Levy Scholar Lekha S. Chakraborty’s Essay on Gender Budgeting Featured in Two Outlets
The cover of Women in Public Finance: Stories of Gender in Budgeting, in which Chakraborty's essay appears.
Levy Scholar Lekha S. Chakraborty, senior economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), was interviewed by the Times of India. Her work was also highlighted by former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in a piece for the Levy Institute. A member of the International Working Group on Gender, Macroeconomics, and International Economics, Chakraborty’s work focuses on the relationship between gender and fiscal policy. The Times of India and Levy Institute pieces both focused on Chakraborty’s essay, “Gender Budgeting: That Fire in My Belly,” included in the collection Women in Public Finance: Stories of Gender in Budgeting, in which she draws connections bewteen her mother’s childhood experiences in Kerala to later budget meetings she attended.
Speaking with the Times, Chakraborty discussed the importance of gender budgeting, which is a strategy used specifically in India to achieve equality between men and women by examining how public resources are spent. “Women’s labor force participation lags their education levels. This is an efficiency loss,” Chakraborty told the Times. “Public investment in health, education, childcare, safety, and property rights expands effective labor supply and raises returns on existing human capital. Gender budgeting makes those choices visible and accountable.”
For the Levy Institute, Yellen wrote that Chakraborty’s essay, “showed that the values motivating her work could be supported by rigorous economic analysis.” Chakraborty’s work was initially ignored by the institutions she worked with, Yellen writes; “She responded by developing models, assembling data, and estimating the effects of gender-responsive budget policies on human development … In my experience, public institutions rarely change course simply because they are told they should. Durable change requires evidence, persistence, and an understanding of how institutions make decisions.”
Post Date: 09-30-2026
Speaking with the Times, Chakraborty discussed the importance of gender budgeting, which is a strategy used specifically in India to achieve equality between men and women by examining how public resources are spent. “Women’s labor force participation lags their education levels. This is an efficiency loss,” Chakraborty told the Times. “Public investment in health, education, childcare, safety, and property rights expands effective labor supply and raises returns on existing human capital. Gender budgeting makes those choices visible and accountable.”
For the Levy Institute, Yellen wrote that Chakraborty’s essay, “showed that the values motivating her work could be supported by rigorous economic analysis.” Chakraborty’s work was initially ignored by the institutions she worked with, Yellen writes; “She responded by developing models, assembling data, and estimating the effects of gender-responsive budget policies on human development … In my experience, public institutions rarely change course simply because they are told they should. Durable change requires evidence, persistence, and an understanding of how institutions make decisions.”
Post Date: 09-30-2026