests that even when workers are individually affected negatively by temperature, they can adapt through positive peer effect.
Works in progress
Heat begets pollution : Estimating the heat-pollution response function in India (with Beia Spiller)
Climate Change and Mechanization of Agriculture in India (with Bhavya Srivastava)
Book Chapters
- Understanding the Gender Gap in Education and Employment Chapter in Colossus : The anatomy of Delhi , edited by Sanjoy Chakravorty and Neelanjan Sircar. Cambridge University Press (2021) (with Deepaboli Chatterjee and Babu Lal)