Arnab Acharya BA PhD MPH

Senior Lecturer & Unit Research Degree Coordinator

Shortly after receiving my PhD in economics of information and games applied to centrally planned economies at the University of Illinois, I became interested in policy issues in developing countries. I entered the Masters in Public Health program at the Harvard School of Public Health.  I have worked as a researcher and an instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health.  Subsequent experiences include being a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. Focusing on issues regarding family planning and HIV/AIDS, I worked on USAID funded POLICY project for 2 years.  In January 2006, I joined the faculty of LSHTM as a Senior Lecturer on Quantitative Health Economics.

I have applied my theoretical and statistical training toward exploring such issues as discounting of future health states and the role of civil society where civil society can play a regulatory function on timely delivery of health care as well as the setting of health policy. In recent years I have also conducted research on health and economic growth, imapct evaluation and aid-effectiveness. I have also written on just health care, cost-effectiveness analysis and discounting. I am currently the lead technical insestigator on evaluating a large educational project to reduce child mortality in Uttar Pradesh, India. 

Affiliation

Teaching

I hope to continue teaching health economics at various levels. I am convinced that the our students both at the masters and PhD levels can use some more training on analytical skills in econometrics and economics of information and games. I currently supervise PhD students who are interested in examining health policy in Nepal, effectiveness of PMTCT program in Sub-Saharan Africa, impact evaluation and health impact of a poverty reduction program in Mexico. I am also the research degree program coordinator for the Health Policy Unit.

Research

 

My continuing and future research interests lie in four main topics: (1) Examining issues around impact evaluation of policy interventions aimed at improving health.  Here I would like to examine what are the current approaches around impact evaluations, and then seek funding on carrying out evaluation of specific interventions. (2) Regulatory issues around service delivery inlcuding citizen accountability: A project is underway to examine how civil society affects health care delivery and health policy in three large cities of the world: Delhi and São Paulo.   (3) I would like to explore coping strategy when families in developing countries are faced with severe illnesses that are costly to treat and disabling; and the way understand different types of risk and health (4) I also examine issues on aid-effectiveness. My research plans interest both academics and policy makers.  

Research areas

  • Economic evaluation
  • Health inequalities
  • Health systems

Disciplines

  • Economics
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