Mahesh Karra

Associate Professor of Global Development Policy
Boston University

mvkarra@bu.edu

Field of Study: Demography, Economics, Education, Mathematics, Population and Development, Public Health/ Epidemiology, Statistics
 
Specialization: Age and Sex Structure, Applied Demography, Children and Youth, Data Collection and Processing, Economic Demography, Education and Schooling, Estimates and Projections, Families and Households, Fertility, Income, Poverty and Welfare, Labor force/Employment, Mathematical Demography, Mortality, Health, and Longevity, Population and Development, Reproductive Health (Family Planning), Spatial Analysis (and Geographic Information), Theory
 
Regional focus: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia
 
Education: Doctorate (Ph.D, or MD), Harvard University, Economics, 2017
 
Working languages: English
Spanish, French, Hindi
 
Other association membership in population or related fields: European Association for Population Studies (EAPS), Population Association of America (PAA), Union for African Population Studies (UAPS)


Curriculum Vitae:
CV-M.-Karra-1-25-25.pdf
Professional web page:
https://sites.bu.edu/mvkarra/  
 
Professional Summary:

I am a tenured Associate Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, the Associate Director of the Human Capital Initiative (HCI), and the Director of the Program on Women’s Empowerment Research (POWER) at the Global Development Policy Center. My academic and research interests are broadly in development economics, health economics, quantitative methods, and applied demography. My research utilizes experimental and non-experimental methods to investigate the relationships between population, health, and economic development in low- and middle-income countries. I have conducted field work in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, and my current research uses randomized controlled trials to evaluate the health and economic effects of improving access to family planning and maternal and child health services in Malawi, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. I have also worked for the Population Reference Bureau and the Futures Group International and served as a consultant to the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Population Council. I am also a Co-Editor of Studies in Family Planning, a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles on public health, social science, and biomedical research on sexual and reproductive health, fertility, and family planning.