About Me

I am a development economist and data scientist. I currently work at Neo.Tax.

This website is a repository for my academic work. My research focused on understanding how the competition for government jobs through merit-based exams interacts with the rest of the labor market.

The work that you see here was completed over the course of my PhD in Public Policy at Harvard University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University.

Even though I am no longer an academic, I still hope that this work is able to find the right audience. If you would like to talk about anything you see here, feel free to reach out.

The TNPSC Research Study

The TNPSC Research Study was a five year effort to better understand the labor market experience of candidates applying to exams conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC).

Our main findings are available in the following report:

Summary: This report uses data from TNPSC and a survey of over 3000 candidates to shed light on policy-relevant questions about the recruitment process: Who applies? Why do they apply? Why are people willing to invest so much in exam preparation? Why are people willing to gamble on such low odds of getting selected? What is the best way of structuring recruitments for both candidates and the government?

Click here for more information about the study, and to see what else we’ve done so far.

Publications

Research Papers

The long-run costs of highly competitive exams for government jobs

Forthcoming in the Journal of Development Economics

Media: Ideas of India | VoxDev

Peviously circulated as "Chasing Government Jobs: How Aggregate Labor Supply Responds to Public Sector Hiring Policy in India" and "Competitive Exams for Government Jobs and the Labor Supply of College Graduates in India"

Abstract: Public sector recruitment exams can be highly competitive. Does this competition encourage candidates to develop generalizable skills, or do investments in exam preparation burden candidates who fail to get selected? I address this question by studying the impact of a partial public sector hiring freeze in the state of Tamil Nadu, India on male college graduates. The hiring freeze eliminated 86% of the usual vacancies. This increased the applicant-to-vacancy ratio for the remaining posts. Cohorts that were exposed to the hiring freeze delayed full-time employment, most likely in order to invest more time in exam preparation. A decade after the hiring freeze ended, the affected cohorts demonstrate a lower earning capacity, have delayed household formation, and appear more likely to remain unemployed. Together, these results suggest that highly competitive exams encourage candidates to make investments that are ultimately unproductive.

How much are government jobs in developing countries worth?

Forthcoming in the World Bank Economic Review

Media: Lok Mat (Marathi language newspaper) | Lok Satta (Marathi language newspaper)

Abstract: Government jobs in developing countries are valuable not just because they pay relatively higher wages, but also because they provide many valuable amenities. How does the value of these amenities compare with the nominal wage itself? The observed search behavior of candidates preparing for competitive exams for government jobs is used to infer a lower bound on the total value of a government job, including amenities. Based on a sample of 147 candidates preparing for civil service exams in Pune, India, the amenity value of a government job is estimated to comprise at least two-thirds of total compensation. The high amenity value is not driven by misinformed beliefs about the nominal wage, nor by a high value placed on the process of studying itself. Insights from focus group discussions help explain which government job amenities are most valued in this setting.

Policy Briefs

Bloesch, Justin, Kunal Mangal, and Niharika Singh. "How Labor Market Tightness and Job Search Activity Changed in the First Year of COVID-19: Evidence from an Indian Job Portal." G²LM|LIC Policy Brief No. 54 (December 2022). Access data here

ReStat 100th Anniversary Article Series

The following articles are non-peer-reviewed pieces written in commemoration of the Review of Economics and Statistics 100th anniversary:

Khwaja, Asim I., and Kunal Mangal. “Review of Economics and Statistics over the Past 100 Years: A Counting Exercise.” Review of Economics and Statistics 100, no. 2 (2018a): i-v.

Khwaja, Asim I., and Kunal Mangal. “Review of Economics and Statistics over the Past 100 Years: Authorship.” Review of Economics and Statistics 100, no. 3 (2018b): i-v.

Khwaja, Asim I., and Kunal Mangal. “Review of Economics and Statistics over the Past 100 Years: Content.” Review of Economics and Statistics 100, no. 4 (2018c): i-vi.

Khwaja, Asim I. and Kunal Mangal. “Review of Economics and Statistics over the Past 100 Years: Content Explorer.” Review of Economics and Statistics 101, no. 1 (2019): pp.i-iii.

The last article has an accompanying web application that allows you to track the popularity of words and phrases in ReStat over time.