Dr. Sitakanta Panda Assistant Professor
School of Humanities, Social Sciences & Management

Dr. Sitakanta Panda is an assistant professor of economics at Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar. He studies empirical development economics questions that span topics at the intersection of economics, politics, law and public policy; making use of survey and administrative data and suitable statistical methods. His fields of interest include empirical political economics (economic growth, corruption and governance, political institutions, elections and voting), public economics (public finance, public healthcare, welfare programs), labour economics (poverty, rural labour market, new labour), law and economics (economics of crime, international crime, financial crime, economics of regulation). 

Earlier, Dr. Panda was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai, and an Assistant Professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Management Amritsar. His post-PhD work experience also includes brief stints as Fellow at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi; and Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Chair of Political Economy & Development at University of Zurich, Zurich. Before his PhD Thesis defence in 03/2017, he was a Visiting Scientist at Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Bangalore. His pre-PhD stints were at Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi; erstwhile Planning Commission; Tata Motors Limited; Mumbai, etc. He has a PhD in Economics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (Thesis title: "Essays on Empirical Political Economics", the program was UGC SRF funded and had student visits to University of Zurich), and an MA in Economics from University of Hyderabad that included an internship at National Institute of Public Finance & Policy, New Delhi. Prior to his Masters, he had earned a Bachelors in economics from Bhadrak Autonomous College, Bhadrak. His research work has been published in some leading international peer-reviewed journals in economics and social sciences such as Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Development Studies, European Journal of Development Research, India Review, International Journal of Public Administration, and International Journal of Social Economics. His opinion articles have been published in some national media outlets such as The New Indian Express, The Financial Express, The Hindu Business Line, and DailyO. During his student days, he had achieved state-level and university-level merit ranks, several scholarships and awards at different stages. 

Please see his research work here, Google Scholar page here, opinion articles in media here, and teaching details here. Dr. Panda is a Fellow of Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen, Germany. He has been a reviewer of some international peer-reviewed economics, political science, and social science journals, and presented his research in various national and international conferences.