Mamunuru, Sai Madhurika, Anand Shrivastava, and Arjun Jayadev. “Social networks and experienced inequality.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 229 (2025): 106799.
Traditional measures of inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, involve pairwise comparisons across all members of a given population. But, most people possess information about, and therefore experience inequality in comparison to, only a subset of the population. In this paper, we provide simple axioms to describe inequality as experienced in social networks. We propose an index to measure aggregate experienced inequality that is consistent with these axioms. We then compute the Gini coefficient and ‘experienced inequality’ in 75 villages in Karnataka, India. We show that for a given wealth distribution, the social network could either accentuate or diminish experienced inequality. We show, first analytically and then empirically, how this can happen with respect to two network properties. Firstly, wealth-based homophily is negatively associated with experienced inequality. Secondly, caste-based homophily is negatively associated with experienced inequality when within-caste inequality is less than the overall Gini coefficient (and positively associated when the opposite is true).
Girardi, Daniele, Sai Madhurika Mamunuru, Simon D. Halliday, and Samuel Bowles. “Does studying economics make you selfish?.” Southern Economic Journal 90, no. 3 (2024): 792-814.
It is widely held that studying economics makes you more selfish and politically conservative. We use a difference-in-differences strategy to disentangle the causal impact of economics education from selection effects. We estimate the effect of four different intermediate microeconomics courses on students’ experimentally elicited social preferences and beliefs about others, and policy opinions. We find no discernible effect of studying economics (whatever the course content) on self-interest or beliefs about others’ self-interest. Results on policy preferences also point to little effect, except that economics may make students somewhat less opposed to highly restrictive immigration policies.
Page-Hoongrajok, Amanda, and Sai Madhurika Mamunuru. “Approaches to Intermediate Microeconomics.” Eastern Economic Journal 49, no. 3 (2023): 368-390.
While there is a standard Walrasian approach to teaching intermediate microeconomics, there is no such template for instructors that want to go beyond this conventional framework. This paper’s purpose is to assist instructors with developing intermediate microeconomics courses that go beyond the Walrasian model, reflect the real world, incorporate advances in economics research, and are pedagogically inclusive. First, we develop a taxonomy of existing approaches to help instructors identify which approach best fits their intellectual and teaching philosophy. Next, we offer two detailed and vetted course design examples within this taxonomy. We then summarize the textbooks, topics, and assignments typically used in courses that cover more than the conventional Walrasian model.
Mamunuru, Sai Madhurika. “Social status and women’s work in urban India.” Revise and resubmit at Women’s Studies International Forum.
In rural India, where landed, upper-caste women traditionally did not perform wage work, female labor force non-participation signals social status. In this paper I explore the ways in which urban India may be different given that urban India has more industrial variety and a greater concentration of high-skilled jobs. I propose that the relationship between female labor force participation and familial social status depends on the kinds of jobs women can access. Indicators of social status – household wealth, education, and caste – are all positively correlated with female participation in well-paying, high-skilled occupations, and negatively correlated with female participation in low and medium-skilled occupations. I cite three separate but interrelated reasons for this. First, high wages and other favorable job characteristics might incentivize female labor force participation even with high or improving socio-economic status. Second, high-skilled jobs accrue social respect rather than signal financial need. Third, women of a high social status have greater access to well-paying jobs because of social networks and higher college graduation rates.
Halliday, Simon D., and Sai Madhurika Mamunuru. “Updating our approach to Intermediate Microeconomics.” Condtionally accepted at The American Economist.
Symposia in the Journal of Economic Literature and the Journal of Economics Education have considered what should be taught in the introductory economics classroom. Scaling that question up to the major as a whole involves a discussion of the competencies that a graduate with an economics major ought to have. Within this discussion, relatively less attention is devoted to what and how economic theory should be taught to economics majors. Here, we focus on a class in intermediate microeconomic theory. We discuss how the content and emphasis of the course could be modified to (a) more closely reflect what economists do, (b) respond to–though not determined by–the changing interests of economics majors, and (c) be more inclusive. Specifically, we argue that instructors could take a more intuitive, problem-centered approach to teaching microeconomic theory and prioritize discussion of strategic interactions, social preferences, incomplete information, and common pool resource problems.
Ralston, Jason, and Sai Madhurika Mamunuru. “Network structure and inequality in the Public Goods Game.”
Page-Hoongrajok, Amanda, and Sai Madhurika Mamunuru. “AI chatbots and economics pedagogy.”