
Office Location:
Specialization:
Economic development; Globalization, structural transformation and labor; Education; Publicly provided private goods.
Bio:
Aashish Mehta is a development economist. Born and raised in India, he trained in economics and energy policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he completed his PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics. He spent three years at the Asian Development Bank, working on electricity sector reforms, macroeconomic monitoring and employment-related research, before returning to the academy to teach and conduct research on the political-economy of development.
While his core interests involve globalization, economic development, education and labor markets, his publications cover many other aspects of development policy, including inequality, public services provision, corruption, discrimination and commodity price management. His work appears in a wide variety of peer-reviewed economics and public policy journals.
Professor Mehta received UCSB’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2017.
Publications:
Journal Articles
Titles link to final journal articles and to non-paywalled working papers.
Economics / Political-Economy Articles
- Will studying economics make you rich? A regression discontinuity analysis of the returns to college major (with Zachary Bleemer), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (forthcoming). Working Paper.
- Is employment globalizing? (with Liming Chen, Jesus Felipe and Andrew Kam), Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (2021). Working Paper.
- The effects of labor regulation on firms and exports: Evidence from Indian apparel manufacturing (with Asha Sundaram and Rana Hasan), Journal of Comparative Economics (2021). Working Paper.
- Manufacturing matters... but it's the jobs that count (with Jesus Felipe and Changyong Rhee), Cambridge Journal of Economics, (2019). Working Paper.
- Labor Regulations, Employment and Wages: Evidence from India's Apparel Sector, (with Rana Hasan, Nidhi Kapoor and Asha Sundaram). Asian Economic Policy Review (2017).
- Deindustrialization? A Global Perspective (with Jesus Felipe), Economics Letters (2016). Working Paper.
- Pilferage from Opaque Food Subsidy Programs: Theory and Evidence (with Shikha Jha), Food Policy, (2014). Working paper.
- Does industry affiliation influence wages? Evidence from Indonesia and the Asian Financial Crisis (with Wei Sun), World Development (2013). Working paper.
- Self-targeted food subsidies and voice: Evidence from the Philippines (with Shikha Jha and Pilipinas Quising), Food Policy (2013). Working paper.
- Where have all the educated workers gone? Services and wage inequality in three Asian economies (with Jesus Felipe, Pilipinas Quising and Sheila Camingue), Metroeconomica (2013). Working paper.
- Corruption, Food Subsidies and Opacity: Evidence from the Philippines (with Shikha Jha), Economics Letters (2012). Working paper.
- Economic Liberalization and Rising College Premiums in Mexico: A Reinterpretation (with Belinda Acuna Mohr), World Development (2012). Working paper.
- The effects of trade and services liberalization on wage inequality in India (with Rana Hasan), International Review of Economics and Finance (2012). Working paper.
- Overeducation in Developing Economies: How can we test for it and what does it mean? (with Jesus Felipe, Pilipinas Quising and Sheila Camingue), Economics of Education Review (2011). Working paper.
- Incomplete Property Rights, Exposure to Markets, and the Provision of Ecosystem Services in China (with Michael T. Bennett and Jintao Xu), China Economic Review (2011). Working paper.
- Understanding the Coffee Crisis: What Can We Learn from Price Dynamics? (with Jean-Paul Chavas), Journal of Development Economics (2008). Working paper
- Why Do Diplomas Pay? An Expanded Mincerian Framework Applied to Mexico (with Hector J. Villarreal), Applied Economics. (2008). Working paper.
- Price Dynamics in a Vertical Sector: The Case of Butter (with Jean-Paul Chavas), American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2004). Working paper.
- Power Sector Reform in Central Asia: Observations on the Diverse Experiences of Five Central Asian Republics and Mongolia (with Anil Terway & Satish Rao), Journal of Cleaner Production (2007). Working paper.
- Under-Representation of Disadvantaged Classes in College: What do the Data Tell Us? (With Rana Hasan), Economic and Political Weekly (of India) (2006). Working paper.
Articles in Cognate Disciplines
- When Development is Not Enough: Structural Change, Conflict and Gendered Insecurity (with Alison Brysk), Global Society, (2017). Working Paper.
- Is Only Fair Lovely? Consequences of Skin Color in a Survey Experiment in Delhi (with Amit Ahuja and Susan Ostermann), Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics (2016). Working paper.
- Research Diversification and Impact: The Case of National Nanoscience Development (with Patrick Herron, Timothy Lenoir and Cong Cao), Scientometrics (2016). Working paper.
- Do rights at home boost rights abroad? Sexual equality and humanitarian foreign policy (with Alison Brysk), Journal of Peace Research (2014). Working paper.
- Globalization and De-Globalization in Nanotechnology Research: The role of China (with Patrick Herron, Yasuyuki Motoyama, Richard Appelbaum and Tim Lenoir), Scientometrics (2012). Working paper.
Books
- Metrics that Matter: Student life in the quantified university (with Zachary Bleemer, Christopher Muellerleile, Mukul Kumar and Christopher Newfield). Johns Hopkins University Press (forthcoming).
Working Papers
- Major restrictions and student stratification (with Zachary Bleemer). UC Center for Studies in Higher Education Working Paper Series 14.21.
- Education and the Evolution of Comparative Advantage (with Jesus Felipe and Hongyuan Jin, 2021). Asian Development Bank, Economics Working Paper Series 635.
Book Chapters and Reports
- Major restrictions, socioeconomic stratification and student success (with Zachary Bleemer). University of California Office of the President Policy Brief (2020).
- What humanities scholars and economists think higher education is for – and how quantification sidelines both views (with Christopher Newfield). In Anna Alexandrova, Stephen John and Christopher Newfield (eds.) The Limits of the Numerical. University of Chicago Press (forthcoming).
- Asia's Structural Transformation: Where to, how, and how fast? (with Jesus Felipe, Roehl Briohnes, Douglas Brooks and Bart Verspagen, 2013).
- Education and Structural Change in Four Asian Countries (with Jesus Felipe, 2007)
- International Payments Imbalances (with Frank Harrigan and Jesus Felipe, 2006)
- A Diagnostic Review of Regulatory Approaches and Challenges: Power Sector Reforms in Seven CAREC Member Countries(with David Butcher, 2005)
- The Economics and Feasibility of Electricity Generation using Manure Digesters on Small and Medium Size Dairy Farms. (2002).
Invited Online Articles
- Are Labor Markets Increasingly Global? Some Empirical and Policy Concerns, Global-e, the E-journal of 21st Century Global Dynamics Initiative (2018)
- How Serious are India’s Manufacturing Skill Gaps? , Ideas for India (2015)
- The Manufacturing Conundrum, (with Jesus Felipe and Changyong Rhee), World Bank Jobs and Development Website (2015)
- Five ways to lessen inequality as demand for labor softens worldwide, Huffington Post (2014).
- Strawberries, Chocolate and Skill Gaps, World Bank Jobs and Development Website (2014).
- Why Global students should study economics. Global-e, the E-journal of 21st Century Global Dynamics Initiative (2013)
In the works..
- What does economic growth do to public services corruption? (with Amit Ahuja).
- Does studying economics change your political perspective? (with Zachary Bleemer)
- Trade liberalization and inequality as if businessmen existed (with Andrew Dawson, Miguel Flores Segovia and Asha Sundaram)
- Does the US Nanotechnology sector suffer a skills gap? (with Stacey Frederick and Rachel Parker)