Economics Associate Professor Venoo Kakar Awarded Two-Year $250,000 Grant

Associate Professor of Economics Venoo Kakar has received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to study how student debt forgiveness affects economic inequality.

The grant will help Venoo Kakar and Howard University Economics Associate Professor Gerald E. Daniels Jr. to investigate student loan forgiveness programs and their influence on household wealth outcomes improvement. Kakar and her colleague will also collaborate with Joanne W. Hsu, a principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board in this research. 

Kakar, Daniels, and Olga Petrovska found the contribution of student loan debt to racial wealth gaps in their 2019 study.