Gowthami Venkateswaran

Hello, I'm Gowthami Venkateswaran

I am an Applied Economics PhD candidate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. My research focuses on using observational data to estimate causal relationships in the field of development and environmental economics. I have six years of experience using econometric tools to answer questions relating to food security, agricultural supply chains and transportation infrastructure. In my job market paper, I look at the impact of distortionary agricultural subsidies on the environment and human health.

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Research

Job Market Paper: Unintended Environment and Health Consequences of Distortionary Fertilizer Subsidies

Gowthami Venkateswaran

Governments worldwide subsidize agricultural inputs to support farmers and food production. Subsidies that result in exceptionally low prices encourage farmers to deviate from optimal application levels and result in the overuse of fertilizers. This paper examines the unintended environmental and health consequences of increased fertilizer use driven by subsidies. In 2010, India implemented a fertilizer subsidy change favoring nitrogen, which led to higher relative prices for phosphorus and potassium fertilizrs. Leveraging the timing of this policy and exploiting exogenous variation in pre-determined geographic characteristics such as soil texture and river flow direction, I find significant effects of the subsidy on nitrogen pollution in water bodies and infant mortality in urban areas.

Adapting to Thrive: Training and Access to Finance to Reduce Climate Vulnerability among Smallholder Farmers in Nepal

Marup Hossain, Gowthami Venkateswaran, Tisorn Songsermsawas

Climate change poses significant threats to agricultural production, particularly for smallholder farmers who often lack the resources to cope with adverse weather events. In this study, we examine the impacts of a multifaceted intervention consisting of training and financial support to promote adopting climate adaptation practices and improve livelihoods among smallholder farmers in Nepal. Our identification relies on the exogenous variation in project roll-out resulting from an administrative restructuring in Nepal in 2015 for causal identification. We find that the intervention increases certain climate adaptation practices, income and resilience.

Draft

Roads and Local Agro-Firm Development: Evidence from India

Gowthami Venkateswaran, Hemant Pullabhotla, Kathy Baylis

Most of the extreme poor live in rural areas with agriculture as their major source of income. Poor infrastructure and high transaction costs severely limit markets and constrain economic development in these rural agricultural areas. Exploiting the timing of India’s flagship rural road construction program, this study estimates the effects of improved transportation connectivity on the growth of agricultural industries. Furthermore, we find that the largest positive impacts on the growth of agricultural firms are observed in villages closer to towns. This implies that while there is an overall positive effect, well-connected villages exhibit the most favorable outcomes.

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Internal displacement and food prices: Evidence from Mali

Gowthami Venkateswaran, Anna Belli, Giorgio Fagiolo, Marina Mastrorillo

Climate and conflict are driving the displacement of millions of individuals worldwide, profoundly impacting both internally displaced people (IDPs) and their host communities. In this study, we estimate the causal impacts of IDP movements on food prices in neighboring food retail markets in Mali. Focusing on the Liptako-Gourma region, which experienced a sharp increase in displacement and conflict after 2018, we employ a difference-in-difference approach to test whether population shifts due to internal displacement disrupt local food prices. We find that on average, cereal prices increase by around 3 percent in areas that an increase in the number of IDPs .

Can information encourage investment in health in developing countries? Evidence from willingness to pay estimates for food safety in India

Gowthami Venkateswaran, Pallavi Shukla, Kathy Baylis

Using a mixed-logit model, I examine the impact of providing information about the detrimental health effects of aflatoxin on willingness to pay for food safety certification among traders, millers and end-consumers. I also evaluate the entire value chain to understand the gaps in willingness to pay for food safety and consumers’ preference for types of quality certification. I find that retail consumers are willing to pay a large premia for certified safe food grains, while the willingness to pay for maintaining food safety standards is limited among market intermediaries.

Energy poverty risk: a spatial index based on energy efficiency

Luciano Lavecchia, Raffaele Miniaci, Paola Valbonesi, Gowthami Venkateswaran

We propose an Energy Poverty Risk Index (EPRI) and assess it locally (municipal) on Italian regional data. The EPRI includes four components: modelled expenditure required to satisfy household energy needs, severity of climate conditions, quality of the building stock and local ‘wealth’ (proxied by education and taxable income). The EPRI accounts for local differences in the many factors affecting energy poverty. Specifically, it is based on the idea that the higher the expenditure required to meet the energy needs and/or the severity of climate conditions, the higher the risk of energy poverty; on the contrary, wealthier areas and/or those with higher-quality buildings face a lower energy poverty risk. Our empirical analysis of the Lombardy region confirms these points and highlights a lower energy poverty risk in urban areas and higher energy poverty in rural and mountain municipalities. These results, with a municipal-level granularity, could be a first step towards a national energy poverty dashboard that can help design local actions to reduce the impacts of energy and climate factors on the most vulnerable.

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Teaching

ACE 222: Agricultural Marketing

Commodity pricing and trading, price volatility, price discovery system and food marketing systems

ACE 232: Management of Farm Enterprises

Budgeting, cash flow analysis, crop insurance and current trends in agricultural economy

ACE 431: Agri-Food Strategic Management

Strategic decision-making in food and agribusiness firms, methods for analysis of business and regulatory environments

ACE 251: The World Food Economy

Global food production and consumption, problems of hunger and population, agricultural development

List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Students, Spring 2023

ACE 240: Personal Financial Planning

Financial planning, budgeting, acquiring financial assets, managing credit, retirement planning