Manaswini Rao

Manaswini Rao is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware. She specializes in development economics with her research interests in the economics of legal institutions (political economy), and organization structures in agricultural production. Her research can be classified into three major buckets: First, she studies the role of frontline judiciary (for e.g., district or county courts) and broader dispute resolution institutions in the economic development process. Second, she examines collective action and coordination in improving agricultural productivity in the context of smallholder agricultural production. This spans farmer producer organization structures, technology diffusion, and access to and management of local irrigation resources. Third, she studies the structural transformation process of moving from agricultural production into urban and/or non-agricultural sectors from the lens of rural land inequality.