Anushka Mukherjee · Economics researcher

AI, institutions
& the economy.

I’m an economics PhD researcher at IWH and Leipzig University. I study how AI is governed, how its value is shared, and how global finance shapes investment.

Explore my researchResearch résumé

Halle (Saale), Germany · AI governance & macro-finance

Research perspectiveInstitutions. Incentives. Evidence.
2026

Research &
education

IWH HalleDoctoral research
Leipzig UniversityPhD in Economics
University of BonnM.Sc. in Economics
ENSAE ParisVisiting student

Selected research

Questions that deserve
closer attention.

Original evidence on AI governance, public institutions, and the distribution of economic value.

AI governance

01

Under review2026 · AI for Society

Governing Frontier AI: Organizational Boundaries and the Providers of AI Governance

Sole-authored

Where does frontier-AI governance actually happen? I coded 25 documented governance-provision instances across ten developers within a twelve-developer sample, and compared them with a baseline of 51 specialist providers. The evidence shows provision across internal and external organizations, while concentrated disclosure limits what can be inferred about the wider market.

Contribution: Original disclosure coding and a comparison of developer-level governance arrangements with venture-oriented provider data.

  • Organizational economics
  • Frontier AI
  • First-party disclosures
  • Crunchbase

Request the paper

25Documented governance instances across ten developers
51Specialist providers in the comparison baseline

Labor-market institutions

02

Working paper2026 · SAIGE Incubator

Estimating Differential Routing Rates in Germany’s Federal Employment Agency

With Aileen Voit, Nafisah Animashaun and Leonard Schmidt

Using monthly administrative statistics, we document differences in occupational registration and vocational training within Germany’s unemployment-insurance regime. Flight-context jobseekers are registered for unskilled-tier occupations 1.6 times as often as the comparison group and receive substantive vocational training at half the rate. These aggregate disparities do not establish algorithmic causation.

My contribution: Designed the monitoring framework, built the bounded estimator and wrote the empirical sections.

  • Administrative statistics, 2016–2026
  • Bounded estimation
  • Labor-market policy

Request the paper

2016–2026Published administrative statistics
GermanyFederal Employment Agency

Current questions

Work in progress

Multinational Firms over the Global Financial Cycle: Greenfield FDI and the Transmission of US Monetary Policy

Sole-authored · Dissertation research

Building a panel linking greenfield investment announcements from fDi Markets with Compustat financial data to study multinational investment responses to global financing conditions, including differences between US and Chinese firms.

  • Firm-level panels
  • fDi Markets & Compustat
  • Monetary transmission

Early-stage research

AI capability gains and public finance

SPAR · The Economic Value of AI Capability Gains
Mentor: Pavel Kocourek

Developing research on how the value of AI capability gains is distributed among developers, users and governments, and how that distribution affects the tax base across jurisdictions.

  • Economics of AI
  • Public finance
  • Tax incidence

Methods & technical work

From questions
to evidence.

Econometric methods, machine learning, and careful measurement. Selected implementations in Python and R.

01 / CAUSAL INFERENCE

Estimating effects with DoubleML

Python · ENSAE Paris · 2025

Team project using orthogonal scores and cross-fitted nuisance models to estimate scholarship effects on dropout and graduation. Implemented preprocessing and inference.

02 / LANGUAGE MODELS

Text classification with DistilBERT

Python · University of Bonn · 2023

Fine-tuned DistilBERT for emotion classification in poetry, with text cleaning, tokenization, train-validation splitting and class-level evaluation.

03 / SIMULATION

Evaluating regression discontinuity

R · University of Bonn · 2023–24

Designed a Monte Carlo comparison of polynomial specifications, measuring finite-sample bias, variance and root mean squared error.

  • Python
  • R
  • Stata
  • MATLAB
  • Git
  • LaTeX
  • scikit-learn
  • Hugging Face
  • DoubleML

The projects above were completed as coursework.

About me

An economist working
across boundaries.

My work connects AI governance and public finance with empirical research on firms and institutions.

I’m a doctoral researcher in macroeconomics at IWH Halle and Leipzig University, supervised by Prof. Xiang Li. Alongside my PhD, I develop AI economics research through SPAR and work on the measurement of institutional harms.

Research experience

  • Oct 2025–present

    Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH)

    Doctoral Researcher · Department of Macroeconomics

    • Study multinational enterprises and the transmission of the global financial cycle, supervised by Prof. Xiang Li.
    • Build firm- and project-level evidence on cross-border investment using fDi Markets and Compustat; investigate heterogeneity in investment responses to financing conditions.
  • Sep 2026–present

    SPAR

    Research Participant · AI Economics

    Developing the AI and public finance research direction within The Economic Value of AI Capability Gains, mentored by Pavel Kocourek.

  • Apr–Jul 2026

    SAFE AI Germany (SAIGE), Berlin

    Incubator Programme · AI Governance & Policy Track

    • Co-authored a working paper on differential routing in Germany’s Federal Employment Agency; developed the monitoring framework, bounded estimator and empirical analysis.
    • Contributed to an AIAAIC incident-repository entry and a policy brief on algorithmic harm in labor-market systems. Mentor: Branwen Nia Owen (Arcadia).
  • May–Oct 2024

    Centre for Development Research (ZEF), Bonn

    Research Assistant

    Supported the BMBF-funded Future African Savannas project and coordinated the August 2024 AFAS Summer School, including budgets, logistics and international partner coordination.

Earlier professional experience
  • Apr–Oct 2022

    School of Policy and Governance

    Summer Intern · Programme Support

    Content and outreach for the Net Zero Fellowship and public-policy certificate course; support for the e-learning platform and website.

  • May–Jun 2021

    Essar Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Ltd.

    Finance Intern

    Balance-sheet preparation for the annual audit and a project on production and exploration accounting.

Education

  • 2025–2029(expected)

    Leipzig University · IWH Halle

    PhD in Economics · In progress

    Research on multinational enterprises and the transmission of the global financial cycle. Supervisor: Prof. Xiang Li.

  • 2022–2025

    University of Bonn

    M.Sc. in Economics · Grade 1.6 (German scale; 1.0 best)

    Thesis: Modeling Household Carbon Footprints: Methods, Metrics and Estimation Frameworks. Examined how measurement and attribution choices shape policy priorities.

  • Feb–Jun 2025

    ENSAE Paris

    Visiting Student · Erasmus+ mobility grant

    Coursework in machine learning for econometrics, AI in insurance, the sharing economy and applied public economics.

  • 2019–2022

    Jadavpur University, Kolkata

    B.A. in Economics · First Class · CGPA 8.72/10

    Thesis on spatial price variation and digital-payment adoption, using primary survey data from retail merchants and consumers.

Talks, writing & academic service

Talks & service

  • Aug 2026Workshop presentation · AuDe Workshop, IJCAI-ECAI 2026, Bremen
  • Jul 2026Discussant, Monetary Integration and Structural Change in a Small Open Economy: Evidence from Slovakia (André Casalis and Gregor von Schweinitz) · IWH Macro Network Day
  • 2026Referee service · Internet Policy Review; Economic Change and Restructuring
  • Sep 2024Student reporter, Tropentag 2024, BOKU Vienna. Three articles on agroforestry, gender and food systems. Read the conference coverage.

Writing

Essays on economics, policy and global affairs at anushkamukherji.wordpress.com.

Selected training & community service
  • Aug 2026AI and Digital Transformation in Government · Saïd Business School, University of Oxford · Training
  • Jul 20264th Summer School in International Economics · Journal of International Economics & Bocconi University
  • Jul 2026Secure and Sovereign AI Workshop · Foresight Institute
  • Jun 2026Fostering AI Resilience in the EU Labour Market · Brussels AGI Collective
  • 2023Team Leader · iStart Career, Bonn
  • 2021–22Vice-President & Events Head · Global Youth India
Research toolkit & languages
Empirical methods
Panel and event-study methods; bounding and sensitivity analysis; causal machine learning; text measurement.
Libraries
scikit-learn, Hugging Face, DoubleML, statsmodels.
Languages
English (fluent); Bengali and Hindi (native); German (B1); French (A1).
DoubleML coursework results
Estimated scholarship effects of −17.6 percentage points on dropout and +23.8 points on graduation, in the ENSAE group project.
Academic CVResearch résumé

Get in touch

Let’s talk
research.

Interested in AI economics, governance, or empirical research? I’d be glad to hear from you.

Start a conversation
anushka.mukherjee@iwh-halle.de