Sujata Visaria

Academic qualification

• Ph.D. Economics Columbia University 2005
• M.A. Economics Delhi School of Economics 1998
• B.A.(Hons.) Economics Miranda House, Unversity of Delhi 1996

Academic and Professional Experience

• Associate Professor, Economics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2017 - present
• Assistant Professor, Economics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2009 - 2017
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Ford School of Public Policy and Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 2008-2009
• Assistant Professor, Economics, Boston University, 2005-2009 

PUBLICATIONS

• When Mindsets and Identity Diverge: The Effects of Implicit Theories and Incentive Schemes in a Field Intervention (with Melody M. Chao, Anirban Mukhopadhyay and Rajeev Dehejia). Accepted,Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
• Asymmetric Information and Middleman Margins: An Experiment with Indian Potato Farmers (with Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Maximo Torero), Forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics.
• Financing Smallholder Agriculture: An Experiment with Agent-Intermediated Microloans in India(with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Alberto Motta), _Journal of Development Economics, _July 2017, Volume 127, pp. 306-337.
               Working paper featured in The NBER Digest, March 2015.
• Unintended Consequences of Rewards for Student Attendance: Results from a Field Experiment in Indian Classrooms (with Melody M. Chao, Rajeev Dehejia and Anirban Mukhopadhyay), Economics of Education Review, October 2016, Volume 54, pp. 173-184.
                Media mention: How Do You Motivate Kids To Stop Skipping School? (by NurithAizenman), NPR, Washington DC, 22nd May 2015.
• The Distributive Impact of Reforms in Credit Enforcement: Evidence from Indian Debt Recovery Tribunals (with Ulf von Lilienfeld-Toal and Dilip Mookherjee), _Econometrica, _March 2012, Volume 80, Number 2, pp. 497-558.
• Legal Reform and Loan Repayment: The Microeconomic Impact of Debt Recovery Tribunals in India, _American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, _July 2009, pp. 59-81.
• Inter Country Comparisons of Poverty based on a Capability Approach (with Sanjay Reddy and Muhammad Asali). In Arguments for a Better World: Essays in Honour of Amartya Sen (editors: Kaushik Basu and Ravi Kanbur), 2009, Oxford University Press, pp. 7-29.
• Segregation, Rent Control and Riots: The Economics of Religious Conflict in an Indian City (with Erica Field, Matthew Levinson and Rohini Pande), American Economic Review, May 2008, pp. 505-510.

WORKING PAPERS

• The Equity Impacts of Targeted Smallholder Agricultural Credit (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra and Dilip Mookherjee), HKUST IEMS Working Paper 2017-41. 
  

WORK IN PROGRESS

• Targeting of Agricultural Credit Programs: Private Agents versus Local Governments (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra and Dilip Mookherjee). 
• Incentivising the Poor to Save: A Study of Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong (with Wooyoung Lim). 
• How to Make a Miracle: Structurally Disentangling the Mechanisms by which Agent-Intermediated Lending Increases Farmer Incomes (with coauthors). 
• Market Structure and Middleman Margins in Potato Markets in West Bengal: Evidence from Trader Surveys (with coauthors). 
• Assessing the Relative Importance of Information and Credit Constraints: An Empirical Study of Agricultural Sales (with coauthors).
  

NON-ACADEMIC WRITING

• Agricultural Microfinance: An Alternative Trail (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Alberto Motta), Spore, January 2017. 
• Financial Inclusion for Agricultural Growth: An Alternative Approach (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Alberto Motta), Ideas for India, 8th December 2014.
• Helping Microfinance Fulfill Its Promise: Raising Borrower Incomes through Agent-Intermediated Lending (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Alberto Motta), IEMS Thought Leadership Brief, No. 3, October 2014.
• Schooled Against Innovation (with Rajeev Dehejia), _The Indian Express, _20th September 2014.
• Agent Intermediated Loans: A New Approach to Microfinance (with Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Alberto Motta), ISB Insight, Jan-Mar 2014, Volume 1, Issue 2, pp. 33-37. (ISB Insight is the "Flagship Research Quarterly of the Indian School of Business".)

AFFILIATIONS

• Faculty Associate, HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies
• Research Affiliate, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD)

TEACHING

• ECON 5420 (formerly ECON 6100L): Topics in Economic Development, Masters elective (Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014).
• ECON 4434: Economic Development & Growth, Undergraduate elective (Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Spring 2010).
• ECON 4234: Labour Economics & Human Resources, Undergraduate elective (Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014).
• ECON 2113: Microeconomics, Undergraduate core course (Spring 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010).

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics, Institutional Economics, Financial Economics, Welfare and Poverty