Dr. Shakya’s, econmoics, paper titled “Productivity Spillovers and the Productivity-Compensation Gap” is accepted in the Spatial Economic Analysis journal. The article illuminates possible explanations and quantifies the productivity and compensation gap in US industries. The productivity and compensation gap is attributed to rising inequality and wage stagnation and has intrigued academics and policymakers. He hypothesis and test that productivity spillovers might partially explain the productivity compensation gap in the US.

Shakya’s “Natural Disasters and Labor Migration: Evidence from Nepal’s Earthquake” paper has also been published and in print in the World Development journal. In this paper, he exploits the quasi-random spatial and temporal nature of ground tremors and satellite nightlight data to evaluate the impact of the 2015 earthquake on international labor migration per 100,000 population in Nepal. His results indicate that the effect of the earthquake on international labor migration is statistically significant and negative only among males.