Tushar Kundu

My full job market paper is posted here:

tusharkundu.github.io/files/JMP_TK...

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If you made it this far, check out some of my other work!

tusharkundu.github.io

I work on education and labor markets in India and beyond, designing and testing tools (including AI) to help schools, employers, and policymakers act on what people actually value.

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Big picture:
If you only look at test scores, you miss welfare.

Families disagree on which skills matter most for their child, and teachers don’t automatically know that.

But when teachers are shown what parents want, they adjust.

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What happens?

In classes where teachers get the info:

– Parents later report more improvement in the exact skill they cared most about
– That skill drops in their priority list by the end (because it got better)

So teachers do shift effort once they see what families want.

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So I test a fix.

Some teachers get access to a web portal I built.

They log in and see, for each child:

– the child’s skill profile
– which skills that child’s parent wants to improve

Other teachers don’t get this info.
Everything else in school stays the same.

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Do teachers already know what each family wants?

I ask teachers:

– for specific students in your class, what do you think their parents want most?

I compare that to what parents actually said.
Result: basically no correlation.

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What I expected: “Everyone says math.”

And yes, lots of parents say math. But many say things like empathy, perseverance, leadership.

Instead, the prevailing pattern: parents usually want to improve whatever their child is *weakest* at.

In the model, this points to different learning costs.

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I partner with 5 private schools in India to ask parents:

How is your child doing in academic, social, and emotional skills?

Which is most important to improve next?

So for each child I see:
– their skill profile
– what skills they want next

That data rarely exists.

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I highlight two forces:

Benefits: Some skills might just be more valuable for a given child.

Costs: Some skills are just harder for that child to improve.

Policy usually asks “how much did test scores go up?”
I ask: “which skills improved, and why?”

👋 I'm on the job market!

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In my JMP, I ask: Why do different kids specialize in different skills?
In the same classroom you have:
– the math whiz
– the leader
– the quiet empath

Is that because they chose different skills to invest in… or because some skills are just harder for them to build?
🧵👇