Research

Working Papers

Planning for the Worst? Effort Allocation When Task Length Is Unknown (Joint work with Srijita Ghosh) (Job Market Paper) [link to paper]

In this paper, we study the effort allocation decision of individual agents given a deadline under uncertainty about the task length. Under incomplete information about the true task length, agents form beliefs. We assume two canonical cases - uniform-prior and maximin expectation - and show that the former model leads to back-loading of effort, whereas the latter translates to front-loading of effort. The effort allocation choice thus affects the task quality. We test the theory in a lab setting with 412 undergraduate students. We find strong evidence of worst-case planning both under ambiguity and risk. By measuring the belief separately, we show that worst-case planning is not driven by incorrect belief, but rather reflects a behavioral principle. We find that although worst-case planning limits the possibility of non-completion in task quality under incomplete information on task length, there is task quality loss due to the speed-accuracy trade-off.

Task Information and Academic Procrastination [link to paper]

Academic procrastination is widely prevalent. Studies indicate that around 80% of students engage in procrastination and associate it with poor academic scores. This paper explores the relationship between procrastination and poor academic performance to test if missing information regarding the time needed to complete a task affects delay and the associated performance. The main research questions are: Does lack of information about the time needed to complete a task induce task delay? Does delayed time allocation to the task (too close to the deadline) translate to poor task performance? A quasi-natural experiment was conducted in an online classroom setting over one semester to answer these questions. The information about the time needed to complete a quiz during the course varied by quizzes. The results show a strong negative relationship between delay and performance. Also, the data provides evidence of the provision of information regarding the time needed to complete the quiz, leading to reduced procrastination (task delay) and improved performance.

Work in Progress

Incentive to Innovate under Consumer Inattention (Joint work with Srijita Ghosh)

In a market for goods with multiple attributes, consumers may pay more attention to some attributes relative to others, which, in turn, should affect the decisions of firms regarding these attributes. The paper analyzes the effect of consumer inattention on decisions of vertically differentiated firms. Two firms compete in a two-stage game, deciding the quality and then competing in prices. Consumer inattention is captured by the salience theory of inattention developed by Berdalo et al. (2013), under which the consumer attention to an attribute depends on the attributes of the offered products, implying a two-way feedback between firm choices and consumer choices. This competition among firms for consumer attention is studied by Berdalo et al. (2015) with a single salient consumer. My paper extends it to two consumers, one attentive and one inattentive, and studies the incentives of a monopolist to offer a high-quality product when there is an entry threat in the next period. The results show that the monopolist’s incentive to provide a high-quality product in period one is weakly higher under consumer inattention. Under certain conditions, there is a trade-off between higher profits in period 1 and reduced profits in period 2 from selling a high-quality good in period 1. The benefit outweighs the loss when the cost of producing a high-quality good is lower for the monopolist in period 1 than for the entrant in period 2.

Gender Bias in Leadership: Evidence from India’s Civil Service Recruitment (Joint work with Jitendra Singh)

This project aims to causally investigate whether women are penalised in leadership positions for displaying traits that signal leadership but defy prescribed gender stereotypes, as hypothesised by the Status Incongruity Theory. The project links interview scores of applicants for India’s Civil Service Examination with their perceived personality traits to examine whether leadership traits are rewarded differently for women and men. We will use a novel incentivised lab experiment and machine learning methods to measure the perceived personality traits from video recordings of mock interviews. This study will provide real-world evidence of gender biases in evaluation and advance our understanding of barriers faced by women in attaining leadership roles.

Research Statement