Akhila Kovvuri

Akhila Kovvuri is a PhD candidate in Economics, studying development and labor economics and focusing on barriers and solutions to low female labor force participation in India. Her current projects include investigating gender disparities in the gains from industrial policy in rural India, assessing the impact of gender-inclusive public transportation on mobility and opportunities for women in urban India, evaluating a mentoring program aimed at enhancing career preparedness and job prospects, and analyzing gendered gaps in career progression in Brazil using data from online job portals.Her main dissertation paper focuses on the unintended consequences that industrial policy and firm concentration can have on women; given that women are more commute constrained than men, they might benefit less from the increase in productivity and wages that economic hubs can provide. Using spatially granular political and economic census data for over 500,000 villages across India, Akhila studies the effect of an industrial policy change in the 2000s on labor mobility, labor force participation, and firm productivity.