Nidhiya Menon

Bio: Nidhiya Menon is an academic researcher from Brandeis University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Wage & Per capita. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 65 publications receiving 879 citations. Previous affiliations of Nidhiya Menon include Rutgers University & Monash University.

International Trade and the Gender Wage Gap: New Evidence from India’s Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: Summary This study examines how increasing competitive forces from India’s trade liberalization have affected women’s relative wages and employment. Neoclassical theory implies that costly discrimination against female workers should diminish over time with increased competition. We incorporate this idea into a theoretical model of competition and industry concentration and test the model using repeated cross-sections of India’s National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) household survey data merged with trade and production data from 1983 to 2004. Estimates from ordinary least-squares (OLS) and fixed effects regressions at the industry-level indicate that increasing openness to trade is associated with larger wage gaps in India’s concentrated manufacturing industries.

Seasonal effects of water quality: The hidden costs of the Green Revolution to infant and child health in India☆

Abstract: article i nfo Thispaperexaminesthe impact of fertilizeragrichemicals inwater on infantand child health using waterquality data combined with data on child health outcomes from the Demographic and Health Surveys of India. Because fertilizers are applied at specific times in the growing season, the concentrations of agrichemicals in water vary seasonally and by cropped area as some Indian states plant predominantly summer crops while others plant winter crops. Our identification strategy exploits the differing timing of the planting seasons across states and differing seasonal prenatal exposure to agrichemicals to identify the impact of agrichemical contamination on

Women’s Land Rights and Children’s Human Capital in Vietnam

Abstract: Summary Vietnam’s 1993 Land Law created a land market by granting households land-use rights which could be exchanged, leased, and mortgaged Using a matched household sample from Vietnam’s 2004 and 2008 Household Living Standards Survey, this study analyzes whether land titling for women led to improvements in child health and education Results indicate that female-only held land-use rights decreased the incidence of illness among children, increased their health insurance coverage, raised school enrollment, and reallocated household expenditures toward food and away from alcohol and tobacco These effects were almost all stronger than in households with male-only or jointly-held land-use rights

War and Women’s Work Evidence from the Conflict in Nepal

Abstract: This paper examines how Nepal's 1996-2006 civil conflict affected women's decisions to engage in employment Using three waves of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, the authors employ a difference-in-difference approach to identify the impact of war on women's employment decisions The results indicate that as a result of the Maoist-led insurgency, women's employment probabilities were substantially higher in 2001 and 2006 relative to the outbreak of war in 1996 These employment results also hold for self-employment decisions, and they hold for smaller sub-samples that condition on husband's migration status and women's status as widows or household heads Numerous robustness checks of the difference-in-difference estimates based on alternative empirical methods provide compelling evidence that women's likelihood of employment increased as a consequence of the conflict

Labor Disputes and the Economics of Firm Geography: A Study of Domestic Investment in India

Abstract: Acrimonious relations between employers and employees in developing countries have often been cited as impediments to progress. This article considers various measures of labor disputes and investigates whether these have detrimental effects on the location choice of new domestic investment across the various states of India. Conventional wisdom holds that an increase in measures such as the number of strikes, the number of man‐days lost in work stoppages, and the percentage of unionized workers would hinder the location of new projects. Using panel data and a fixed‐effects methodology that controls for the effect of state‐specific unobservables, we find significant evidence that this is indeed the case in India. Furthermore, disaggregation by industrial classifications shows that, although labor disputes continue to exert negative effects, location choices are also conditioned on factors such as proximity to raw materials and minerals.

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

Abstract: Meeting: International Seminar on Information and Communication Technology Statistics, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 19-21 July 2010

Summary of "Expanding credit access: using randomized supply decisions to estimate the impacts"

Abstract: Expanding access to commercial credit is a key ingredient of financial development strategies. There is less consensus on whether expanding access to consumer credit helps borrowers, particularly when loans are extended at high interest rates. Popular skepticism about "unproductive," "usurious" lending is fueled by research highlighting behavioral biases that may induce overborrowing. We estimate the impacts of expanding access to consumer credit at a 200% annual percentage rate (APR) using a field experiment and follow-up data collection. The randomly assigned marginal loans produced significant net benefits for borrowers across a wide range of outcomes. There is also some evidence that the loans were profitable.

Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts

Abstract: Expanding access to commercial credit is a key ingredient of financial development strategies. There is less consensus on whether expanding access to consumer credit helps borrowers, particularly when loans are extended at high interest rates. Popular skepticism about "unproductive," "usurious" lending is fueled by research highlighting behavioral biases that may induce overborrowing. We estimate the impacts of expanding access to consumer credit at a 200% annual percentage rate (APR) using a field experiment and follow-up data collection. The randomly assigned marginal loans produced significant net benefits for borrowers across a wide range of outcomes. There is also some evidence that the loans were profitable. The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.