Gokul Gopalan Ramachandran

I am a final year PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Warwick, and I am on the 2026/27 economics job market. My research is on panel data econometrics, with a focus on Granular Instrumental Variables and Interactive Fixed Effects models. I am funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership.

My job market paper studies Granular Instrumental Variables in panels where both the cross section and the time series are large, and characterises what happens to identification and inference when the panel lacks the dominant units that make the instrument strong.

Before I started my PhD, I spent close to a decade in public service in the Indian Administrative Service. During this period, I held leadership roles in designing and executing economic policies. These roles included the Chief Executive of a district with a population of 1.1 million and Acting Secretary to the Government of Kerala, India in the Finance Department.

I have a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University, where I was a Karl E. Prickett Fellow in Public and International Affairs.

I enjoy learning about economic and political history, especially the 18th and 19th centuries, visiting museums, running, and playing football. My favourite podcasts are The Age of Napoleon and The Fall of Civilizations.

Find book reviews and commentaries on interesting new papers in my blog.