Ajay Mahal

Professor Ajay Mahal is a Professorial Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health within the University of Melbourne. With over 25 years of health systems and policy research experience, he specializes in health economics, health systems, and human development.

His research portfolio includes health system intervention evaluations, household/national impacts of illness, health workforce issues, fiscal federalism, and social protection programs. He actively collaborates on clinical epidemiology-household economics intersections. Professor Mahal has authored over 160 publications and serves on editorial boards of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Health Systems and Reform, and International Journal of Non-communicable Diseases.

International experience includes advisory roles for health ministries in Palestine, India, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. His research has been supported by ADB, UNDP, UNICEF, UNCTAD, WHO, World Bank, Accenture, and ILO. Current work focuses on economic dimensions of chronic disease management, health financing reforms, and equity in healthcare access across Asia-Pacific regions.