Saloni Taneja

About Me

I am a 4th year PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Southern California. My research fields are urban and environmental economics, focusing on pricing, allocation, and adaptation in developing economies.

Prior to my PhD, I was a Senior Research Associate at J-PAL South Asia, where I managed large-scale field experiments on insurance and public service delivery. I have also consulted for the World Bank on climate adaptation, and worked as a research assistant at USC analyzing the impact of education on long-run health and demographic outcomes in the United States.

I received my MA in Economics from Ashoka University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Delhi.

Publications

Comparing Population-level Humoral and Cellular Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in Bangalore, India
(with Anup Malani, Jayashree Aiyar, Andrea Sant, Neha Kamran, Manoj Mohanan, Bartek Woda, Wanran Zhao & Anu Acharya)
Scientific Reports, 2024

Working Papers

Too Hot to Handle? Heat and Public Service Delivery in India
Draft available upon request

Selected Work in Progress

Pricing the Aquifer: Water Tanker Markets and Urban Expansion

Urban Thirst and Rural Distortions: Groundwater Markets and Agricultural Misallocation
(with Meera Mahadevan and Lisa Tarquinio)

Who Gets the Last Drop? Groundwater Extraction, Tanker Markets, and Welfare in Developing Cities
(with Meera Mahadevan and Lisa Tarquinio)

The Politics of Thirst: Urban Water Demand and Inter-State Water Allocation
(with Meera Mahadevan and Lisa Tarquinio)

Urban Thirst, Rural Consequences: A General Equilibrium Analysis of Water Scarcity
(with Meera Mahadevan and Lisa Tarquinio)

Teaching

Spring 2025: Graduate, Microeconomic Analysis and Policy, USC
Fall 2024: Graduate, Microeconomic Analysis and Policy, USC
Spring 2024: Undergraduate, Introduction to Econometrics, USC
Fall 2023: Graduate, Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy, USC
Fall 2017: Undergraduate, Statistics for Economics, Ashoka University