Sarvnipun Kaur

PhD Candidate in Economics, Plaksha University

Research Interests

Applied microeconomics focused on law, policy design, and labour market institutions.

Ph.D. in Economics, Plaksha University

Aug 2022 – Present

Occasional Ph.D. Student, Imperial College London (Jan 2026 – Present)

M.Phil. in Economics, Panjab University

2021

Dissertation: Pattern of Economic Development of Indian States: A Comparative Analysis of Punjab and Haryana

M.A. in Economics, Panjab University

2018

B.Com. (Honours), Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi

2015

Kaur, S.; Singh, P.; Arora, A. Cinderella No More: Night Shift Bans and Women's Employment in India. September 2025. Working Paper.
Kaur, S.; Singh, P.; Arora, A. Engaging Demand: Teaching Microeconomics in a Virtual Class. August 2023. Available at SSRN.

Incentives, Effort, and Gender in Professional Tennis (with Prakarsh Singh). Measures effort responses to changes in prize structure using match-level performance and ability data with a difference-in-differences design.
Employment Protection Design and Firm Litigation: Evidence from Gujarat. Uses spatial variation in labour law within Gujarat to test whether the design of employment protection legislation shapes firm litigation.
Dismantling Dismissal Protection: Evidence from Indian Plant-Level Data (with Prakarsh Singh and Saurabh Gupta). Uses plant-level Annual Survey of Industries panel data and staggered difference-in-differences across reforming states to estimate how removing dismissal protections and increasing severance reshapes employment and wages across firm sizes.
Front-Loaded vs. Back-Loaded Incentives: Experimental Evidence. Lab experiments testing theoretical predictions on incentive timing and its effects on effort, persistence, and performance.

Anand, B.; Bomjan, B.; Kaur, S. "The Curious Case of Indian Working Women." LiveMint (March 8, 2022).
Kaur, S.; Singh, A. "No Cabaret, Crooning or Cocktails: How Laws Impact Women in India's Hospitality Industry." ThePrint (March 13, 2022).
Anand, B.; Kaur, S.; Kaur, S. (2020). "Labour Pains: Status Check on Reforms in Employment Protection Legislation." In Regulation for New Realities: A Cross-Sectoral Analysis during COVID-19, pp. 47–68. Centre for Civil Society.
Anand, B.; Kaur, S. (2022). "State of Discrimination Report: A Sub-National Comparison of Legal Barriers to Women's Right to Choose Work in India."
Anand, B.; Kaur, S. "What Can We Expect from the Labour Codes?" Teamlease RegTech Blog (November 18, 2021).

Teaching Assistant, Plaksha University

Undergraduate modules: Microeconomics, Experimental Economics, Environmental Economics.

Guest Faculty, Panjab University

Introductory Microeconomics, Introductory Macroeconomics, Indian Economic Issues I.

European Sports Economics Association (ESEA), University of Zurich (August 2026).
NBER Summer Institute, Gender in the Economy (July 2026).
Royal Economic Society (RES), Newcastle University, UK (June 2026).
LEO Economics Conference, Plaksha University (April 2026).
Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development (ACEGD), Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi (December 2025).
PhD Colloquium, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai (October 2025).
LEO Economics Conference, Plaksha University (April 2025).
Chandigarh Social Science Congress VII (CHASSCONG), Chandigarh (2017): "Right to Elementary Education: An Effectiveness, Efficiency and Economy Evaluation."

Software: R, Stata, LaTeX.