I am an environmental social scientist with expertise in policy and governance. I study how states, markets, and NGOs can support each other in the pursuit of a more sustainable and just future.

I am particularly interested in novel institutional models for governing land use and land cover changes. These include ideas like payments for ecosystem services, market-based instruments, and corporate social responsibility. I go beyond the theoretical possibilities of market institutionalism, and take a more pragmatic approach focused on the real-world challenges and limits to realizing such market models on the ground.

In general, I am curious about markets and what they can do to enhance environmental governance. But a focus on markets alone is ineffective and even problematic. To produce and protect public goods, there is no other option but to invest in and strengthen our public institutions.

Most of my current work is centered on the politics of institutionalizing ecological offsetting. I am studying national offset schemes in India, US, and Europe. I study how schemes differ across countries and the role of intermediaries including NGOs, consultants, bureaucrats, and scientists in translating rhetoric to practice. One of my main research projects is on India’s Compensatory Afforestation Scheme.

My past work looked at the politics of institutionalizing payments for ecosystem service programs in the US. I analyzed how ideas of pay-for-performance were adapted into deeply rooted US agri-environmental policies and the extent to which novel policy forms represent some form of institutional change or institutional inertia.

Starting Fall 2023,
I will be an Assistant Professor at the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies,
at the
University of Denver.

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In 2023, I finish my Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the New Carbon Economy Consortium at Arizona State University. Previously, I was a Faculty Fellow at the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University.

I have a Ph.D. in “Natural Resources and the Environment” (2019) and a Masters in Public Administration (2013) from Cornell University. My Bachelor’s training was in Economics and Statistics at the School of Economics at Singapore Management University (2007).

I have also worked as an Applied Economist in the public and private sectors. As a part of the Green India States Trust, I worked on the first-ever “Green Accounting for Indian States Project” and developed a compendium of international case studies that accompanied the first report by the UN Environmental Program initiative: “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.”

At Centennial Group, I worked with the Asian Development Bank to develop a set of synthesis reports (later collated in a book) examining the socio-economic implications of the 2008 Financial Crisis for Asian countries.

I am active in many academic societies such as: American Association of Geographers (AAG), the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), the International Sociological Association (ISA), and the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S).