Ashruta Acharya

Ashruta Acharya is a PhD student in Economics at George Mason University whose research lies at the intersection of economic history, development, and political economy, with a focus on Nepal and South Asia. Her work examines how institutions, infrastructure, and state capacity shape long-run economic change. In her dissertation, she studies the historical effects of road expansion on market access and structural transformation in Nepal, the political-economic consequences of major policy shifts in South Asia, and the institutional legacy of Nepal’s nineteenth-century legal code, the Muluki Ain. Her research combines archival and historical inquiry with modern empirical tools, including spatial econometrics, Geographic Information Systems, and applied microeconomics. More broadly, she is interested in bringing Nepal more fully into conversations in economic history and development economics.