Sheetal Sekhri is a Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, where she has served on the faculty since 2008 and was granted tenure in 2015. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University and a B.S. in Economics from Iowa State University. Her research focuses on development economics, environmental and natural resource economics, and applied microeconomics. A significant portion of her work is field-based, using primary data from India to examine issues at the intersection of gender, institutions, the environment, and public service delivery. She has published in leading journals such as the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Politics, Annual Review of Resource Economics, and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
Several of her projects have generated policy-relevant insights on climate resilience, water access, violence against women, and institutional accountability. Her recent research explores the impact of agricultural fires on downstream firms, promoting markets for agricultural residue to prevent fires, commuting barriers to female labor force participation, governance challenges surrounding floods and public program leakage. In addition to her research, she actively contributes to policy and capacity-building efforts, having taught at IGC Summer Schools and consulted for initiatives supported by USAID, JPAL, and state-level institutions in India. She serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Development Economics and holds multiple research grants from international and university sources.
