Rubina Hundal (Gursmeep)

Rubina Hundal (Gursmeep)

Research

Working Papers

Discrimination on a Mutable Trait: Labor-Market Penalties for Oral Appearance

I study how a visible but remediable marker of poverty, dental appearance, affects hiring in urban India. A randomized headshot experiment and an incentivized resume-rating study with hiring professionals show that poor oral health lowers perceived confidence, predicted wages, and hire scores, especially in customer-facing roles. Effects attenuate once I control for employers’ forecasts of customer and coworker reactions, pointing to anticipated third-party discrimination rather than pure productivity beliefs. Findings suggest health and appearance interventions are an underused lever for labor-market mobility.

Learning by Doing (Work): Experimental Evidence from a School-Based Internship Program in India (with Emma Zhang)

We evaluate a randomized internship program offering 80-hour placements to low-income high-school students in urban India, testing whether brief labor-market exposure updates beliefs about employment and returns to education. Interns value career information 7–8% more than controls and revise expected earnings and job-search durations, with larger updates among girls. Aspirations remain high in both groups, but treated students form more realistic expectations about the school-to-work transition.

Language of Violence: Persistence of Origin-Based Social Norms Among Migrant Couples (with Naira Kalra and Oyebola Okunogbe)

We examine how social norms from place of origin shape intimate partner violence (IPV) among migrant couples in India, linking historical IPV rates in origin regions to current experiences of migrant wives. A one percentage point increase in origin IPV predicts a 0.4 percentage point rise in current IPV, driven by intergenerational beliefs, particularly wives’ acceptance of wife-beating formed through parental exposure. Results show that origin-based cultural norms persist across migration despite new social and institutional environments.

Work in Progress

Sibling Socialization and the Formation of Labor-Force Norms in India (with Emma Zhang)

We study how sibling gender composition shapes labor market aspirations and job application behavior among low-income youth in India. Using public school alumni data, we find girls with older sisters are more likely to apply for jobs, while those with older brothers apply less, patterns that persist after controlling for parental expectations and socioeconomic background. Same-sex siblings appear to act as role models, while opposite-sex siblings reinforce traditional norms. A follow-up randomized trial with 5,000 students tests whether structured information and social-learning interventions can recalibrate these norms within households.

Saving with Stocks: Should We Promote Opportunities for Gains or Assuage Worries Around Loss? (with Emma Zhang)

We study how framing and gender interact in financial risk-taking in the US. Two experiments, one on preferences over gains and losses under ambiguity, another randomizing a group-chat intervention, show that men and women differ not in preferences over gains but in loss aversion. Traders are more sensitive to gains than non-traders, while loss-avoidance messaging increases willingness to invest among new investors. A follow-up study tests whether “loss reassurance” or “gain celebration” framings better promote stock market participation. Results

Aspirations and Inaction Among High-School Students in India (with Rajdev Brar)

At the end of Grade 10, students in India choose a junior college and academic stream, a decision that shapes long-run career trajectories, yet many approach it with limited knowledge of admissions requirements and pathways. We are running a large-scale RCT across 200 government schools testing whether encouraging active information search, rather than direct provision, improves students’ understanding of educational options and the alignment of selected streams with their aspirations. Data collection is underway.

Projects in Development

Visa Vows: Migration, Marriage, and Cultural Remittances in India (with Mridul Joshi)

This project asks how female educational migration from Panjab, India to Canada changes marriage-market behavior in sending communities. We combine a lab-in-the-field partner-choice task in IELTS centers with an online audit of matrimonial profiles, randomly varying migration and dowry signals to trace how cross-border mobility reshapes preferences and social status cues.

Does Entrepreneurship Curriculum Create Firm Growth or Perpetuate Microenterprises? (with Emma Zhang)

We study whether school-based entrepreneurship training helps youth move into productive employment or mainly reproduces small self-employment. In Gujarat, we partner with public schools and local firms that recruit from vocational streams, randomizing whether firms see students’ vocational credentials when evaluating applicants.

Pre-PhD Research