Swapnika Rachapalli is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. She previously served as a postdoctoral fellow in Princeton University’s International Economics Section. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Toronto, where she specialized in international trade, economic growth, and development.

Her research examines why some countries remain poor and how productivity in these economies can be improved. One line of her work studies how international trade facilitates the diffusion of technology from advanced to lagging economies, thereby fostering growth. Another focuses on measuring and understanding the sources of resource misallocation across firms and sectors, a key impediment to economic efficiency in many emerging economies.