Dr. Radhika Iyengar
The Earth Institute, Columbia University
Radhika Iyengar is with MECCE Project collaborator the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and is part of the MECCE Project Indicator Working Group. She has a Ph.D. in Economics of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Radhika received a distinction on her dissertation, which used econometric models and Hierarchical Linear Modeling approaches in the quantitative section, along with a case study in the qualitative tradition. While the quantitative sections use nationally representative survey data, the qualitative data collection is based in one of India’s most marginalized districts, Jhabua (with an overall literacy rate of 37 percent) and attempts to observe how social capital plays out in this district in rural India, which is dominated by “tribal” or indigenous populations.