Kusum Mundra

Phone: 973-353-5350 Rutgers University, Newark

Fax: 973-353-5819 Department of Economics
E-mail: :kmundra@newark.rutgers.edu 360 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
http://kmundra.newark.rutgers.edu Newark NJ 07102

RESEARCH AREAS
Applied Econometrics, Immigration and International Migration, Gender and Minority Population, Social
Networks, Terrorism and Conflict

APPOINTMENTS
Graduate Director, Department of Economics, Rutgers University, Newark July 2019 - current
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Rutgers University, Newark June 2015 - current
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Rutgers University, Newark Sept 2008 – May 2015
Consultant, NERA Economic Consulting, New York City Sept 2005 - April 2007
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Economics, New York University 2006
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, San Diego State University Aug 2001 - May 2005
Instructor and Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Economics, UC Riverside 1995 - 2001
Research Associate, Economic Policy Department, Tomas Rivera Policy Inst. April 2000 - June 2001
Research Assistant, Department of Economics, UC Riverside, California 1997 - 1998

OTHER AFFILIATIONS
Member Executive Board, Association of Indian Economic and Financial Studies Aug 2019 - current
Research Fellow, IZA Bonn, Germany 2009 –
current
Associate Faculty, Global Urban Studies/Urban Systems Ph.D. 2016 - current
Faculty Mentor, Honors Living-Learning Community, Rutgers Newark Fall 2016 - Spring 2018
Advisory Board Member, Center for Migration and Global City, Rutgers Newark 2008 - 2018
Affiliated Faculty, Women and Gender Studies, Rutgers Newark Spring 2010 - current
Associated Faculty, Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers Newark Fall 2008 and Spring 2013 - current
Associated faculty, Peace and Conflict Studies, Rutgers Newark Spring 2012 - current
Core Faculty, Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers Newark Spring 2009 - Fall2011
Faculty Advisory Member, The Joseph C. Cornwall Center Rutgers Newark Fall 2010 - Spring 2012

EDUCATION
Ph.D, University of California, Riverside, June 2001
Dissertation: “Nonparametric and Semiparametric Panel Data Econometrics, Immigration and
International Trade.” Committee: Aman Ullah (Chair), R. Robert Russell, Prasanta K. Pattanaik,
Gloria Gonzalez-Rivera.
M.A., Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, India, 1995
B.Sc with Honors in Economics, St. Xaviers’ College, Kolkata, India, 1993

TEACHING INTERESTS
Graduate: Econometrics and Applied Econometrics, Special Topics on Immigration and Gender
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Undergraduate: Econometrics, Statistics, Women in the Economy, Economics of Migration and

Immigration, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and International Trade

PUBLISHED PAPERS
“Using Repeated Cross Sectional Data to examine the role of Immigrant Birth-country Networks on
Unemployment Duration : an Application of Guell & Hu (2006) Approach” with Fernando Rios-Avila
forthcoming March 2020, Empirical Economics

"Minority and Immigrant Experience in the Recent Housing Market: Evidence from the 2009 American
Housing Survey” Immigration Symposium Special Issue, Eastern Economic Journal 46(1), Winter
2020, 53-81.

“Homeownership Trends among the Never Married,” with Ruth Uwaifo-Oyelere, Housing Studies,
39(1), January 2019, 162-187.

“Determinants of Homeownership among Immigrants: Changes during the Great Recession and
Beyond,” with Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere, International Migration Review, 52(3), Fall 2018, 648-694.

“Housing Adequacy Gap for Minorities and Immigrants in the U.S.: Evidence from the 2009 American
Housing Survey” with Amarendra Sharma Journal of Housing Research, 24(1), 2015, 55-72.

“Skyscraper Height and the Business Cycle: Separating Myth from Reality” with Jason Barr and Bruce
Mizrach Applied Economics, 47(2), January 2015, 148-160.

“Immigration and Trade Creation for the United States: Role of Immigrant Occupation” The
International Trade Journal, 28(4), August 2014, 311-343.

“Direct and Dual Elasticities of Substitution under Non-homogenous Technology and Nonparametric
Distribution” Indian Growth and Development Review, 6(2). November 2013, 260-288.

“Immigrant Homeownership and Immigration Status: Evidence from Spain” with Catalina Amuedo-
Dorantes Review of International Economics,21(2), January 2013, 204-218.

“Immigrant Networks and the U.S. Bilateral Trade: The Role of Immigrant Income” in Gil S. Epstein and
Ira N. Gang (ed.) “Migration and Culture (Frontiers of Economics and Globalization, Volume 8),
Emerald Publishers, Dec 2010, Ch 15, 357-373.

“Is the Downturn in Maquiladora Employment Cyclical or Structural” with Jim Gerber Indian Growth
and Development Review, 3(1), Spring 2010, 21-35.

“Social Networks and Their Impact on the Earnings of Mexican Immigrants” with Catalina Amuedo-
Dorantes Demography, 44(4), November 2007, 849-863.

“Suicide Bombing As A Strategic Instrument of Protest: an Empirical Investigation of Hamas and

Palestinian Islamic Jihad” with Dipak K. Gupta Terrorism and Political Violence, 17, December 2005,
573-598.

“Immigration and International Trade: a Semiparametric Empirical Investigation” Journal of

International Trade and Economic Development, 14(1), March 2005, 65-91.

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“Perfil de los Trabajadores transfronterizos de Mexico” (A Profile of the Mexico-U.S. Border Commuting
Population) with Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes Comercio Exterior, 53(12), December 2003, 1140-1147.

“Investigating Hispanic Underrepresentation in Managerial and Professional Occupations” with Andrew

Moellmer and Waldo Lopez-Aqueres Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science, 25(4), 2003, 513-529.

“Impact of Immigration on Prenatal Care Use and Birth Weight: Evidence from California in the 1990s”
with Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes American Economic Review-Papers and Proceedings, 93(2), May
2003, 242-246.

“Hispanic Under Representation in Managerial and Professional Occupations: Alternative Explanations

and New Evidence from the Current Population Survey” with Andrew Moellmer and Waldo Lopez-
Aqueres Hispanic Workforce, 2001 HACR Corporate Best Practices, Tomas Rivera Policy Institute 2001.

“Semiparametric Panel Data Estimation: An Approach to Immigrants’ Homelink Effect on U.S. Producer
Trade Flows” with Aman Ullah Handbook of Applied Econometrics and Statistical Inferences, Marcel
Dekker, 2001, 591-608.

“Parametric and Semi-Parametric Estimation of the Effect of Firm Attributes on Efficiency: The
Electricity Generating Industry in India” with Madhu Khanna and Aman Ullah Journal of International
Trade and Economic Development, 8(4), 1999, 419-436.

PAPERS FORTHCOMING

The Political Economy of Citizenship: Education-Occupation Mismatch and the Role of Social Networks,”
with Fernando Rios-Avila, accepted for the publication in the Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and
Population Economics section editor Gil S. Epstein and chief Editor Klaus F. Zimmermann, Springer
Nature. (https://meteor.springer.com/project/dashboard.jsf?id=595)

WORKING PAPERS

“Marriage Market Signals and Homeownership for the Never Married” with Ruth Uwaifo-Oyelere, IZA
Discussion Paper No. 11877, October 2018

“Education-Occupation Mismatch and Social Networks for Hispanics in the U.S.: Role of Citizenship”
with Fernando Rios-Avila, IZA Discussion Paper No. 12975,

WORK IN PROGRESS

“Gender Wage Gap Trends in the U.S.: Role of the Gender Accumulated Labor Market Intermittency
Gap? A Conditional Mean and Quantile evidence from the PSID over 1984 - 2005”

“Immigrant Economic Assimilation and the Role of H1B”

“Nonparametric Fixed Effect Panel Model”

“Immigrant Networks and Domestic Conflict”

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MEDIA COVERAGE OF MY RESEARCH

1. How Immigrants Are Transforming the American Dream—and Real Estate Along with It,”
September 11, 2017. (https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/immigrants-homeownership/
2. “Tower of Babel: Is there such a thing a skyscraper curse?’ – Economist March 28, 2015
(Skyscraper Height and the Business Cycle: Separating Myth from Reality” Applied Economics
paper is cited) https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2015/03/26/towers-of-babel
3. “Immigrants Closing Gap on Homeownership” National Public Radio (Marketplace) August 28,
20. (https://www.marketplace.org/2014/08/28/immigrants-closing-gap-homeownership/14.)
4. “Why immigrants weathered the housing bust better than the U.S.-born population” Washington
Post August 27, 2014 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/27/immigrants-
managed-to-hang-onto-their-homes-through-the-housing-bust-unlike-many-native-born-
americans/)
5. “Report: Foreign Born Fared Housing Crisis Better” -US news August 25, 2014.
(https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/08/25/foreign-born-homeowners-fared-the-
housing-crisis-better
6. “Immigrant Homeownership” National Association of Home Builders Eye on Housing Blog
August 11, 2014 (http://eyeonhousing.org/2014/08/homeownership-among-immigrants/)
(Coverage 3-6 was on my research Immigrant Homeownership during the Great Recession and
Beyond: Role of Birth Networks)

CONFERENCES AND SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS

2020
Presenting paper at the Population Association Meeting in DC April 22- 25–Marriage Market
Signals and Homeownership for the Never Married in the Homeownership and Housing
Disparities session

Presenting paper at the Inequality Symposium, Department of Economics, Middlebury College

April 18, 2020

Presenting a paper in the CSWEP session (Marriage Market Signals and Homeownership for the
Never Married Women) and discussing two Papers at the Eastern Conference February 28-30
Boston
2019
AASLE Conference Singapore
Southern Economic Association Meeting, Fort Lauderdale
Eastern Economic Association Conference New York
AIEFS Biennial Conference, India
2018
Sothern Economic Association, Washington DC
2017
Society of Economics of the Household, San Diego
American Economic Association, Chicago
2016
Southern Economic Association, Washington DC.

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RGS/RWI Workshop on the Economics of Migration, Essen, Germany.

Population Association of America, Washing ton DC
2015
Southern Economic Association, New Orleans
Eastern Economic Association, NYC New York
2014
Invited Seminar, Department of Economics, Bard College, NY
American Economic Association, Philadelphia
2013
Eastern Economic Association, NYC New York
Invited Seminar at Department of Economics, University of Manchester, UK
Population Association of America Meetings, New Orleans
2012
Western Economic Association Meetings, San Diego
12th Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference, Berlin Germany
Eastern Economic Association Meetings Boston
2011
Western Economic Association Meetings, San Diego
2010
American Economic Association, Atlanta
Hispanic Issues Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, GA
Southern Economic Association Conference, Atlanta GA
Bridging Areas of Expertise: Funding Research on Terrorism Conference, University of Texas at
Dallas (invited participation)
Faculty Work in Seminar Series, Center for Migration and Global City, Rutgers Newark
Women’s History Month, Rutgers Newark
2009
Southern Economic Association
Governing the Dynamics of European Borderlands Conference, Division of Global Affairs
Rutgers Newark and the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies New York University
Eastern Economic Association New York
Midwest Economic Conference
World Bank Migration and Development Conference, Washington DC
Faculty Research Work Session, Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, Rutgers
Newark
Division of Global Affairs, Migration Colloquia, Rutgers Newark
2008
Empirical Issues in International Trade and Finance, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata
India
2004
Midwest Econometrics Group Meeting, Northwestern University, Evanston
11th International Conference on Panel Data, Texas A&M
American Economic Association Meetings, San Diego
Midwest Economic Conference, Chicago
2003
Seminar, Department of Economics, University of California Riverside
Department of Economics; San Diego State University, Fall 2003
Conferences: The Art of Semiparametrics Conference, Berlin
American Economic Association Meetings, Washington DC
American Economic Association Meetings, Atlanta,
Canadian Economic Association, Vancouver, B.C.

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2001
Seminar: Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside
Department of Economics, Tulane University, New Orleans
Department of Economics, San Diego State University, San Diego
Department of Economics The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
2000
Seminar: Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside
Washington State University, Pullman
University of Las Vegas, Nevada
Kansas State University March 2000
1999
Western Economic Association Conference, San Diego
1998
South-East Asia Econometric Society Meeting, New Delhi
1997
Western Economic Association Conference, Seattle

GRANTS AND AWARDS

CHANCELLO
Chancellors Seed Grant (PI) - “Multi-Method Data Collection on Immigrant Social Networks and Socio-
Economic Outcomes in New Jersey”, Rutgers University Newark 2017 – 2020
GAIA Grant for International Collaboration Research Grant 2016
Competitive Research Council Grants, Rutgers University
2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015, 2016/2017, 2018/2019
FASN Travel Award, Rutgers University-Newark, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019
Rutgers RU FAIR Grant, for the collaborative proposal “Peer-Mentoring for Female Early Career
Researchers at Rutgers University, Newark Campus”, February 2010
UT Dallas Terrorism Conference small NSF award for collaborative proposal “Ruling Elites, Terrorism,
and Choice of Violence”, September 2010
Summer Faculty Award, Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, Rutgers University 2009
Division of Global Affairs Travel Award, Rutgers Newark 2010
Faculty Grant, Center for International Business Education and Research, San Diego State University.
2003/2004
CAL Micro-grant, San Diego State University, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
Phi Beta Kappa Alumni in Southern California Award, 1999
Guru-Gobind Singh Dissertation Fellowship, 1998-1999
University Fellowship, University of California, Riverside, 1995-1999.
Center for Development Economics Scholarship, Delhi School of Economics, 1993-1995

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Refereeing
Journal of Family Issues and Economic Issues, Migration Studies, Cities, Southern Economic Journal (3),
Peace Science and Public Policy, Review of Economics and Statistics, IZA Journal of Migration,
International Migration Review, Journal of Industry, Competition, and Trade; Journal of Development
Studies; Review of International Economics; Indian Growth and Development Review; Journal of
Population Economics (2); Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy; Latin American Research
Review; Journal of Sport Management; Journal of Urban Affair; Review of World Economics;
Contemporary Economic Policy; Handbook of Indian Economy; Conflict Management and Peace
Science; Journal of International Trade and Economic Development; International Migration Review;

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Journal of Political Economy; Economic Modeling; Empirical Economics; Journal of Quantitative

Economics; The Journal of Productivity Analysis; Economic Theory; Review of Economics of the
Household (2)

Book Reviews
Using Econometrics: A Practical Guide, Fifth Edition by A. H. Studenmund, 2005
Business Statistics: Communicationg with Numbers, First Edition by Jaggia/Kelley (few chapters)

Session Chair and Organizer

“Topics in Trade, Innovation and Economic Growth” – AIEFS Session in the American
Economic Association Meeting 2020(Chair)
“Economics of the Marriage Market”, “Topics in Demographic Economics” and “Demography
and Health” – Southern Economic Association 2016 (Organizer)
“Recent Homeownership and Household Wealth” - Eastern Economic Association Conference
2013 (Organizer)
“Contemporary Migration Issues” and “Terrorism and the Economy” - Eastern Economic
Association Conference, New York 2009 (Organizer)
Southern Economic Association 2009 (Chair)
Midwest Econometrics Group 2004 (Chair)
Discussant
Eastern Economic Association 2020
American Economic Association 2018
Society of Economics of the Household 2017
Southern Economic Association 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016
American Economic Association 2012
Midwest Economic Conference 2004 and 2009
Eastern Economic Association 2009, 2013, 2015
Western Economic Association 1999

Membership
American Economic Association; Econometric Society; Committee on the Status of Women in the
Economics Profession; Southern Economic Association; Eastern Economic Association; Population
Association of America; Association of Indian Economic and Financial Studies, The Hispanic
Association of Corporate Responsibility (HACR Scholar List)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Rutgers University, Newark
Statistical Methods (Large Section 100- 150 students) 2008 –2020
Introduction to Econometrics (undergraduate) 2009, 2012, 2016, 2017
Advance Econometrics (Time Series and Forecasting) 2018
Women in the Economy (undergraduate) 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016
Graduate Econometrics 1 (PhD and MA level) 2010, 2012 -15, 2017 - 2020
Economics of Immigration and Gender (PhD and MA level) 2010, 2020

Others
Department of Economics, New York University
Applied Statistics and Econometrics I & II (M.A. Program) 2006
Department of Economics, San Diego State University
Principles of Macroeconomics 2001, 2002, 2003,2004
Graduate Applied Research in Econometrics (MA level) 2002, 2003, 2004
Introduction to Econometrics (undergraduate) 2002, 2003, 2004

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Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside

Research Methods in Business and Economics (undergraduate) 2001
Intermediate Macroeconomics (undergraduate) 1999
Introductory Econometrics (undergraduate) 1998 and 2000

ACADEMIC ADVISING
Rutgers University, Newark

PhD Committee Member

Murat Ozturk, Division of Global Affairs 2020 (in progress)
Rae Yule-Kim, Department of Management (Marketing),Rutgers Business School 2020
Wei-Hao Huang, Division of Global Affairs, March 2018
Hyun Gon Kim, International Business, Rutgers Business School (Rutgers Business
School, Camden Fall 2017)
Tanu Kohli, Division of Global Affairs (University Lecturer at University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign, 2013)
Irfan Ciftci, Division of Global Affairs (Turkish National Police, 2013)
Daewoong Choo, Division of Global Affairs (Research Fellow at Samsung Economic
Research Institute, South Korea, 2013)

M. A. Independent Study
Jonathan C. Fermin-Rijos, Department of Economics, Rutgers Newark Fall 2017
(Admitted to Columbia Pre Med Program)

Honors College Thesis

Richard Nguyen, 2019, Rutgers Business School (main adviser)
Mussab Ali, Jan 2019 (second reader) – Truman Scholar 2017 and Shwarzman Scholar,
Rutgers Newark
Aarti Modhwadia June 2017 (second reader)

Undergraduate Researchers
Diego Lafuente Department of Economics, Rutgers Newark(Admitted to Columbia Law
School)
Victor Castaneda, Department of Economics, Rutgers Newark (Federal Reserve Bank
New York)
Amad Saulat , Math M.A. Program, NJIT (Admitted to MA Economics, Duke
University)

San Diego State University

M. A. Thesis Chair
Busik Choi (Admitted to UC Irvine Economics PhD Program)
Research Assistants
Shivraj Singh (Admitted to UC Irvine Economics PhD Program)
Richa Ajmera (Research Associate, Bureau of Labor Statistics)