Ph.D. candidate in Economics

Aritra Basu

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I expect to complete my degree in summer 2027.

I work at the intersection of identity and labor economics. I study how persistent historical and institutional inequalities shape the way communities and labor markets respond to economic shocks and other social crises. I also analyze paid and unpaid care, focussing on the organization and valuation of work in households and labor markets.

My job market paper examines how the racial history of American communities shaped the mortality consequences of rising Chinese import competition in the early 2000s. I find larger increases in deaths of despair among both Black and White men in Great Migration destinations. The paper shows how places shaped by social processes structured against Black residents became more vulnerable across racial lines, including for working-class White men.

In my other dissertation essays, I study religious and caste-based conflicts in India and their implications.

I am on the 2026–2027 job market.