Soumya Balasubramanya is currently Senior Economist at the World Bank’s Environment Department. She conducts field-based research on poverty and natural resource management in Asia and Africa, using methods of micro-econometrics, program evaluation and non-market valuation. She mostly works with primary data that she generates, both large and small samples. The results of her research have been used by development finance institutions and recipient governments to inform government policy, and to adaptively course-correct ongoing investments and programs. Her research has been featured in media outlets including BBC, Forbes, NPR, The Economist and The Guardian.
Soumya is adjunct professor at University of Waterloo and Texas A & M University; and a Global Fellow at the Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska. She advises doctoral students studying in the global north, and volunteers her time to support regional mentoring and advising research networks in the global south.
She is Associate Editor for Agricultural Economics, World Development, and Water Resources and Economics. She coordinates the Committee for Women in Agricultural Economics of the International Association of Agricultural Economics.