Jheelum Sarkar

I am a PhD candidate in Economics at American University in Washington, DC. My research is in applied microeconomics, with a focus on labor, gender, development, and policy evaluation. I am especially interested in how the future of work, technological change, and large-scale shocks shape who works, under what conditions, and with what consequences for inequality.

My dissertation studies how telework exposure affects women's economic well-being in emerging economies, where gender norms, mobility constraints, and on-site work requirements often restrict women's access to paid employment. A second strand of my research examines the links between environmental change, inequality, and labor markets.

I combine applied microeconometrics with machine learning and non-traditional data. My work builds new measures using text-as-data methods as well as remote-sensing techniques using satellite imagery.