I am a final year Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Southern California, specializing in development and health economics. My research investigates how to improve human capital among disadvantaged populations and how governments in developing countries can improve outcomes for the poor through public programs, with a particular focus on early-childhood nutrition and health.

In my job market paper, I show that parents systematically overestimate their children’s nutritional status—particularly when they have high exposure to other malnourished children within their communities—and underestimate the long-term consequences of early-life malnutrition. Correcting these beliefs through an information treatment improves both child feeding and anthropometric outcomes. Another chapter of my dissertation examines misreporting in government administrative child growth monitoring data.

I previously worked with NEERMAN, a research organization in India, where I managed large-scale policy-focused research studies in the areas of adolescent empowerment and education, child marriage, maternal and child health, and water-sanitation-hygiene. I hold a master’s degree in economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, and an undergraduate degree from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.