Ideas of India

This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. On this episode, I spoke with Nisha Vernekar who is a PhD Candidate in Economics at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Her research focus is at the intersection of gender, education, labour economics and development economics. We discussed her job market paper, (coauthored with Karan Singhal) titled, "Breaking the Night Barrier: Night-shift Reforms and Women's Work in India." We talked about the regulatory frictions in the labor market in India, in particular the gendered restrictions imposed by the Shops and Establishments act, how labor demand changes after deregulation, how it affects overall labor force participation, India's structural transformation, and much more. Recorded August 25th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Nisha on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:33 - India's Labor-Market Puzzle 00:06:40 - The Roots and Rollback of India's Gendered Labor Restrictions 00:10:31 - The Chicken and the Egg: Disentangling Night-Work Restrictions and Women's Willingness to Work 00:15:21 - Formality and the Impact of Reforms and Women's Labor-Force Participation 00:18:13 - Measuring Women's Work 00:21:17 - What PLFS Data Can't Tell Us 00:25:49 - Indian Women Workers: Exotic—or Homo Economicus? 00:30:01 - Relaxing Gender Restrictions Without Significant Displacement 00:34:45 - Implications for Gender Equality 00:39:54 - Opportunities for Improvement in the Manufacturing Sector 00:43:57 - The Case for Gender-Agnostic Regulations 00:45:52 - Outro

This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. We are launching our series with Aishwarya Kekre, who is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Virginia. Her research focus is at the intersection development, trade and spatial Economics. We discussed her job market paper, "Barriers to Structural Transformation: The Role of Agricultural Land Fragmentation." We talked about the reasons for land fragmentation in India, its impact on manufacturing enterprises, on employment in both agriculture and manufacturing, profitability of small farms, how it impacts overall structural transformation, and much more.  Recorded August 21st, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:36 - Land Fragmentation and Structural Transformation: Surprising Trends 00:08:10 - Understanding Land Fragmentation 00:15:17 - Measuring the Impact of Land Fragmentation 00:21:13 - The Effect of Declining Farm Size on Manufacturing 00:26:30 - Measuring Fragmentation 00:31:11 - The Magnitude of the Distortions 00:36:20 - Impacts on Manufacturing Employment 00:39:45 - Modeling This Problem 00:49:04 - Potential Policy Implications 00:56:07 - Outro

Today my guest is Rana Hasan who is the Director, Centre for Economic Growth at NCAER and Senior Affiliate Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Prior to this he was the Regional Lead Economist at the Asian Development Bank. We talked about how to classify and define a city, coordination problems in urban governance, their potential as engines of growth and employment, land use regulation, and how cities are the mother of all general equilibrium problems, and much more. Recorded July 23rd, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:23 - Thinking Differently About Cities 00:13:15 - Fixing India's Land Use Regulation and Coordination 00:23:18 - Strategies for Nurturing Urban Growth 00:33:19 - The Mother of All General-Equilibrium Problems 00:38:41 - The Potential Benefits of Devolving Power to Local Governments 00:45:49 - Making India a Global Economic Player 00:49:38 - Balancing Security for Workers and Flexibility for Firms 00:58:29 - India's Missed Growth Opportunities 01:06:05 - Hurdles to Global Integration and Opportunities for Local Empowerment 01:12:46 - Outro

Today my guest is Gaurav Chiplunkar, who is an Assistant Professor in the Global Economies and Markets group at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. We talked about labor market frictions in India, understanding the reasons for low female labor force participation in India, the importance of information flows and networks, the role of middlemen, and much more. Recorded July 8th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Gaurav on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:15 - Examining Female Labor Force Participation in India 00:08:38 - Broad Patterns in Female Employment 00:14:15 - Barriers to Entrepreneurship for Indian Women 00:21:50 - Well-Intended Labor Policy and Unintended Consequences 00:29:20 - Female Employment After Career Breaks 00:35:52 - Female Labor Force Participation and Economic Growth 00:46:02 - The Trouble with Piecemeal Reforms 00:50:40 - Frictions in the Job Market 00:57:04 - Rivalry, Information Flow, and the Nerd Effect 01:05:11 - Challenges to Placement and Retention 01:18:31 - On the Potential of Job Portals and Leapfrogging 01:27:08 - Defining the Goalposts 01:30:38 - Outro

Today my guests are my colleagues Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah. Shreyas is a research scholar and Kadambari is a research associate at the Mercatus Center with the India program. We talked about completing five years of the 1991 Project, how it started, it's scope, the oral histories of the reformers in 1991, papers, essays, fellowships and much more.  Recorded July 10th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Shreyas on X Follow Kadambari on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:44 - The Origin Story 00:11:07 - Launching the Oral Histories Initiative 00:20:47 -Documentation and Memory 00:37:47 - Building the Repository 00:46:18 - The 1991 Project Website 00:58:11 - Walking with Giants 01:06:45 - Where are all the Women? 01:11:27 - Making Economic Reforms 'Sexy' Again 01:22:43 - The Importance of Intergenerational Interaction 01:34:33 - Incubating New Talent 01:41:39 - Gratitude and Acknowledgments 01:53:19 - Outro