Research

working papers

1. Working it out: Randomized Modification and Entrepreneurial Effort in a Collateralized Debt Market

   Christopher Eaglin, Apoorv Gupta, Filippo Mezzanotti, and Jonathan Zinman

   Sep 2026

   Abs Bib PDF AEA Registry

   We conduct a collateralized debt modification experiment on a large lender’s nonperforming loans to minibus entrepreneurs, guiding its design and interpretation by adding liquidity constraints to a standard debt contracting model with strategic incentives. Liquidity constraints add another borrower incentive compatibility constraint that interacts with strategic motives to shape repayment and effort. The model predicts specific conditions under which different contracting approaches will be (in)effective at changing borrower behavior, collateral actually worsens incentive alignment, and borrower repayment and effort responses will diverge. Empirical results are consistent with model predictions and suggest a pecking order strategy for modification practice and policy.

   @unpublished{eaglin2026working,
     title = {Working it out: Randomized Modification and Entrepreneurial Effort in a Collateralized Debt Market},
     author = {Eaglin, Christopher and Gupta, Apoorv and Mezzanotti, Filippo and Zinman, Jonathan},
     year = {2026},
     month = sep,
   }

2. Demographics and Technology Diffusion: Evidence from Mobile Payments

   Nicolas Crouzet, Pulak Ghosh, Apoorv Gupta, and Filippo Mezzanotti

   Feb 2026

   Abs SSRN Bib PDF

   Media & Policy Coverage: Kellogg Insights

   We show that the age composition of the population can shape the speed at which businesses adopt new technologies, using evidence from mobile payments in India. Consumers’ propensity to use new payment technologies declines with age, creating stronger incentives for businesses serving younger customers to accept these technologies. We document this pattern in the rollout of a mobile payment option by a major fintech company. A model where consumer attitudes toward technology vary by age implies that business adoption is inefficiently low, with the young bearing disproportionate welfare losses from network externalities. Jointly subsidizing transaction and adoption costs restores efficiency.

   @unpublished{crouzet2026demographics,
     title = {Demographics and Technology Diffusion: Evidence from Mobile Payments},
     author = {Crouzet, Nicolas and Ghosh, Pulak and Gupta, Apoorv and Mezzanotti, Filippo},
     year = {2026},
     month = feb,
   }

3. Information Frictions and Take-up of Government Credit Programs

   Pulak Ghosh, Apoorv Gupta, Jacopo Ponticelli, and Andrea Tesei

   Dec 2025

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   Governments in most developing countries offer subsidized credit programs to the agricultural sector, yet farmers often lack information on these programs. We study the impact of information frictions on credit take-up by exploiting the construction of mobile phone towers in previously unconnected areas of India. Areas receiving towers experience an increase in farmers’ calls to call-centers for agricultural advice and higher take-up of agricultural loans. Loan uptake rises particularly for government credit programs that farmers inquire about. New loans are mostly used for consumption in times of adverse weather shocks. Higher credit participation does not lead to higher default rates.

   @unpublished{ghosh2025information,
     title = {Information Frictions and Take-up of Government Credit Programs},
     author = {Ghosh, Pulak and Gupta, Apoorv and Ponticelli, Jacopo and Tesei, Andrea},
     year = {2025},
     month = dec,
   }

4. Demand for Quality, Variable Markups and (Mis)allocation: Evidence from India

   Apoorv Gupta

   Mar 2024

   r/r, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

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   Markups vary systematically across firms and generate misallocation, yet empirical evidence on sources driving markup variation is limited. I study how demand-side factors affect markups. Using detailed firm-product-level data from India, I document that both marginal costs and markups are increasing in firm size. Changes in markups across the firm-size distribution in response to exogenous demand shocks to poor households lend support to the demand-based markup channel: producing better quality and selling to wealthier, less demand-elastic households leads larger firms to incur higher costs and charge higher markups. Accounting for the demand-based channel reduces estimated misallocation losses by 30 percent.

   @unpublished{gupta2024markups,
     title = {Demand for Quality, Variable Markups and (Mis)allocation: Evidence from India},
     author = {Gupta, Apoorv},
     year = {2024},
     month = mar,
     note = {<em>r/r</em>, <strong>American Economic Journal: Applied Economics</strong>},
   }

publications

1. Language Barriers, Technology Adoption and Productivity: Evidence from Agriculture in India

   Apoorv Gupta, Jacopo Ponticelli, and Andrea Tesei

   Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024

   Forthcoming

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   Media & Policy Coverage: VoxDev · World Bank Development Blog · Ideas for India · Kellogg Insights · ThePrint

   We study the effect of language barriers on the ability of farmers to access information about agricultural technologies in rural areas of India. We use the introduction of government-sponsored call centers (Kisan Call Centers) which offer agricultural advice in the official language of each Indian state. For identification, we compare geographically contiguous areas that sit across state borders, and exploit differences in the language spoken by farmers and call center advisors. We document that language barriers limit the adoption of modern agricultural technologies — such as high-yielding variety seeds — and negatively affect crop yields.

   @article{gupta2024language,
     title = {Language Barriers, Technology Adoption and Productivity: Evidence from Agriculture in India},
     author = {Gupta, Apoorv and Ponticelli, Jacopo and Tesei, Andrea},
     journal = {Review of Economics and Statistics},
     year = {2024},
     note = {<em>Forthcoming</em>},
     doi = {10.1162/rest_a_01501},
   }

2. Shocks and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Electronic Payment Systems

   Nicolas Crouzet, Apoorv Gupta, and Filippo Mezzanotti

   Journal of Political Economy, Nov 2023

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   Media & Policy Coverage: Kellogg Insights · ARK Invest · CNBC · TPRI · QRIUS · LSE Business Review · Visible Hand Podcast

   We provide evidence on the importance of coordination frictions in technology adoption, using data from a large provider of electronic wallets during the Indian demonetization. Exploiting geographical variation in exposure to the demonetization, we show that adoption of the wallet increased persistently in response to the large but temporary cash contraction, consistent with the predictions of a technology adoption model with complementarities. Model estimates indicate that adoption would have been 45% lower without complementarities. Our results illustrate how large but temporary interventions can help overcome coordination frictions, though we caution that such interventions may also exacerbate initial differences in adoption.

   @article{crouzet2023shocks,
     title = {Shocks and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Electronic Payment Systems},
     author = {Crouzet, Nicolas and Gupta, Apoorv and Mezzanotti, Filippo},
     journal = {Journal of Political Economy},
     volume = {131},
     number = {11},
     pages = {3003--3065},
     year = {2023},
     month = nov,
     doi = {10.1086/724847},
   }