PAVITRA GOVINDAN

My research is in behavioral and experimental economics, with a focus on social norms, gender in labor markets, and motivated reasoning. I study how formal and informal institutions shape economic behavior, including rule compliance and responses to social norms. My work on gender examines self-promotion, employer beliefs, meritocratic evaluations, and women’s entry into male-majority workplaces. I also study motivated reasoning in politically charged contexts and am developing new work on AI, teamwork, and cooperative learning.