Sheba's work is centred on the distributional consequences of international trade and structural transformation in developing countries. She is interested in the effects of technological upgrading, automation and gender segregation on workers and the future of work. She has studied labour market inequalities in the context of structural change and export-oriented industrialization in countries in the Global South. In a related and emerging research programme, she explores the consolidation of Hindu majoritarianism in India and its relationship to development and exclusion.

She was recently awarded a Senior Research Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies to support this work. Sheba has a PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research, New York. She has previously worked as Assistant Professor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School (NY) and at the International Development Department, University of Birmingham. She has served as a Consulting Economist with the Gender, Trade and Development section of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva. She has also consulted with other international organizations such as the ILO, World Bank, UN Women and UNDESA. 

Research Interests

• Trade, global value chains and inequalities
• Gender, informality and labour markets
• Automation, structural change and its impacts on workers
• Sectarian inequalities, Hindu nationalism and development 

Further details

See Sheba's research profile