Manjira Datta

Manjira Datta is an Associate Professor of Economics and the past Faculty Director of Inclusive Excellence at W. P. Carey School of Business. Her expertise areas include economic theory, macroeconomics, resource economics, trade and general equilibrium. Her work has been published in leading journals like Annals of Operations Research, Economic Letters, Economic Theory, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Mathematical Economics. Before joining ASU, Dr. Datta was an Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and a post-doctoral fellow at the Center of Operations Research and Econometrics and Center for Mathematical Economics and Econometrics in Belgium. She received her doctoral degree in economics from Cornell University.

Dr. Datta is the former director of graduate studies and the former director of PhD admissions in Economics. During her tenure as director of admissions she was successful in raising the proportion of female students in the program and increasing overall diversity in terms of prior education, experience, and nationality. As the graduate director, she implemented significant reorganization of the PhD program and oversaw improved placements including tenure-track faculty appointments at top universities like New York University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Glasgow (UK), University of Surrey (UK), and Utah State University. Faculty-student mentorship during the reorganization process was a crucial part of this success. She continues to serve as a guide and mentor for undergraduate students interested in pursuing graduate degrees and careers in Economics. She was instrumental in developing a new course on Globalization for the MBA program and a new curriculum for undergraduate South Asia studies at Arizona State University for the W. P. Carey School of Business and the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, respectively.    

Dr. Datta served as the Principal Investigator for a recently completed Alfred P. Sloan Foundation planning grant for creating equitable pathways for students from minority-serving institutions into M. S. in Economics. She is committed towards improving minority representation in STEM with special focus in Economics. Currently, as a Co-PI, she is pursuing a W. P. Carey seed grant to enhance student success in STEM through information interventions at Arizona Western College. This project aims to foster students' interest and success in STEM fields by developing, implementing, and rigorously evaluating scalable information interventions.