Santosh Kumar Gautam

Santosh Kumar Gautam is an Associate Professor of Development and Global Health Economics at the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame. He serves as Director of the Sustainable Development Doctoral Program and the Sustainable Development Major in the Master of Global Affairs program. His affiliations include the Eck Institute for Global Health and the Building Inclusive Growth (BIG) Lab. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Houston and previously worked at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Education: B.A. (Honors) in Economics (University of Delhi), M.A. in Economics (Delhi School of Economics), PhD in Economics (University of Houston).

Research focuses on global health economics and development, emphasizing maternal/child health, human capital accumulation, and the impacts of infrastructure (roads, electricity) and microfinance on well-being. Methodologies include experimental/quasi-experimental designs, with fieldwork in India, Bhutan, Albania, Mexico, and Vietnam. Recent work examines pandemic effects on birth outcomes, anemia-school attendance linkages, and intergenerational health transmission.

Awards: None explicitly listed, though he serves as Research Fellow at IZA (Germany), Academic Editor for PLOS journals, and Associate Editor of Economic Modelling.

Advising and Grants: No specific students/grants listed, but oversees doctoral and master’s programs in sustainable development. Active in policy-relevant research on health systems and development interventions.

Labs/Teams: Affiliated with BIG Lab (focusing on inclusive growth) and the Eck Institute for Global Health.