Soumitra Shukla

I am a PhD Candidate in Economics at Yale. My fields are Labor Economics (primary field), Economics of Education and Applied Microecononmics. I work primarily with Joe Altonji, Costas Meghir and John Eric Humphries.

I passed my written comprehensive examinations in Microeconomics and Macroeconomics in the summer of 2016. I passed my oral comprehensive examinations in Industrial Organization and Labor Economics (with Distinction) in the summer of 2017. 

I am currently working on two separate projects with a top US MBA program and a premier post-secondary institution to improve the efficacy of their placement process for summer internships and full-time jobs. In the fall of 2017, I was awarded a research grant by the Cowles Foundation Structural Microeconomics Program to continue working on these two projects.

A related but separate research agenda with John Eric Humphries explores the role of socio-emotional skills and peer effects in determining labor market outcomes through course selection, academic performance, job search, job offers and job choices. Our studies go beyond establishing correlations and make use of a quasi-experimental setting to establish the causal role of peer personalities in determining both academic performance and labor market outcomes.

Another research project with Costas Meghir, Jean-Marc Robin and Rafael Dix-Carneiro, explores informality and investment in developing countries.  In particular, we study policies which improve wages, allocations and welfare in the presence of a large informal sector. Our model also provides a rationale for why richer countries have smaller informal sectors. 

I enjoy teaching and have served as a teaching fellow (TF) for advanced undergraduate and graduate econometrics courses. In the fall of 2018, I was awarded The Raymond Powell Teaching Prize. The Raymond Powell Prize is annually awarded to two graduate students and is based on their performance as teaching assistants in economics courses. Teaching evaluations from students are the most critical factor in determining the winners.

In May 2019, I was awarded the Carl Arvid Anderson Fellowship for my work involving the study of job placement processes for summer internships and full-time jobs. The fellowship, awarded annually to only 4-5 graduate students in the economics program, relieves recipients from teaching duties for a semester and allows them to devote their energies towards dissertation research.