I am a PhD candidate in Economics at MIT. I study how firms shape and navigate competition in their economic environments.

My research reveals two key insights. First, I identify two ways firms actively govern across firm boundaries: they induce competition among suppliers for future business (enabling selection and incentives), and they strategically integrate only the most fragile production stages within their supplier firms while letting market competition discipline the rest. Second, I show that competitive intensity in an industry has multi-level determinants, from industry-wide information sharing to individual CEO behavior. You can read more about my research here.

I am on the 2025-26 Job Market. I can be reached at aroon@mit.edu or narayanan.aroon@gmail.com.