Ajay Mahal is a Professor of Health Economics and Health Systems at the Nossal Institute for Global Health in the University of Melbourne. From 2010 until 2015, he was the Alan and Elizabeth Finkel Chair of Global Health and Professor at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.
Previously, he was an Associate Professor of International Health Economics in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mahal holds degrees from Columbia University (Ph. D in Economics, 1995) and the University of Delhi (M.A. (Economics), 1986; B.A. (Economics), 1984). Prior to his appointment at Harvard, Dr. Mahal was the Principal Economist (Human Development) at the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in New Delhi. He also holds a visiting professorial appointment at the Public Health Foundation of India (New Delhi). His recent research has focused on evaluation of health system interventions. However, his interests span a range of economically relevant questions pertaining to household and national level impacts of (ill) health, health system implications of ageing, human resources for health, fiscal-federalism and health, and social protection. He has also been engaged in collaborative research that marries work on clinical epidemiology with household economic outcomes. He has authored over 100 journal articles, book chapters and books, including a much-cited Institute of Medicine (US National Academy of Sciences) report on preventing HIV transmission among injection drug users. He serves on the editorial boards of 4 journals (Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Infectious Diseases of Poverty, Health Systems and Reform and International Journal of Non-communicable Diseases. Professor Mahal has mentored a large number of students during his professional career. He is currently supervising (or co-supervising) 3 doctoral students; and has supervised (or co-supervised) 13 students to completion of their Ph. Ds, in addition to supervising multiple masters and undergraduate thesis projects. His experience on international health systems practice has included serving as (a) resident advisor to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority (1996-98), including as field director for a project of the Harvard Institute for International Development in Gaza; (b) technical advisor to the Indian National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2004-5) that developed a strategic plan for health sector reform in India; and (c) senior advisor on a health sector transformation project funded by the government of Malaysia (ongoing) involving the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Unit under the office of the Prime Minister. He has engaged in health system and policy research projects in Bangladesh, Botswana, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. His research on the economics of health and health systems has been supported by a range of international organizations, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, Accenture, the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the International Labour Office (ILO). His collaborations with Australian researchers have been supported both by the ARC and NHMRC.
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FEATURED Journal article
Effectiveness of a scalable group-based education and monitoring program, delivered by health workers, to improve control of hypertension in rural India: A cluster randomised controlled trial.
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Credentials
Positions
Professor Hlth Economics & Hlth Systems Research
Melbourne School Of Population And Global Health
Education
Doctorate
Columbia University