Namrata Kala

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Namrata Kala is an Associate Professor in Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

She is an economist with research interests in environmental and development economics. Her current research projects include studying how firms and households learn about and adapt to environmental change and regulation, the returns to environmental technologies, and the returns to worker training and incentives.

From fall 2015 to 2017, Namrata was a Prize Fellow in Economics, History, and Politics at Harvard University and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her PhD in environmental economics from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale. She also holds a BA (Honors) in economics from Delhi University, and an MA in international and development economics from Yale University.

Publications

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"Money (Not) to Burn: Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Crop Residue Burning."

Jack, Kelsey, Seema Jayachandran, Namrata Kala, and Rohini Pande. AER: Insights. Forthcoming. MIT Climate Portal.

"The Impact of Managerial Autonomy on Firm Outcomes."

Kala, Namrata. Econometrica. Forthcoming. NBER Working Paper.

"Fetal Origins of Mental Health: Evidence from Africa."

Adhvaryu, Achyuta, James Fenske, Namrata Kala, and Anant Nyshadham. Economic Development and Cultural Change Vol. 72, No. 2 (2024): 493-515.

"Returns to On-the-Job Soft Skills Training."

Adhvaryu, Achyuta, Namrata Kala, and Anant Nyshadham. Journal of Political Economy Vol. 131, No. 8 (2023): 2165-2208.

"Climate Adaptation."

Kala, Namrata, Clare Balboni, and Shweta Bhogale. VoxDevLit, June 2023. VoxDevLit.

"Railways and Cities in India."

Fenske, James, Namrata Kala, and Jinlin Wei. Journal of Development Economics Vol. 161, (2023): 103038.

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Recent Insights

Ideas Made to Matter

A little management attention can go a long way

Attentive managers move workers when their environments get too toxic, new research finds.

Jul 11, 2019
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Ideas Made to Matter

4 things you need to know about soft skills

MIT Sloan experts share their knowledge and experience about the benefits of critical thinking and collaboration.

Feb 6, 2018
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Media Highlights

Press The Hill

Management failure, not work-from-home, kills productivity

Research by associate professor Namrata Kala and co-author indicates that employees do not simply become more efficient because a manager watches their every move. Rather, they want clarity, communication, and trust. Remote workers excel when they have well-defined goals, regular feedback, and a sense that the manager is paying attention to their progress in a constructive way, the study suggests.

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