Akshay Dixit

Democracy Doctoral Fellow, AY2023-2024

Headshot of Akshay Dixit
Program Involvement

Reimagining Democracy Program

Akshay Govind Dixit is a Ph.D. student of Political Economy and Government at Harvard University. He is a James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Ph.D. Scholar in Inequality and Wealth Concentration, and a recipient of the Amartya Sen Fellowship for Students from India. His research is focused on how the democratic welfare state in India affects redistribution within caste networks and reshapes people’s sense of caste identity. He also studies how people form beliefs about inequality and redistribution in India. In ongoing research with Rachel Brulé, he is examining the effect of climate change-induced weather shocks on women’s autonomy in Bangladesh.

Prior to starting graduate school, Akshay worked on accountability in public services and youth civic engagement, first as a Senior Manager at Save the Children, and then as a Research Fellow at Harvard. He spent two years in Bangladesh as a Research Associate at Innovations for Poverty Action. Akshay has a master’s degree in international & Development Economics from Yale University, and a Bachelor’s in Economics from Presidency College in Kolkata, India.