I am Mamidipudi Ramakrishna Sharan, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park.
My research centres around questions in development economics and political economy. I have worked as a researcher and policy economist, with research organizations, state governments and the central government in India. I was awarded my PhD from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in May 2020. Subsequently, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center For Global Development.
My research focuses on inequality in socially diverse settings and how institutional and technological innovations could empower marginalized groups. My research is set in India: a common theme that runs through most of my work is a focus on rural local government institutions. I have worked on, among other things, grievance redressal mechanisms and the role of local government actors in making them more effective; the consequences of reservation for Dalits (Scheduled Castes) in village local governments; the consequences of reservation for women on corruption and development outcomes (in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh); the NREGA; identifying the poor (in Karnataka).
Prior to the PhD, I obtained degrees in economics, first from Hansraj College (B. A Hons) and then the Delhi School of Economics (M. A).
In addition to research in economics, I write more broadly. My first narrative non-fiction book on village politics in Bihar titled Last Among Equals released in December 2021. My novel Blue was published by HarperCollins in 2014.