Nishith Prakash is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics with a joint appointment with the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. At Northeastern University, he is also a Co-Director of the Global Action for Policy Initiative. Before joining the Northeastern University, he was an associate professor of economics with a joint position with the Department of Economics and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. 

Born and raised in Bihar, India, he earned a B.A. (honors) in economics from Shivaji College, an M.A. in economics from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University (India), and a Ph.D. in economics from University of Houston, TX. He was a post-doctoral research associate at Cornell University, NY from July 2010 till December 2011. He has previously held Visiting Assistant Professor positions at Ohio University, and Dartmouth College, and he has been a Visiting Fellow at Yale University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, and Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. 

He is a Research Fellow at CESifo, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), HiCN Households in Conflict Network (HiCN), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Network Researcher, Global Labor Organization (GLO), and Member of Insights on Immigration and Development (INSIDE-SPAIN). He is also currently serving in the Editorial Board of the journal PLOS ONE and Associate Editor at the Journal of Development Economics and Co-Editor at the Economics of Education Review.