Manaswini Rao
Biography
Manaswini Rao is an assistant professor of economics at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware. She specializes in development economics with her research interests in the economics of legal institutions (political economy) and organization structures in agricultural production. Her research can be classified into three major buckets. First, she studies the role of frontline judiciary (e.g. district or county courts) and broader dispute resolution institutions in the economic development process. Second, she examines collective action and coordination in improving agricultural productivity in the context of smallholder agricultural production. This spans farmer producer organization structures, technology diffusion and access to and management of local irrigation resources. Third, she studies the structural transformation process of moving from agricultural production into urban and/or non-agricultural sectors from the lens of rural land inequality.
Education
- Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics, University of California Berkeley
- M.P.P., University of California Berkeley
- B.E. (computer science and engineering), B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India
Selected Publications
- “Got (Clean) Milk?: Organization, Incentives, and Management in Indian Dairy Cooperatives” with Ashish Shenoy, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol 212, Aug 2023, Pages 708-722.
Curriculum Vitae
Download Manaswini Rao’s CV (PDF)