New Faculty Profiles

Patralekha (Pat) Ukil, a newly appointed Assistant Professor in the Economics department in Fall 2020, knew she wanted to be in the field of Economics since 9th grade and credits her high school Economics teacher for developing her interest in the subject. The daughter of a Chemistry professor, she grew up in an academic environment and was exposed to the world of teaching at a very young age. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Calcutta in India and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Warwick in England.

She completed her PhD in Economics at the University of Connecticut in May of 2020, where she also taught undergraduate Public Finance, and her dissertation focused on research questions at the intersection of labor and health economics. She knew that most economists agreed that trade liberalization and technological progress are positive for a country in general, and as an Indian born in 1991 – the year that the developing nation opened its economy to the world following a crisis – her perspective on globalization was largely shaped by India’s overall economic growth and development following that decision. However, she also realized that there could the vastly different and disruptive impacts of globalization and trade exposure on the developed nations of the world, specifically in certain sectors and on certain types of workers.

She is currently investigating long-run and potentially intergenerational consequences of such local labor market shocks faced by individuals and households, by looking at health impacts on infants and on the household, educational and labor market decisions taken by such workers and/or their children. She teaches Microeconomics and Public Finance at SJSU.