(Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)
I am an economist at the University of Notre Dame. My primary fields of research are political economy and development economics.
Positions
- University of Notre Dame
- Professor of Economics and Global Affairs
- Academic Director, Building Inclusive Growth (BIG) Lab
- Principal Investigator, Representation of Women (ROW) Lab
- Principal Investigator, Innovating Green Pathways to Prosperity
- Faculty affiliate: Kellogg Institute for International Studies; Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies; Gender Studies Program; Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate; Pulte Institute for Global Development
- Institute of Labor Economics (IZA): Research Fellow
- Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD): Affiliate
- Ideas for India: Editorial Board Member
NEW!!
- Journal article: Chaudhary, Latika, and Lakshmi Iyer. “The Importance of Being Local? Administrative Decentralization and Human Development.” Economic Journal, conditionally accepted.
- Journal article: Iyer, Lakshmi, and Coleson Weir. “The Colonial Legacy in India: How Persistent are the Effects of Historical Institutions?” Journal of Development Economics, forthcoming.
- New working paper: Holman, Mirya, Lakshmi Iyer and Christina Wolbrecht. “Turning Votes into Power: New Women Voters and Access to Local Governance.” May 2025.
- Journal article: Holman, Mirya, Lakshmi Iyer and Christina Wolbrecht. “Governing the Gilded Age City: Local Institution Building in the United States.” Journal of Historical Political Economy, forthcoming.
- Updated working paper: Lancker, Kira, Lakshmi Iyer, Faraz Usmani, James Allen IV, Molly J. Doruska, Samba Mbaye, Aminata Sylla, Bineta Sow, Jason R. Rohr and Christopher B. Barrett. “Do private incentives crowd out public good donations? Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment.” April 2025.
- Journal article: Cassan, Guilhem, Lakshmi Iyer, and Rinchan Ali Mirza. “Enfranchisement, Political Participation and Political Competition: Evidence from Colonial and Independent India.” Journal of Economic History, 85 (1): 33-71, 2025.
- Updated working paper: Iyer, Lakshmi, Paloma Lopez de mesa Moyano, and Vivek Moorthy. “Religion and Demography: Papal Influences on Fertility.” February 2025.
- Video: “Did colonialism really cause poverty?” Discover Economics and the CAGE Research Centre series on “Why isn’t the whole world developed?”, September 2024.
- Journal article: Fertig, Alexander, Alexandra Hartman, Lakshmi Iyer, and Edmund Malesky. “A Field of Her Own: Property Rights and Women’s Agency in Myanmar.” Journal of Politics, forthcoming.
- Book chapter: Bhalotra, Sonia, and Lakshmi Iyer. “Women and the Economy.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia, edited by Latika Chaudhary, Tirthankar Roy, and Anand Swamy. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
- Book chapter: “Gender and Natural Experiments in Developing Countries,” with Irma Clots-Figueras, forthcoming in Handbook of Experimental Development Economics, edited by Utteeyo Dasgupta and Pushkar Maitra.