Akhila Kovvuri

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2021 - 2022 Academic Year

Role of Labor Demand in Explaining Low Female Labor Force Participation in India

India has exceptionally low female labor force participation (FLFP), often attributed to labor supply factors like social norms. However, there hasn't been much emphasis on female labor demand for explaining this puzzle. Through natural experiments, lab-in-the field experiments, and program evaluations, Kovvuri would like to study (1) the effect of India's restrictive manufacturing policies on decreasing demand for female labor, (2) whether restricted female labor demand and representation influences social norms against women working, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle of low FLFP, and (3) if interventions such as recruitment drives and gender quotas can break such a feedback loop.

Akhila Kovvuri, Department of Economics

Akhila Kovvuri is a PhD candidate in economics at Stanford University. Her areas of interest are development economics, political economy, and labor economics. She is particularly interested in gender, religion, and how such identities and social norms interact with institutions and the labor market. Prior to coming to Stanford, Kovvuri worked as a research analyst at Northwestern University and in the field in India and Ghana. She holds a BA in economics from Dartmouth College.

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