Ankit Bhatia Back to Home
Bio / CV
LocationWashington DC, USA
FieldsDevelopment Economics · Economic Geography · Infrastructure Investments
MethodsImpact Evaluation · Spatial Econometrics · GeoAI · NLP

Ankit Bhatia is an Economist with over a decade of expertise in infrastructure development and land markets in India. His research combines AI/ML tools with high-resolution remote sensing to assess how property rights shape infrastructure investment and spatial development in emerging markets. He brings a rich mix of academic, policy, and project management experience, having worked with leading global institutions including the World Bank, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Centre for Policy Research, University of Chicago Delhi Centre, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and Planning Commission, Government of India. Ankit is currently a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University and holds MS and BS degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

01

Education

Johns Hopkins University 2020 – 2026
Ph.D., International Development Economics
Dissertation: Essays on Infrastructure, Land Markets, and Spatial Dynamics
Committee: Devesh Kapur, Filipe Campante, Shoumitro Chatterjee, Ritam Chaurey, Arvind Subramanian
Best Research Paper · Data Science & AI · IIM Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur 2009 – 2014
Integrated M.S. & B.S. (Honors) in Economics
Thesis: Modelling the Effects of Patent Litigation on Firms' Innovation
Best Thesis, Director's Medal · Best Policy Paper, NITI Aayog
02

Employment & Research Positions

World Bank Group Nov 2025 – Current
Research Economist, DECRG · Social and Infrastructure Unit
World Bank Group Summer 2025
Research Analyst, DECRG · World Development Report 2026 on AI
Johns Hopkins University 2021 – 2024
Graduate Research Assistant
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 2019
Consultant, Political Economy Program
Brookings Institution 2016
Consultant, Global Metropolitan Program
Centre for Policy Research 2015 – 2019
Research Associate
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy 2014
Research Assistant
Delhi School of Economics Summer 2013
Research Intern
Planning Commission, Government of India (NITI Aayog) Summer 2012
Policy Intern
03

Teaching Positions

Johns Hopkins University Fall 2024
International Trade · with Pravin Krishna
Johns Hopkins University Fall 2022, 2023, 2024
Economic Development · with Shoumitro Chatterjee
Johns Hopkins University Spring 2022, 2023, 2024
Advanced Quantitative Methods · with Ritam Chaurey & Shoumitro Chatterjee
04

Fellowships & Awards

Mercatus Center, George Mason University2024 – 2026
Emergent Ventures Fellow · Oskar Morgenstern Fellow
Institute of Humane Studies, George Mason University2024 – 2025
Dissertation Sabbatical Grant · Residency Fellowship
Johns Hopkins University, SAIS2020 – 2024
PhD Graduate Fellowship
University of Chicago, Harris School2019
Anubhav Fellowship
University of Michigan2022
ICPSR Fellowship in Quantitative Methods
University of Bergen2017
Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship
05

Conferences & Workshops

American Economic Association 2026
Ideas of India Conference, Mercatus Center Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) Southern Economic Association Markets and Society Conference World Bank Land Conference Annual Economic Development Conference, ADB World Congress, Econometric Society Midwest Economic Association 2025
Econometric Society Winter School, Delhi School of Economics Annual Conference on Economic Growth & Development, ISI-Delhi India Management Research Conference, IIM Ahmedabad PhD Research Conference, Johns Hopkins University 2024
World Bank Brown Bag Lunch, Delhi Annual CPR–Land Rights Initiative Conference Annual India Land Development Conference National Seminar on Displacement of Scheduled Tribes in India National Consultation on Documenting Land Conflicts Tata Steel Samvaad Conclave National Smart Cities Conference National Workshop on Land Records Digitization 2015–2020