Mikita Khurana

Applied economist

Vancouver, BC

I build forecasts and quantitative models for business decisions. At EA SPORTS, I forecast FC live-service revenue for quarterly planning. I hold a PhD in Economics from the University of Washington.

Portrait of Mikita Khurana

Experience

EA SPORTS

Jan 2026 – Present

Vancouver, BC

Senior Analyst, FC Live Service Forecasting

I built and automated the cohort revenue forecast used in quarterly planning for EA SPORTS FC. The model links weekly active players, conversion and spend per paying player to revenue.

I compare scenarios across game modes and for the franchise overall, and present the assumptions and uncertainty to product, commercial and finance partners.

Freddie Mac

Jul 2025 – Dec 2025

McLean, VA

Quantitative Analytics Senior, Risk Management

I produced quarterly performance and governance reports for loss-given-default (LGD), mortgage default and prepayment models. I used waterfall analysis to attribute changes in LGD to portfolio characteristics.

RedPeak Economics Consulting

May 2024 – Sep 2024

Seattle, WA

Consultant, Financial Modeling

I worked with economists and legal experts to interpret financial time-series results for litigation.

Amazon

Jun 2022 – Sep 2022

Seattle, WA

Economist Intern, Time Series Forecasting

I built and implemented advertising revenue forecasts using ARIMA, vector autoregression (VAR) and dynamic panel models.

AIG Insurance

Sep 2017 – May 2018

Bengaluru, India

Junior Manager, Portfolio Optimization Team

I worked with actuaries to model mortality for annuity pricing, using logistic regression to assess variation across economic and geographic factors. I also used text classification to categorize customer complaints.

Capgemini

Jun 2016 – Jul 2017

Bengaluru, India

Consultant, Data Science Team

I built models to predict assembly-line failures and leaks, using daily error logs for k-means clustering, classification and regression trees, and multinomial regression. I also built a recommendation engine using Apriori association rules.

Technical skills

Forecasting & Statistics

Time-series forecasting, ARIMA, VAR, dynamic panels, state-space models, Bayesian econometrics, Markov switching, survival analysis, difference-in-differences, instrumental variables

Data & Product Analytics

SQL, Python (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, statsmodels, PyTorch), R, MATLAB, SAS, KPI frameworks, driver decomposition, scenario planning, sensitivity analysis

Machine Learning & AI

Predictive modelling, logistic regression, classification, clustering, CART, association rules, AI-assisted model development

Research

My research focuses on international macroeconomics, banking and financial markets. I study how disruptions in capital flows affect bank competition, credit supply and the wider economy.

Research Statement (PDF)

Job market paper

Sudden Stops and Bank Competition

This study investigates the implications of sudden stops on the competitive landscape of the banking sector. Using data for 46 emerging economies, the study presents evidence of a reduction in banking competition following a sudden stop episode. This paper employs a small open economy model featuring banks that operate under imperfect competition and face an occasionally binding collateral constraint. The entry and exit of banks influence the market power of existing incumbents. The diminishing availability of external funds triggers a contraction in the banking sector, resulting in a reduced number of banks. The resulting decrease in the number of banks amplifies market concentration, empowering surviving institutions to exercise greater pricing power. This drives up loan rates, exacerbating the borrowing costs for firms and households.

Read paper

Bank Heterogeneity and Imperfect Competition

This paper develops a DSGE open economy model featuring a banking sector with heterogeneous banks, characterized by a Pareto distribution of productivity and subject to occasionally binding collateral constraints on foreign borrowing. The model investigates how bank productivity heterogeneity interacts with external financing conditions, affecting credit supply, firm investment, and macroeconomic stability. The analysis explores the dynamic responses to key shocks, including sudden stops in capital flows, central bank interest rate adjustments, and changes in bank entry and operational costs.

Read paper

Conferences and presentations

  • Midwest Economics Association 89th Annual Meeting, Kansas City, Missouri (March 21–23, 2025)
  • Spring 2025 Midwest Economic Theory and International Trade Meetings, Virginia Tech (March 28–30, 2025)
  • MTI Brownbag, University of Washington

Teaching

I independently taught undergraduate Managerial Economics and Macroeconomics at the University of Washington.

Teaching Dossier (PDF)

Summer 2021 – Fall 2024

Instructor

University of Washington, Seattle

  • Managerial Economics
  • Intermediate Macroeconomics
  • Introduction to Microeconomics
  • Graduate Math Camp

Fall 2022

Graduate Teaching Assistant

University of Washington, Seattle

  • Macroeconomic Analysis I

Winter 2020 – Spring 2021

Teaching Assistant

University of Washington, Seattle

  • Introduction to Microeconomics
  • Introduction to Macroeconomics

Winter 2021 – Spring 2023

Reader/Grader

University of Washington, Seattle

  • Advanced Macroeconomics
  • Investment, Capital and Finance
  • Topics in Financial Economics
  • Topics in Monetary Economics
  • Economic Analysis of the Law

Education

2019 – 2025 · Awarded Jun 2025

PhD in Economics

University of Washington, Seattle

Dissertation · Bank Competition and Capital Flow Shocks in Open Economies

  • Analyzed 46 emerging economies and found weaker bank competition after sudden stops in capital inflows.
  • Used an open-economy model to examine how funding constraints affect bank entry and exit.

2014 – 2016

MA in Economics

Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi

2010 – 2013

BSc in Physics

University of Delhi

Fellowships

  • Provost Richards’ Fund for Graduate Students, University of Washington
  • Krishna Raj Fellowship for field research, University of Delhi