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Health is a fundamental component of human well-being and economic development, yet millions of people around the world continue to face preventable health risks linked to poverty, inadequate infrastructure, and limited access to essential services. Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene, and malnutrition remain major contributors to disease, mortality, and long-term deficits in human capital, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, while obesity and diet-related chronic diseases have become growing public health challenges in advanced economies.
This research agenda in health economics examines how environmental conditions, household behavior, and public health interventions influence health outcomes and economic well-being. Current research is organized around two main strands: Water and Sanitation, which focuses on water treatment interventions and household responses to water quality risks, and Nutritional Health, which examines nutrition, food environments, and their implications for health, productivity, and human development.
Many children have difficulty seeing clearly because they need prescription glasses. Yet we know relatively little about which children get glasses and continue wearing them, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This study examines glasses use among children who need them in Mexico’s public primary schools.
Household decisions to treat drinking water are influenced by a wide range of socioeconomic and environmental factors, making causal inference difficult in observational settings. This study applies Double/Debiased Machine Learning (DDML) to estimate the causal effects of household water treatment on E. coli contamination and child diarrhea across 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
How much does where you live determine your chances of receiving a kidney transplant in Mexico? This project explores how geography shapes access to transplantation, focusing on differences in patients’ likelihood of receiving a transplant and how long they must wait. By combining patient, hospital, and regional information, it highlights where access barriers are greatest and where transplant capacity may be most unevenly distributed.
Obesity has increased rapidly in many developing countries, creating important challenges for public health and long-term well-being. This project examines how obesity is transmitted across generations in Mexico and explores whether these patterns differ between mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. Using nationally representative health survey data, the research studies the relationship between parental obesity and adolescent obesity in the context of Mexico’s ongoing nutritional transition.
This randomized implementation trial tests in-line chlorination in piped drinking-water systems across 20 rural villages in Odisha, India, over one year. The study assesses whether chlorine-tablet systems can be installed and operated, whether households continue to use treated piped water, and whether treatment reduces fecal contamination, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Chlorine was detected in about half of tap-water samples during the study and more often after the target dose was raised. The intervention reduced E. coli in household tap and stored water and reduced the time people spent treating water manually, a task usually performed by women. Despite some complaints about taste and odor, households continued to rely on piped water. The results show that water-quality gains are possible, while consistent dosing, monitoring, and attention to user preferences remain important implementation needs.
PLOS Water · 2026
Using household-survey data across 25 low- and middle-income countries, this study examines how reported water-treatment practices relate to measured E. coli contamination in drinking-water sources and stored water. Many households are exposed to contaminated water, yet relatively few report treating it. Because contamination is invisible, households respond only modestly as measured contamination rises, with treatment increasing by a few percentage points rather than keeping pace with risk. The analysis also finds that reported treatment does not reliably mean stored water is free of E. coli. The study is observational and does not claim a causal treatment effect; it highlights the limits of relying on households to identify contamination and the need for stronger water-safety measures and monitoring.
PLOS One · 2026
This study uses survey data from 1,008 women aged 18–35 in Northern Uganda to document awareness and use of home pregnancy tests and barriers to obtaining them. In the sample, 65% had heard of home tests and 29% had used one. Awareness was more common among women with higher education and wealth, salaried work, and closer proximity to a health facility. Among women who knew about the tests, many reported that they would need to ask a partner for money; some said they would hide a purchase, and nearly one third expected their partner not to support it. Lack of support was associated with women’s age, prior pregnancies, employment, fertility preferences, and differences between partners’ desired family size. These patterns highlight how financial access and household decision-making may shape use.
PLOS Global Public Health · 2023
A randomized trial with 810 women of reproductive age in northern Uganda tests whether access to pregnancy tests affects demand for modern family planning. Participants were offered an on-the-spot urine test, a home test kit for future use, both options, or no test; offers and prices for future-use kits varied by assignment. Interest in testing was high: 62% accepted a free on-the-spot test and 97% accepted a free kit for future use, while kit purchases fell as prices rose. However, test offers did not produce a large or statistically significant overall increase in use of modern contraception at community outreach centers about four weeks later. The findings indicate demand for pregnancy tests but suggest that access alone may not change contraceptive uptake; beliefs about pregnancy risk and coordination with family-planning services warrant further study.
Reproductive Health · 2021