Hi, I'm Sangita Vyas.

I'm a development economist and demographer. I'll be joining the Economics faculty at CUNY Hunter College in Fall 2022.

About

My research focuses on the interrelationships among health, the environment, and social inequality in India. I'm particularly interested in the causes and consequences of poor air quality and poor sanitation. I'm trained in economic demography, applied microeconomics, and econometrics.

TEDx Talk

In 2015, I spoke at TEDx WalledCity in New Delhi on why so many rural Indians defecate in the open. The video has over 2.5 million views.

Latest Research

Child health impacts of coal: Evidence from India's Coal Expansion

Child health impacts of coal: Evidence from India's Coal Expansion

What are the child health and human capital consequences of India’s large coal power expansion? Using variation in local coal capacity within place across cohorts, I find that exposure to a median-sized coal plant at birth is associated with a 0.1 standard deviation child height deficit. This paper has been accepted at Journal of Human Resources.

Latest Media

Cooking with gas, not wood | The Hindu

Cooking with gas, not wood | The Hindu

Using cleaner fuels such as LPG is essential to reduce rural air pollution and improve health. What can policymakers do to achieve exclusive use of clean fuels in rural India?