Santosh Kumar Gautam

Biography & Research

Santosh Kumar Gautam is professor of development and global health economics in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a core-affiliated faculty member of the Pulte Institute for Global Development.

Gautam is the director of doctoral studies for the Keough School's Sustainable Development Doctoral Program and he also directs the sustainable development major in the Master of Global Affairs program. He is an affiliate of Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health and Building Inclusive Growth (BIG) Lab. 

An applied microeconomist, Gautam's research focuses on the economics of global health and economic development in low- and middle-income countries. His research examines the causal association between child and maternal health, human capital, and poverty. Gautam is currently working on research projects related to the effects of prenatal conditions on birth outcomes and human capital accumulation; effects of birth endowment, postnatal investments, and micronutrient deficiencies on human capital, and the effects of access to physical infrastructures (road, electricity, sanitation) and microfinance on human well-being. His work uses experimental and quasi-experimental research methods and has extensive experience collecting survey data in India, Bhutan and Albania. His research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and he is an associate editor of Economic Modelling.

Gautam earned a B.A. (honors) in economics from the University of Delhi, a master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Houston. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and he also has worked at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Gautam was an associate professor of economics at Sam Houston State University in Texas.

Recent Work

• "Clean water access improves child health in Mozambique, study shows" (Children)
• "Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on low birth weight in a nationwide study in India" (Communications Medicine) 
• "Relationship between adolescent anemia and school attendance observed during a nationally representative survey in India" (Communications Medicine) 
•  "Intergenerational persistence of health: Evidence from India" (Economics Letters)
• "Birth Weight and Cognitive Development: Evidence from India" (Economic Papers) 
• "Alcohol consumption among adults in Vietnam: Prevalence, patterns, and its determinants" (Journal of Substance Use)
• "Improving Child Health and Cognition: Evidence from a School-Based Nutrition Intervention in India" (The Review of Economics and Statistics)
• “Anemia, diet, and cognitive development: Impact of health information on diet quality and child nutrition in rural India" (Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization)

Honors & Awards

• Keough School Dean's Faculty Award (2026)

Professional Roles/Positions

• Invited researcher, Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Research fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor, Germany
• Academic editor, PLOS ONE, PLOS Global Public Health
• Assistant editor, Oxford Open Economics

Courses

• Health, Nutrition, and Poverty in Developing Countries (undergraduate elective)
• Economics of Growth & Development (core course for master of global affairs)
• Foundations of Sustainable Development (core course for master of global affairs major in sustainable development)
• Global Health Policy (elective for master of global affairs)
• Principles of Economics (core course for undergraduate major in global affairs)

News & Media

• "India’s immunization program reduced child mortality but highlights need for coordinating health, education policies"
• "Clean water access improves child health in Mozambique, study shows"
• "RFK Jr’s shakeup of vaccine advisory committee raises worries about scientific integrity of health recommendations" (The Conversation)
• "Notre Dame Poverty Initiative announces new investments in poverty research"
• "Did Covid-19 pandemic increase incidence of low-birth-weight among newborns?" (Ideas for India)
• "COVID-19 pandemic tied to low birth weight for infants in India, study shows" 
• "Notre Dame faculty reveal a relationship between anemia in mothers and their babies"