Deepak Saraswat

Deepak Saraswat is a Research Scientist in the Demography and Survey Science team at Meta Platforms, Inc. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Connecticut, specialising in applied microeconomics with a focus on labour and development economics.

जब आपराधिकता अपराध को जन्म देती है: निर्वाचित राजनेताओं की भूमिका
राजनीति का अपराधीकरण समाज के लिए एक बहुत बड़ा खतरा बन गया है। यद्यपि साहित्य में आपराधिक रूप से आरोपी नेताओं के आर्थिक परिणामों पर अध्ययन तो किया गया है, लेकिन उनके क्षेत्राधिकार में आपराधिक माहौल पर उनके प्रभाव के बारे में बहुत कम जानकारी उपलब्ध है। 2009-2018 के भारत के आंकड़ों का विश्लेषण कर इस लेख में यह दिखाया गया है कि कमजोर कानून-व्यवस्था वाले जिलों में एक अतिरिक्त आपराधिक रूप से आरोपी नेता 64 अतिरिक्त आपराधिक मामलों का कारण बन जाता है।

When criminality begets crime: The role of elected politicians
The criminalisation of politics has become a massive threat to society. While the impact of criminally accused leaders on economic outcomes has been studied in the literature, little is known about their effect on the crime environment of the jurisdiction. Analysing data from India for 2009-2018, this article shows that in districts with weak rule of law, an additional criminally accused leader leads to 64 more criminal cases.

Can technology mitigate the impact of heat on worker productivity?
Exposure to high heat causes productivity losses, with reduction in cognitive function as a key channel. A direct reduction in heat exposure via technologies such as air conditioning is not possible for outdoor tasks. This article presents results from a randomised experiment in Odisha where the use of a digital mode – rather than the traditional pen-and-paper mode – for household surveys helped mitigate some of these heat-induced productivity losses.
