Dr Madhuri Agarwal is an Academic Visitor in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests are in the field of development economics and economics of education. She did her Ph.D. in Economics at Nova SBE and Bielefeld University, under a joint doctorate fellowship (EDEEM, 2015-18).
Dr Agarwal is working on issues related to teacher quality and the role of public policy to improve the quality of primary education in developing countries. One of her papers on automatic grade promotion was awarded the UNESCO GEM fellowship in 2019. This paper deals with the important question of equity and efficiency in education. How does an increase in access to education affect education quality? Does the effect vary by socio-economic background? In another paper, she presents evidence on teacher quality from rural India. Many poor and developing countries can find it difficult to fill teacher vacancies, especially in rural and remote areas. Her research discusses how local teachers with relatively less qualifications and salaries can provide an alternative.
Dr Agarwal's most recent work looks at the effect of primary school expansion on the marriage markets in India. The age at marriage of women can influence their human capital investment and fertility outcomes. In this paper, she study the impact of female education on their marriage market outcomes.