Ayaj Rana

Welcome! I am a PhD candidate at Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School, where I am advised by Professors Adam Seth Litwin, Forrest Briscoe, JR Keller, and Michael Maffie. Alongside my doctoral work, I serve as a Graduate Resident Fellow at Cornell University's Alice Cook House, where I mentor undergraduate residents and support the House’s living-learning program.

My dissertation explores how multi-sided market dynamics shape entrepreneurship on digital freelance platforms. Specifically, I examine how freelancers navigate professional identity under algorithmic governance, maintain bargaining power amid client overreach, and manage the tensions between autonomy and dependence in their platform-based work. My research has been recognized with Cornell ILR School Benjamin Millar Award, Academy of Management (AOM) Best Paper Award, and AOM Organizational Behavior Division Award.  

Before beginning my PhD at Cornell. I completed a Master of Public Policy (MPP) at Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies as a Fulbright student. During this time, I held a position as a Public Finance Fellow at the Andrew Young School and worked as a Georgia Innovative Economic Development Intern at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute. 

Prior to my graduate studies in the U.S., I earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in social sciences, with a concentration in development studies, from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. After graduation, I joined the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka as a lecturer and later as an assistant professor. In these roles, I taught public finance, resource economics, and quantitative research methods at both undergraduate and graduate levels, while also engaging in a wide range of policy research and evaluation consulting projects. 

For further details of my academic and professional engagements, please see my CV here.