Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Punarjit Roychowdhury

Punarjit Roychowdhury

Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Economics

School of Humanities and Social Sciences


Contact Information

Applied Microeconometrics, Development Economics, Labor Economics, Economics of Gender, Behavioral Economics

2017

Ph.D., Economics Southern Methodist University, U.S.A.

2014

MA, Economics Southern Methodist University, U.S.A.

2011

M.Sc., Applied Economics Presidency College, Kolkata

2009

B.Sc., Economics University of Calcutta, Kolkata

2021

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR

2019 - 2021

Assistant Professor (with tenure), Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, UK

2018 - 2019

Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indore

2017 - 2018

Assistant Professor, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR

2014 - 2016

Lecturer, Southern Methodist University, U.S.A.

  • Best Paper in the Economics Track (Second Prize), IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) Research Symposium 2025, Krea University, India, 2025
  • Best Paper Award, Applied Economics Area, Econometric Society-Delhi School of Economics Winter School 2023
  • Best Paper in the Economics Track, IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) Research Symposium 2023, Krea University, India
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award, Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association, USA, 2022
  • M.J. Manohar Rao Young Economist Award 2021, The Indian Econometric Society, 2021
  • Seed Money Research Support, IIM Indore, INR 100,000, 2018
  • Melody Rice Memorial Award in Economics (for excellence in research), Department of Economics, Southern Methodist University, 2017
  • Graduate Student Travel Grant, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, Southern Methodist University, 2016
  • Graduate Student Award, Southern Economic Association, 2016
  • Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, Southern Methodist University, 2016
  • Dean’s Award, Graduate Research Day, Southern Methodist University, 2016
  • Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Grant, Southern Methodist University, 2015
  • Student Development Grant, Southern Methodist University, 2014
  • Omicron Delta Epsilon, International Honor Society for Economics, United States, 2013
  • Full Tuition Scholarship and Teaching Assistantship, Southern Methodist University, TX, United States, 2012
  • Foreign Travel Scholarship for pursuing doctoral studies abroad, University of Calcutta, India, 2012
  • Samir Kumar Ganguly Memorial Scholarship for securing the First position in M.Sc Examination, Presidency College, Kolkata, India, 2012

  1. Nandwani, B. and Roychowdhury, P. (2026). “British Colonialism and Women’s Empowerment in India,” Economic Development and Cultural Change (forthcoming).
  2. Nandwani, B. and Roychowdhury, P. (2025). “Rural Roads Infrastructure and Women’s Empowerment in India,” World Bank Economic Review, 39, 592–613.
  3. Dhamija, G., Roychowdhury, P., and Saha, S. (2025). “Women's Attitudes Towards Physical Intimate Partner Violence in India: Trends, Patterns, and Determinants,” PLOS One, 20(3): e0318350.
  4. Dhamija, G., Roychowdhury, P., and Saha, S. (2025). “Unpacking the Persistence of Intimate Partner Violence against Married Women in India,” Journal of Quantitative Economics, 23, 621–646.
  5. Dhamija, G., Roychowdhury, P., and Shankar, B. (2025). “Does Urbanization Empower Women? Evidence from India,” Journal of Population Economics, 38, 27.
  6. Roychowdhury, P. and Dhamija, G. (2024). “Educational Hypogamy and Female Employment in Rural India,” Empirical Economics, 67, 2893–2931.
  7. Li, H., Millimet, D. L., and Roychowdhury, P. (2023). “Measurement of Economic Mobility in India Using Noisy Data,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, 186, 84–109.
  8. Roychowdhury, P. and Dhamija, G. (2022). “Don’t Cross the Line,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, 185, 1952–1978.
  9. Dhamija, G., Ojha, M., and Roychowdhury, P. (2022). “Hunger and Health,” Journal of Development Studies, 58, 1181–1210.
  10. Roychowdhury, P. (2021). “Too Unwell to Trust?” Economics & Human Biology, 42, 101021.
  11. Roychowdhury, P. (2021). “(Em)Powered by Science?” Economics of Education Review, 82, 102118.
  12. Roychowdhury, P. and Dhamija, G. (2021). “The causal impact of women’s age at marriage,” Feminist Economics, 27, 188–220.
  13. McDonough, I. K., Roychowdhury, P., and Dhamija, G. (2021). “Measuring the Dynamics of the Achievement Gap,” Journal of Labor Research, 42, 78–122.
  14. Millimet, D. L., Li, H., and Roychowdhury, P. (2020). “Partial Identification of Economic Mobility,” Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 38, 732–753.
  15. McCoy, S. C., McDonough, I. K., and Roychowdhury, P. (2020). “The Impact of Terrorism on Social Capital,” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 82, 526–548.
  16. McDonough, I. K., Roy, M., and Roychowdhury, P. (2020). “Racial Gaps in Food Insecurity,” Review of Economics of the Household, 18, 387–412.
  17. Dhamija, G. and Roychowdhury, P. (2020). “Age at marriage and women’s labor market outcomes,” Journal of International Development, 32, 342–374.
  18. Marjit, S., Oladi, R., and Roychowdhury, P. (2020). “Income Distribution and Trade Pattern,” Review of Economics, 71, 1–14.
  19. Roychowdhury, P. (2019). “Peer Effects in Consumption in India,” World Development, 114, 122–137.
  20. Roychowdhury, P. (2018). “Visible Consumption, Relative Deprivation and Health,” Economics Bulletin, 38, 1366–1380.
  21. Roychowdhury, P. (2017). “Visible inequality and conspicuous consumption,” Oxford Economic Papers, 69, 36–54.

  1. Nandwani, B., and Roychowdhury, P. (2025). “From Property to Power: The Political Returns to Women’s Inheritance Rights in India” (R&R, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization).
  2. Mustafi, S., Nandwani, B., and Roychowdhury, P. (2025). “Guns and Gains: Effects of Exposure to Counterinsurgency Operations During School-Age Years”.
  3. Nandwani, B., Roychowdhury, P., and Shankar, B. (2024). “Rural Roads and Firm Outcomes in India”.
  4. Jasuja, G., Roychowdhury, P., and Bosello, F. (2025). “Heat, Labor Share and Wage Inequality: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in India”.

  1. “Timely justice in India: Can AI be the answer?,” Hindustan Times, April 1, 2025
  2. “Rich getting richer, poor poorer, as growth turns capital-intensive,” 360info, March 19, 2025; Down to Earth, March 20, 2025; Northeast News, March 22, 2025; Scroll, March 23, 2025.
  3. “India Inc.’s profits are growing. So why are your wages still low?,” The Indian Express (Online), February 20, 2025.
  4. “Can the budget unlock labour market potential?,” Hindustan Times, February 4, 2025.
  5. “Rural road infrastructure empowered women in India,” VoxDev, January 9, 2025.
  6. “What are the effects of India’s rapid urbanization on women’s empowerment,” Ideas for India, March 28, 2024.
  7. “Women empowerment in India: does colonial history matter?” Ideas for India, June 22, 2023.
  8. “The automation boom may widen inequality. Address it”, Hindustan Times, February 17, 2023.
  9. “Remembering Jacob Mincer, a pioneer of labour economics, on his birth anniversary,” (with Aanshi Sharma), Money Control, August 25, 2022.
  10. “Hypergamy violation and domestic violence,” Ideas for India, May 27, 2022.
  11. “Thinning India,” The Telegraph, May 12, 2022.
  12. “Time to turn spotlight back on malnutrition,” The Hindu BusinessLine, January 20, 2022.
  13. “Pandemic of Inequality: The Falling Rate of Intergenerational Mobility,” LiveWire, June 24, 2021.
  14. “The hand that hits,” The Telegraph, March 27, 2020.
  15. “Economic Mobility in India: Estimation Using Noisy Data,” Ideas for India, September 18, 2019
  16. “India’s economic mobility and its impact on inequality,” Mint, August 12, 2019.
  17. “What is forcing Indian women to stay at home?” Hindustan Times, April 1, 2019.
  18. “Is growing inequality behind the rise in mental diseases in India?” The Telegraph, February 28, 2019
  19. “How women’s age at marriage impacts domestic violence,” Ideas for India, July 2, 2018.

Conferences

  • 11th SERI Conference, Shiv Nadar University, July 17-19, 2025 (Panel discussion moderator)
  • Inequality Over the Life Course Workshop, UNU WIDER, Jun 4-5, 2025 (discussant)
  • Kerala and the World Economy Conference, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram, March 10-11, 2025 (invited talk)
  • Annual Conference on Public Finance and Policy, CTRPFP, CSSSC, Kolkata, Jan. 6-7, 2025 (invited talk)
  • Reflections on Development Economics, Presidency University, Kolkata, Dec. 27, 2024
  • Conference of the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE), Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, Sept. 21-23, 2023
  • 4th Annual Conference in Economics and Finance, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Feb 9-11, 2023 (Invited Talk)
  • India @75 ICG Annual Conference, Goa, Aug. 26-27, 2022
  • Australian Gender Economics Workshop (virtual), Women in Economics Network, Feb. 8-9, 2021.
  • 1st SMU Alumni Conference (virtual), Southern Methodist University, Jan 20-21, 2021 (conference co-organizer and presenter)
  • 15th Annual Growth and Development Conference, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, India, Dec. 18-20, 2019
  • Delhi School of Economics Winter School, New Delhi, Dec. 10-13, 2019
  • 5th International Conference on South Asian Economic Development, South Asian University, New Delhi, Feb. 21-22, 2019
  • North East Universities Development Consortium (NEUDC) Conference 2018, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, Oct. 26-28, 2018
  • Conference on New Directions in Economic Theory and Empirical Economics, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Aug. 17-18, 2018
  • 5th Conference of the International Association for Applied Econometrics, Montreal, Canada, June 26-29, 2018 (accepted but could not attend)
  • 7th Annual International Conference on Public Finance and Public Policy, Centre for Training and Research in Public Finance and Policy, Kolkata, India, January 3-4, 2018 (Special Invited Talk)
  • 13th Annual Growth and Development Conference, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, India, Dec. 18-20, 2017
  • Southern Economic Association Annual Conference, Washington D. C., Nov. 19-21
    North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, June 16-19, 2016
  • Texas Econometrics Camp 2016, La Torretta Lake Resort and Spa, Montgomery, TX, Feb. 20-21, 2016
  • Graduate Research Day, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, Feb. 10, 2016
  • XXVth Annual Development Economics Conference, organized by Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, Dec. 22-23, 2015
  • Graduate Research Day, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, Feb. 25, 2015
  • 10th Annual Growth and Development Conference, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, India, Dec. 18-20, 2014
  • Conference on Social Identity and Economic Development, organized jointly by University of Exeter, United Kingdom and Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India, Dec. 15, 2014
  • Stata Texas Empirical Microeconomics Conference IV – Graduate Poster Session, Dallas, TX, Nov. 7-8, 2014
  • Young Economists’ Conference, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, March 11-12, 2012

Invited Talk/Seminar Presentations

  • UNU Wider, Helsinki, June 4, 2025
  • Delhi School of Economics, Feb 20, 2025
  • 2025 Budget Seminar, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Feb. 7, 2025
  • SNIoE TIF Talk, April 19, 2023
  • IIT Kanpur, April 17, 2023
  • Ashoka University, March 22, 2023
  • Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, November 4, 2022
  • Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, September 1 & 7, 2022
  • International Management Institute, New Delhi, November 15, 2021
  • Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, September 9, 2021
  • Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, September 3, 2021
  • Xavier University, Bhubaneswar, India, May 28, 2021
  • School of Economics, University of Nottingham, UK, May 6, 2021
  • Nottingham University Business School, UK, August 12, 2020
  • P. Jindal Global University, Haryana, September 5, 2019
  • Ashoka University, Haryana, September 4 , 2019
  • Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing, China, May 24, 2019
  • Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India May 13, 2019
  • South Asian University, New Delhi, India, April 12, 2019
  • Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, India, March 15, 2019
  • Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India, April 17, 2018
  • Indian Institute of Management, Indore, India, December 20, 2017
  • Ahmedabad University, India, November 8, 2017
  • Delhi School of Economics, India, November 2, 2017
  • Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India, March 28, 2017
  • Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh, India, January 24, October 6, 2017
  • Ahmedabad University, India, November 18, 2016
  • Presidency University, Kolkata, India, July 26, 2016
  • Brown Bag, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, March 30, 2016
  • Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India, Jan. 7, 2016
  • Brown Bag, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, September 24, 2014

Referee for: Economic Modelling, Econometric Reviews, Economica, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Economics and Human Biology, Economic Inquiry, Economics of Education Review (x 4), Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Empirical Economics (x 2), Feminist Economics (x 3), Journal of Applied Economics, Journal of Asian Economics, Journal of Demographic Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Development Studies (x 3), Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Economic Inequality, Journal of Labor Research, Journal of Population Economics (x 3), Journal of Quantitative Economics (x 2), Journal of South Asian Development, Oxford Economic Papers, Review of Economics of the Household, Review of Income and Wealth, SAGE Publications, Social Indicators Research, World Development (x 2).