Shashi Karunanethy

Shashi Karunanethy is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne. His research interests are in the fields of political and development economics, with a focus on political reforms and institutional formation. In his current project, he assesses the persistence of colonial extractive institutions in India. Using a novel combination of archival historical records and machine learning techniques, this research investigates the dynamics of reforms and re-emergence of historical institutions in contemporary Madhya Pradesh. For this research, Shashi was awarded the Best Paper Prize at the 2020 Australian Ph.D. Conference in Economics and Business.

Shashi has over ten years experience in economic advisory services, most recently as an Associate Director (Lead Economist) at Geografia, an economics and social planning consultancy. Shashi holds an M.Econ. and B.Com from the University of Melbourne.