Research Experience

Working Papers: 

“Hate crimes and elections in the US: Testing alternative explanations” 

  (Job market paper)

 Election campaigns and electoral changes in political regimes are strong indicators of people’s changing political perceptions. This paper examines how such political activity affects the incidence of crimes motivated by hate and intolerance, and what determines this relationship. First, using offense-level administrative data spanning 1998 to 2021 and a difference-in-differences design that compares election with non-election years, I show that hate crimes increase by around 28% in the three weeks around US presidential elections. This effect is larger in recent presidential elections and when the incumbent is not running. Second, using a similar design and cross-state variation in gubernatorial elections, I find that these state-based elections do not affect hate-crime incidence.  Third, using regression-discontinuity designs based on vote counts, I find that the number of hate crimes are not affected by presidential or gubernatorial election outcomes. These findings suggest that the national political atmosphere surrounding an election affects local hate crimes, and that the relationship is becoming more important over time. 

“Spillover effects of the US Drug crisis”

This paper seeks to examine three major spillover effects of the ongoing drug crisis in the US. Unlike previous drug crises, the recent prescription opioid crisis primarily impacted people in early adulthood through mid-life. This level of death and drug use among people of this age group has likely affected two adjacent generations as well. Firstly, it has affected a large number of children, as many affected people are parents with children at home. Secondly, many of them would have elderly parents, who rely on them for their financial and caregiving needs, which would be affected if adult children are not able to devote financial resources toward taking care of their elderly parents. Thirdly, it has affected individuals who draw Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits (henceforth referred to as DISSI) in terms of changing the amount of benefit claimed and received and overall number of beneficiaries as more and more people navigate addiction, alternative pain management and disabilities created and exacerbated by the drug crisis. Three different approaches are used to identify and estimate the effect of opioid abuse in adults on children, elderly and DISSI beneficiaries. Firstly, administrative data from the foster care system is used to examine the effect of the drug crisis on foster care removals. Secondly, data from HRS is used to identify and examine a potential impact of opioid abuse on elderly parents of adult drug abuse victims. Thirdly, DISSI administrative data is used to identify and examine the effect of the opioid crisis on beneficiary levels and income receipt.   

"Penalty enhancement statutes and Hate crimes in the U.S."  

 In this paper, I study the impact of penalty-enhancement statutes on the incidence of hate crimes in the United States. It is often argued that penalty enhancements deter crime, and substantial penalty increases for hate crimes have been added to state statutes in recent years. Using national data on offenses and a difference-in-differences design, I do not find that the introduction of state level penalty enhancements affected the incidence of hate crime. This suggests such changes are not salient, or that any reductions are offset by increased awareness and enforcement among law enforcement officials 

Works-in-progress:

"Hate speech and elections: Evidence from social media interactions" with Sameer Borwanker   

Research Experience (Pre-PhD):

Economic Research and Analysis Wing, Reserve Bank of India (Research Internship) - Summer 2016  

Project: “West Bengal Economy, Real GDP Growth, Facts and Myth” The project seeks empirical evidence to compare the nominal and real GDP growth rates of the economy of the state of West Bengal and the rest of India along with an identification of the contributors to economic growth in the State. 

Research Project under Professor Prithviraj Guha (Presidency University, India) - Summer 2015 

Project: “Agrarian Labor Shortage, Real wages and the Fate of Indian Agriculture” A pilot survey and study on the changing supply of agricultural laborers and its impact on small and medium holding farmers in West Bengal, India.

Other Research Experiences:

Research Assistant, Krannert School of Management, Purdue University 

• Professor Timothy Moore (Spring 2019- present) 
• Professor Jillian Carr (Fall 2019) 
• Professor John Barron (Spring 2020) 
• Professor Victoria Prowse (Summer 2020) 
• Professor Kevin Mumford (Fall 2021, Spring 2022)