Nishith Prakash is an Assistant Professor of Economics on a joint position with the Department of Economics and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He joined University of Connecticut after completing his doctorate at the University of Houston, Texas and working as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Cornell University from July 2010 till December 2011. He previously held Visiting Assistant Professor Positions at Ohio University and Dartmouth College and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and Yale University.
He is also a Research Fellow at Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) based at University College London, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, HiCN Households in Conflict Network, and Member of Insights on Immigration and Development (INSIDE-SPAIN). Through his academic pursuit, he has focused on the relationship between government policies and economic development and harnessed rigorous empirical evidence to study the impact of policies and institutions in enabling inclusive growth.
Prof. Prakash’s primary research interests include development, labour, and public policy and economics of education.One line of his work focuses on understanding the effects of affirmative action policies in India on labour market outcomes, child labour and poverty. His other work has examined topics such as the returns to English-language skills, effects of crime on economic growth, effect of politician quality on economic outcomes in India, and evaluation of welfare and behavioural impacts of Index Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) in Kenya.
He has experience in conducting surveys in developing countries and working with large-scale observational and administrative data sets. Professor Prakash’s research has been covered in The Economist, World Bank Development Impact Blog, The Atlantic, The Hindu, The Times of India, The Financial Time, The Economic Times and other national and international newspaper.
