Shamika Ravi

Shamika Ravi is a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution Washington D.C. She was the former Director of Research at Brookings India and her research focuses on economics of development including areas of finance, health, urbanization and gender inequality. Dr. Ravi is a visiting professor of Economics at The BITS School of Management and The Indian School of Business where she teaches courses in Managerial Economics (Game Theory) and Microfinance. She was also a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Ravi publishes extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals and writes regular opinion pieces in newspapers (English and Hindi) for the wider audience of public policy. Her research work has been featured and frequently cited by leading global media outlets, as well as national and regional newspapers and magazines across India in different languages.

• “The Association of Biomass Burning and Hypertension in North India.” Social Science & Medicine Population Health. June 2021
• “Too Slow for the Urban March: Litigations and Real Estate Market in Mumbai." Journal of Urban Economics. May 2021.
• “Poverty, Pandemic and Elections: Analysis of Bihar Assembly Elections 2020.” Indian Journal of Human Development. Sage Publications. March 2021.
• "Health and Economic Impact of Air Pollution in the States of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019." The Lancet. Planetary Health. (with L. Dandona et. al.). December 2020.
• “Maternal History of Neonatal Deaths in India.” JAMA Network Open. April 2020.
• “Medicines in India: Accessibility, Affordability and Access.” Brookings India Report. March 2020.
• "How electronic voting machines have improved India’s democracy," December, 2019.
• "Reviving Higher Education in India," Brookings India Report, November, 2019.
• "Performance of the Supreme Court and tenure of Chief Justices of India: An observational analysis (1950 to 2019)," October, 2019
• "Missing female patients: an observational analysis of sex ratio among outpatients in a referral tertiary care public hospital in India," BMJ Open, August, 2019.
• "The promise of impact investing in India," Brookings India Report, July, 2019. "India 2024: Policy priorities for the new government," Brookings India Policy Brief, May, 2019.
• "India 2024: An informed India," Brookings India Policy Brief, May, 2019.
• "India 2024: A highly educated India," Brookings India Policy Brief, May, 2019.
• "Difficult Dialogues: A compendium of contemporary essays on gender inequality in India," March, 2019.
• "Accelerating financial inclusion in India," March, 2019.
• "Too slow for the urban march: Litigations and real estate market in Mumbai, India," Brookings India Working Paper, January, 2019.
• "Is India Ready to JAM?" Brookings India IMPACT Series, 2018.
• "Harnessing the future of AI in India," October, 2018
• “What Explains Childhood Violence? Global Macro and Micro Correlates” (with R. Ahluwalia). The Journal of Psychology, Health and Medicine, 2017.
• “The impact of Electronic Voting Machines on electoral frauds, democracy, and development” (with S. Debnath and M. Kapoor). Brookings India Paper, 2017.
• “Restructuring the Medical Council of India”. Brookings India IMPACT Series, 2017.
• “Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution in Consumption in the Presence of Inertia: Empirical Evidence from a Natural Experiment”, (with M. Kapoor). Management Science, 2016.
• “Health and Morbidity in India: 2004 – 2014” (with R. Ahluwalia and S. Bergkvist). Brookings India Report, December, 2016.
• “Building Smart Cities in India: Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam” (with A. Tomer, A. Bhatia and J. Kane). Brookings Institution Report, 2016.
• “Building a Design Economy in India” (with D.M. West). Brookings India Report, 2016.
• “Advancing Financial Inclusion in India beyond the Jan-Dhan Yojana” (with S. Gakhar). Brookings India IMPACT Series, 2015.
• “A Reality Check on Suicides in India”. Brookings India IMPACT Series, 2015.
• “Spectrum Policy in India” (with D.M. West). Brookings Institution Report, 2015.
• “Priorities for India’s National health policy” (with R. Ahluwalia). Brookings India IMPACT Series, 2015.
• “Failure vs. Displacement: Why an Innovative Anti-Poverty Program Showed No Net Impact in South India”, (with J. Morduch, and J. Bauchet). Journal of Development Economics, 2015.
• “Workfare as an Effective Way to Fight Poverty: The Case of India’s NREGS” (with M. Engler), World Development, 2015.
• “Women Voters in Indian Democracy: A Silent Revolution”, (with M. Kapoor). Economic and Political Weekly, Volume - XLIX No. 12, 22 March 2015.

*Op-eds and External Articles: *

• "Existing govt infrastructure is not conducive to launch NRC. It will lead to chaos, confusion," The Indian Express, December 2019.
• Interview: "Why It’s Time To Return To Structural Reforms," Swarajya, Novermber, 2019.
• "We need many more women in the field of economics," The Indian Express, October, 2019.
• "Our students are not learning. But are our teachers teaching?" Hindustan Times, June, 2019.
• "A problem of measurement," The Indian Express, May, 2019.
• "The debate over jobs in India is missing the point," April, 2019.
• "Missing" women in Indian Democracy," The Indian Express, Stepwell Podcast, March 2019.
• "Debt Isn’t Killing India’s Farmers", Bloomberg Opinion, December, 2018
• "Heavy debts alone are not driving farmers to suicide," ThePrint, December, 2018.
• Interview: "It is crucial for young girls to see female mentors," SheThePeople.TV, December, 2018.
• Interview: "North-south binary is too simplistic for mapping economic performance of states," Fortune India, Oct 10, 2018
• “Why India Is Ready for a Universal Basic Income, How It Could Cut Poverty and Bureaucracy”. Foreign Affairs, 2017.

EDUCATION

• PhD. Economics, New York University, 2006
• MA, Economics, Delhi School of Economics, 1998
• BA (Honors), Economics, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, 1996

CURRENT POSITION

• NonResident Senior Fellow, Governance Studies Program, Brookings Institution, Washington D.C.

PAST POSITIONS

• Associate Professor of Economics (Visiting), Ashoka University
• Assistant Professor of Economics, Indian School of Business
• Research Affiliate, Financial Access Initiative, New York University
• Member, Enforcement Directorate, Microfinance Institutions Network, India, 2012 onwards
• Fellow, MFMI, Open Society Institute, Washington D.C., 2006-2008
• Visiting Research Scholar, University of Tokyo, March 2014, November 2012
• Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India