Professor Sonia Bhalotra to deliver 2026 R C Dutt lectures

Professor Sonia Bhalotra to deliver 2026 R C Dutt lectures

Professor Sonia Bhalotra has been invited to deliver this year’s R C Dutt lectures at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.

The Centre is one of India’s top social science think-tanks and hosts the prestigious annual lecture series in celebration of the legacy of Indian economic historian Romesh Chunder Dutt.

R C Dutt worked for the British colonial government in India in the late 19^th century. His academic work was influential in the campaign for independence and is still relevant to current discussions on development, inequality and sustainability.

On 10 February Professor Bhalotra will speak on her research into job displacement and domestic violence; on 11 February she will present her research on firm responses to legislation on workplace sexual harassment.

When asked why she chose these topics, Sonia said:

“As many as one in three women report having suffered domestic violence and as many as one in two report experiencing workplace sexual harassment at some point in their career. These magnitudes are phenomenal. The causes and the consequences of these phenomena include economic vulnerability. My lectures will illustrate how, with a focus on identifying causality.

"In my lecture on domestic violence the focal point will be discussion of my research studying the mechanisms by which job loss among men or women can exacerbate the problem, but I will also refer to my research on the role of fear, pessimism, depression and social isolation.

"In my second lecture I will detail research in which we model the workplace sexual harassment process, showing how sexual harassment emerges endogenously as firms decide on their workforce size and composition. We generate estimates of distortions in female employment share and productivity created by sexual harassment.

"Using experimental variation created by a policy that made firms responsible for prevention, we show that such policies lead to lower harassment in general but that they lead to an intensification of gender segregation. I will also refer to the relevance of the market power of firms, and the potential role of training managers in an evidence-based “female style” of management."

• Read Professor Bhalotra's 2024 article for Advantage magazine: Investigating employer responses to legislation on handling sexual harassment
• Read more about Professor Bhalotra's ERC-funded research into violence against women: Generating New Evidence to Address Violence Against Women