Aastha Rajan is a PhD candidate in Economics at Northwestern University. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In this position, she supported the monetary policy work of the labor markets group and analyzed the cyclicality of labor market indicators and the rising wage inequality in the US. She also co-authored research projects studying the persistent economic impact of the Great Migration, and the consumption effect of the Economic Impact Payments. Her research interests are broadly in areas of labor and public economics. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the impact of administrative burden and social stigma on the welfare effects of social safety net programs in the US. Aastha earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics, with a specialization in quantitative methods, from Texas A&M University.