A. Nilesh Fernando

The Grass is Not Always Greener: The Effects of Local Labor Market Information on Search and Employment

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Regulation by Reputation? Intermediaries, Labor Abuses, and International Migration

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Peer Pressure and Discrimination: Evidence from International Cricket

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Present Mothers, Absent Children? The Effects of Migration Restrictions in Sri Lanka

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Fraternity or Fracture? National Identity, Religious Minorities, and Communal Violence in India

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Agricultural Extension, Technology Adoption, and Information Spillovers: Evidence from a Cluster Randomized Experiment

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hiring Frictions and the Promise of Online Job Portals: Evidence from India

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Shackled to the Soil? Inherited Land, Birth Order, and Labor Mobility

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding Adverse Outcomes in Gulf Migration: Evidence from Administrative Data from Sri Lanka

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Seeking Treatment: The Impact of Mobile Extension on Information Exchange among Farmers

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

'Mobile'izing Agricultural Advice: Technology Adoption, Diffusion, and Sustainability

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Field Comparisons of Incentive-Compatible Preference Elicitation Techniques

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Data & Code

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Policy & Impact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

“To Protect the Welfare of Sri Lankan Migrant Workers, Hold Recruitment Agencies Accountable,” Daily Mirror, 2024.
“How can online job portals help firms find workers? Evidence from India” with Niharika Singh and Gabriel Tourek, VoxDev, 2023.
“To Address the Gulf’s Migrant Abuse Problem, Hold Intermediaries Accountable,” Medium, 2023.
Interview with VoxDevTalks about research (joint with Niharika Singh) on migration intermediaries in the Gulf Region, 2022.
“Mobile Phone-Based Extension, Peer Interactions, and Farmer Information Exchange: Evidence from Gujarat” with Renee Yaseen (ND), VoxDev, 2022.
“Digital Agricultural Extension: Stimulating or Supplanting Farmer’s Interactions?” with Renee Yaseen (ND), Ideas for India, 2022.
My research on mobile phone-based agricultural extension led to the creation of a tech start-up (Precision Development) that now scales similar interventions across 10 countries and 7 million farmers. More about how these research findings shaped Precision Development here.
“Assessing the Importance of Financial Literacy” with Shawn Cole, ADB Finance for the Poor, 2008.

Teaching

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Teaching Statement (PDF)

King’s College London

5QQMN938 — Intermediate Econometrics (Tutorial Leader, undergraduate) — 2026–present

University of Notre Dame

ECON 43810 — Explaining an Unequal World: Empirical Methods in Development (undergraduate) — 9 semesters
ECON 70562 — Advanced Topics in Economic Development (Ph.D.) — 2 semesters
ECON 30331 — Econometrics (undergraduate) — 2 semesters
ECON 70572 — Microeconomic Development II: Market Failures (Ph.D.) — 1 semester
ECON 33811 — Introduction to Development Economics (undergraduate) — 1 semester

Harvard University

Rethinking Financial Inclusion: Smart Design for Policy and Practice (Executive Education, Teaching Fellow) — 1 week
Economics 1393 — Poverty and Development (undergraduate, Teaching Fellow) — 1 semester

Advising

Fernando has supervised six undergraduate honors theses at Notre Dame, including two BonAnno Thesis Prize winners (Daniel Martin, ND ’16; James Mancini, ND ’23) and one honorable mention (Alison Lodermeier, ND ’17, now at the University of Chicago). His Ph.D. advisees include Paul Shaloka (ND ’23, now at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and Linh Nguyen (ND ’20, now at Bates College). Former research assistants and pre-doctoral fellows have gone on to economics Ph.D. programs at the University of Michigan and Brown University, among other placements.