[Economics Seminar] The Un'Healthy' Gaps: Evidence on Gendered Fault lines in Digital Healthcare Services
Radeef Chundakkadan
Dear students,
Please find below the details of the seminar by Dr. Dweepobotee Brahma scheduled on February 4, 2026 (Wednesday) in the Seminar Room, Department of Economics, from 3:30pm-5pm.
Title: The Un'Healthy' Gaps: Evidence on Gendered Fault lines in Digital Healthcare Services
Abstract
This paper examines gender disparities in engagement on a large-scale digital health platform in a developing country context. Using a novel high-frequency dataset from India covering over 7,000 physicians, we explore differences in labor supply, pricing, patient engagement, and platform visibility by the physician's gender. We find that despite no difference in labour supply or consultation fees, female doctors have a lower booking rate and are ranked lower in platform search results. To better understand the mechanisms behind these disparities, we conducted a laboratory experiment that allows us to hold the rank constant. It reveals evidence of user's taste-based bias and rules out any potential bias stemming from the platform's ranking algorithm. Additionally, the analysis of patient reviews using Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools shows no systematic gender differences. Having ruled out statistical discrimination across multiple channels, we narrow down to taste-based discrimination as the source of gender gap in this high-skilled context.
Bio-Sketch
Dweepobotee Brahma is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Mathematical and Computational Economics in the School of AI and Data Science at IIT-Jodhpur. She has previously worked as a Fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, and as an Associate Fellow at Brookings India. She obtained a PhD in Applied Economics from Western Michigan University in 2019. Her research area lies in the intersection of applied econometrics (including Machine Learning and Causal Inference techniques) with development economics and health economics. She studies topics in maternal and child health outcomes, child mortality and morbidity, malnutrition, immunization, health insurance and health financing. She uses modern Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques to improve targeting of public policies. She was recently awarded the Google India Research Award 2021 for her work in the area of maternal and child health in India. She has several publications in reputed ABDC listed journals.
Thank you.
Regards,
Radeef Chundakkadan
Reminder
Radeef Chundakkadan
Please not seminar starts at 3pm.