About Me
I'm a second-year PhD candidate in Political Economy and Government, affiliated with the Harvard Department of Economics and Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to graduate school I worked as a pre-doctoral research fellow with the Princeton Program in Public Finance. I hold an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi. Thanks to the generous support of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School and the Adriene Hall Fund, I will spend the summer before my third year working as a research assistant for Professor Rema Hanna at HKS.
About the Project
This summer I will be working with Professor Rema Hanna and her co-authors, helping to lay the groundwork for a project studying property tax reforms in Tamil Nadu, India. The Department of Revenue in Tamil Nadu is interested in improving collection of property taxes as this is the main source of revenue used by local bodies to provide essential services such as schools, sanitation, health centers, etc. Since existing tax collectors employed by the government are responsible for routine tax collection for a very large number of properties, they are unable to effectively execute additional tasks that can help increase revenues, such as collecting unpaid tax bills through better enforcement, identifying and re-assessing under-valued properties, and bringing new properties into the tax net. We will work on collaboration with the Greater Chennai Corporation to explore strategies to improve property tax collection under these constraints. Since the project is in its early stages, I will be able to contribute to discussions about research design and gain first-hand experience in the coordination, exploratory data analysis, and pilot development required to launch a research project of this magnitude.
Incorporating a Gender Lens
Property tax revenues are used to fund several local public goods which directly impact women’s lives, including primary health centers, schools, roads, street lighting, public transport infrastructure, and sanitation. Our study will help the government understand which property tax reforms should be implemented at scale in order to raise revenues that can be used to improve the delivery of public goods that increase women’s welfare.