Vidya Atal is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Montclair State University. She holds a Master's and a Ph.D. degree in economics from Cornell University. Earlier, she received a Master's degree in quantitative economics from the Indian Statistical Institute.

Her specialization is in applied microeconomics, with research spanning industrial organization, development economics, and policy analysis. Her work focuses on how institutional frameworks and public policies influence economic outcomes and distributional patterns. She studies key issues in development economics, including women’s empowerment, intra-household bargaining, inequality, and gender gaps, alongside topics in industrial organization such as U.S. patent policy, open-source software licensing, firm behavior in patent races, and R&D investment decisions.

Dr. Atal’s research articles have been published in some of the top-tier peer-reviewed journals in economics. To name a few, they are: Games and Economic Behavior, The Journal of Industrial Economics, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Review of Economics of the Household, Economics Letters, Economics Bulletin, and B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy. She has presented her research in several national and international conferences, like the International Industrial Organization Conference and the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference.