Overview

My research focuses primarily on how to design, target, and deliver financial products to the poor, and, in particular, how financial inclusion can improve the socio-economic position of women. My projects have analyzed how the design and delivery of microfinance products can enhance business growth; how to utilize mechanism design to elicit and aggregate community information to target high-growth entrepreneurs; the importance of peer support in conjunction with financial training in helping women grow their enterprise; and, the value of financial inclusion for improving female labor force participation. I have also tested behavioral models to increase hand washing behavior and habituation. My ongoing work includes studying the interaction between financial inclusion and corruption; the role of intra-household bargaining in resource allocation decisions among entrepreneurs in the household; and, the effect of caste norms on female labor force participation.