economics

My work centers around the economics of education. While this makes me a labor economist at my core, I filter in and out of many other fields (development, market design, IO, metrics, behavioral, theory) to use their tools for the questions I want to answer.

research

works in progress (with drafts)

Identifying and Nurturing Math Talent: Evidence from Tamil Nadu

with Esther Duflo, Glenn Ellison, Sara Ellison, and Harini Kannan · AEA pre-registry

How do we find talented but underserved students? How can we support their growth? How far can that growth go?

abstract

This paper presents evidence from a randomized controlled trial designed to test how to best identify and support gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds. To do so, we offered access to an advanced online prealgebra course and an internet-enabled tablet to 7th-grade public-school students from Tamil Nadu, whom we identified as having high potential using several alternative strategies. Our primary finding is that we were able to successfully identify students who succeeded in challenging coursework originally designed as enrichment material for students with much stronger math preparation.

We randomly assigned identification methods, which allowed us to investigate their relative effectiveness. We find that the combination of existing administrative scores and engagement with an extract of the textbook distributed as a physical booklet best predicts engagement and success with the course material. We additionally cross-randomized treatments to evaluate program design (including group and individual tutoring, incentives for students, access to computer labs), and find that the simplest-to-scale version without tutoring led to the highest engagement.

reflections

My coauthors and I are running an RCT with 2,400 gifted 7th-grade students in Tamil Nadu and an online self-paced pre-algebra class from AoPS. We’re currently in the middle of Phase 2, and are excited to see the long-term effects. Presented at the NBER Economics of Talent Meeting (Fall 2025), NBER Economics of Education Meeting (Spring 2026).

School-House Shocks: The Effect of Neighborhood-based School Assignment Policies on Intracity Migration

Examining Chicago’s location-based affirmation action — how do admissions policies influence migration and housing prices?

abstract

Affirmative action policies based on geographic characteristics are potentially manipulable by families who move in response to the policy, undermining policy goals and hurting families who the policy is intended to help. I test whether these channels have significant impacts in Chicago, where admissions to selective high schools depend on the demographics of a student’s neighborhood. Using data from Chicago Public Schools and the Cook County Assessor’s office, I find no effects of marginal tier assignment on short-term migration of families or long-term housing prices.

reflections

My second-year paper! I’d love to improve on these estimates using individual-level housing data, though this seems difficult to acquire.

works in progress (as in, actually in progress)

The Winner's Curse of Test-Optional Admissions

with Nagisa Tadjfar and Kartik Vira

My job market paper; more to come soon!

reflections

There are so many interesting institutional features about uni applications in the UK. We’re doing a deep dive into the market design of this system. This will be my job market paper — stay tuned!

Chicago charters' effectiveness

How effective are they? How has that effectiveness changed over time, and why?

reflections

Questions about admission design have gotten much more pertinent given SFFA vs. Harvard, and even more relevant given CPS’s recent interest in neighborhood schools. As a Blueprint Labs research associate, I’m also leading some work on Chicago’s charter schools, with a particular focus on the Noble Network of Charter Schools.

works in “progress” (just thinking about ‘em for now)

iterations on MDRD1 and MDRD2

how to assign teachers to students

the role of gifted education in the system as a whole

where does motivation come from?

early decision/action as a form of market power

alternative pathways to college/besides college

education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology · PhD in Economics, 2021–2027 (exp.)

NSF Graduate Research Fellow, 2021–2026 · NBER Global Math Talent Fellow, 2025–2026

reflections

It’s crazy to think that I’m at the end of grad school and am going on the job market. There’s been a lot to do over the last year, but also, I feel like I have a way better sense of direction with it all. In the last year, I think I’ve also “found my groove” as an economist, and have found myself more excited and motivated for research. We’ll see what comes next!

Massachusetts Institute of Technology · SB in Mathematical Economics, 2017–2021

Minor in Public Policy · Phi Beta Kappa

reflections

MIT was a wonderful place to do my undergrad, filled with people who were all excited about something. Here’s a post with many, many reflections on this institution. Three quick reflections for those who don’t want to read the whole thing (and reflections I probably would have figured out anywhere else):

1. At MIT, you learn, mostly in unexpected ways. All of the ways that I changed the most had nothing to do with the content of a class; it was the things I chose to be involved in, the people I met, and the things I figured out about myself.
2. I spent a lot of time in structured non-academic pursuits: deliberate time around others, ESP, science bowl, and much more. During college, I found how necessary it is for me to have non-academic things filling my life; I am not a person who can just do work forever.
3. One of the most difficult parts of MIT is that it sometimes feels bad to do things just for your own sake. Not in the sense that MIT is competitive (it is not), but when you are surrounded by so many smart and high-achieving people who have done amazing things, it can feel like you need to be “productive” all the time. I am still learning how to let go of this feeling.

pre-history

undergraduate work

Evaluating Strategic Play: Manipulations with Symmetric Information in the Boston Mechanism

Undergraduate thesis advised by Parag Pathak, 2021 · PDF

Using some theory and some simulations, examined how manipulable ESP’s lottery mechanism was.

reflections

Inspired by my work with ESP, my feelings on finishing this thesis played a non-zero role in choosing to start grad school.

A Rising Tide for All or Wave for One?: The Effect of Charter School Competition on District Achievement

Written for 14.33. MIT Undergraduate Journal of Economics, Vol. 20. 2021 · PDF

Using favorableness of state laws, I analyzed how charter entry affected non-attending students.

reflections

My first independent research project; while I don’t think this paper is fantastic, I do think that it was a very worthwhile exercise to help me understand the process of research a bit more.

ra work

Optimal Public Transportation Networks: Evidence from the World's Largest Bus Rapid Transit System in Jakarta

RA for Ben Olken, Gabriel Kreindler, Rema Hanna, and Arya Gaduh

A summer RA project where I developed a pipeline to process 60 million riders’ data. My work helped contribute to research on lockdown mobility and the optimal network design.

The Surprising Hybrid Pedigree of Measures of Diversity and Economic Concentration

NBER WP #26512, with Ernst Berndt and Rena Conti · PDF

A paper examining the theory behind measuring market concentration, and applying said measures to the pharmaceutical industry.