Alok Bhargava

Career and research

Bhargava received his Ph.D. in econometrics from the London School of Economics under the supervision of John Denis Sargan in 1982. His thesis (The Theory of the Durbin–Watson Statistic with special reference to the Specification of Models in Levels as against in Differences) led to many tests for unit roots that were used in co-integration analyses. Bhargava also worked on econometric methods for longitudinal ("panel") data.

Since 1991, Bhargava has been publishing on important aspects of nutrition, food policy, population health, child development, demography, epidemiology, AIDS, and finance in developing and developed countries. His academic publications demonstrate the usefulness of rigorous econometric and statistical methods in addressing issues of under-nutrition and poor child health in developing countries, as well as obesity in developed countries.

Bhargava is an associate editor of the multi-disciplinary journal Economics and Human Biology. He has held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and University of Houston,and has published over 50 articles in academic journals, several of which have been very highly cited.

Books and reviews

A collection of his works has been reprinted in a separate volume in 2006 entitled "Econometrics, statistics and computational approaches in food and health sciences". The importance of these articles has been emphasized by eminent economists (http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/6140#t=reviews):

“These essays by Alok Bhargava demonstrate the power of modern microeconometrics in addressing basic social problems. They also illustrate the value of grounding serious research in economics in the biology and science producing the phenomenon being studied. Bhargava has developed a powerful synthesis of economics and the biology of human nutrition. This is a collection of papers that richly repays a close read.” James J. Heckman, Nobel Laureate in Economics, University of Chicago

“The determinants of human health, particularly the long-term effects of nutrition, are challenging to uncover due to the long latencies involved and lack of controlled experiments or definitive epidemological data. What one can learn has to come from careful and sophisticated statistical and econometric analysis that can unravel multiple causes and trace nutritional effects over lifetimes. Alok Bhargava is the master of this subject, and his insights and methods have defined the field and provided persuasive evidence on the role that nutritrion plays in the health and productivity in less developed countries. Every development economist, epidemiologist, and public health specialist should be provided with a straight-back chair, a good reading light, and this book.” Daniel L. McFadden, Nobel Laureate in Economics, University of California, Berkeley

“Alok Bhargava has been one of the leading economists specializing in the impact of nutrition on health and productivity. He has brought to this work a highly sophisticated understanding of econometric issues, which he combined with far-ranging analysis of the epidemiology and physiology of health. The book is a tour through frontiers of a wide array of issues pertaining to health and economic growth.” Robert W. Fogel, Nobel Laureate in Economics, University of Chicago

The impact of his book "Food, economics, and health" on policy oriented research has also been underscored:

"Alok Bhargava can always be expected to write important papers and texts on major topics concerning how real people live (or not) and the quality of their lives using advanced arguments from economics and based on skilled use of econometric methodology. Here he tackles the vital interaction between economics with health, food consumption, and economics tangled up with questions about attitudes to poverty and gender. It should be remembered that countless intellectual giants from the past, such as Newton, Galileo, and Shakespeare, lived and succeeded whilst living in conditions that would now be considered as deplorable. Economics and scientific discovery can take us some way towards making rational decisions but one probably needs philosophy and sound politics to reach the best outcomes. Alok has written an excellent book which requires careful thought and introspection to get all of its important topics." Clive Granger, Nobel laureate in economics.

"Integrating food behavior, health activities, educational investments, and demographic choices into a coherent measure of family and individual welfare is a daunting task. This volume by Alok Bhargava succeeds in doing so at three different levels. First, the empirical models and techniques are state-of-the-art, so applied econometricians will be happy. Second, the models incorporate accepted bio-physical relationships from the public health and medical communities, so biological scientists interested in health-nutrition linkages no longer feel left out from economists' analyses. And third, the food policy community now has a rigorous, empirically-based set of relationships that are amenable to public interventions. It is very good to have food policy analysis back on the research agenda in such an integrated and toughly empirical fashion." — C. Peter Timmer, Harvard University and Center for Global Development