Health systems, equity and patient experience
Respectful maternity care, autonomy, mistreatment, pregnancy loss, racialized and Indigenous inequities, and patient-reported experience measures.
Health systems & equity research →
Nisha Malhotra
Ph.D. Economics
My research spans economics, health systems and public policy, with work on health equity, maternal and child health, gender and development, patient-reported experience, and international trade. Across these areas, I use quantitative evidence to understand disparities, evaluate policy and translate research for academic, policy and public audiences.
Research profile
Economics, Evidence and Public Policy
Nisha Malhotra is an economist and quantitative social scientist whose work bridges health, development, gender, and public policy. Her research examines inequalities in healthcare, patient experience, maternal and child health, domestic violence, nutrition, and international trade.
She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her M.A. in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics. She previously held a tenured faculty position at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.
Her later work at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine focused on national studies of maternity care, respectful care, health equity, and patient-reported experience measures. Earlier professional experience included research consulting for the World Bank.
Research Areas and Expertise
Research spanning health systems, maternal and child health, gender and development, international trade, and applied quantitative methods.
Global health, maternal and child nutrition
Infant and young-child feeding, maternal diet, iron–folic acid supplementation, birth weight, treatment-seeking and population health.
Global health & nutrition research →Gender, domestic violence and women’s autonomy
Economic resources, household bargaining, intimate-partner violence, women’s decision-making and gendered dimensions of development.
Gender & domestic violence research →International trade and antidumping policy
Canadian, U.S. and Indian antidumping regimes, trade diversion, market structure, industrial users and the effectiveness of trade remedies.
Trade policy research →Quantitative methods and applied econometrics
Regression analysis, survey research, large population datasets, statistical modelling, psychometric measures and applied research methods.
STATA & quantitative methods →Public scholarship and research translation
Public-facing writing, research summaries, presentations and evidence translation for policy, professional and wider audiences.
Public writing & research translation →
Featured Research and Policy Contributions
Selected studies with dedicated pages that bring together the published article, key findings, policy implications, citation information and related research resources.
Inequities in care during pregnancy loss
Research on autonomy, respect, provider listening and compassionate disclosure following pregnancy loss, including the CDL Index.
Weight-based and intersecting disparities in perinatal care
Evidence on weight-based disparities alongside inequities associated with Indigenous and racialized identity in Canadian maternity care.
Maternal diet, iron–folic acid supplementation and birth weight
Population-level evidence from India examining maternal diet, supplementation and infant birth-weight outcomes.
Inadequate feeding of infant and young children in India
Research distinguishing the role of nutrition information from household food affordability in infant and young-child feeding practices.
Domestic violence and women’s autonomy
Economic analysis of domestic violence, household resources, bargaining power and women’s autonomy using evidence from India.
The effectiveness of the Canadian antidumping regime
Research on the effectiveness of Canadian antidumping measures, including trade restriction, trade diversion and market responses.
More research
Browse the Research Library →
Research access
Research Library
Browse research programmes and flagship publication pages, with published articles, accessible summaries, key findings, policy implications, citation information and related resources brought together in one place.
POLICY AND MEDIA
Beyond Journals: Public Scholarship
Translating research beyond academic publication through public-facing writing, policy engagement, presentations and accessible research communication.
Writing
Public-facing research and commentary
Accessible writing that connects evidence from economics, population health and public policy with wider debates about health, development, gender and trade.
Policy
Evidence for policy and professional audiences
Research summaries, policy implications and evidence translation designed to make empirical research useful to policymakers, practitioners, professional organizations and research partners.
Presentations
Research talks, teaching and visual communication
Conference presentations, invited talks, teaching materials and visual explanations developed to communicate quantitative research to academic and non-specialist audiences.
Teaching & methods
Quantitative Methods, Economics and Research Training
Teaching and training have been a continuing part of my academic work, spanning economics, applied econometrics, research methods and statistical analysis.
Methods
STATA and applied quantitative research
Resources for working with data, interpreting regression results and applying quantitative methods in economics, health and population research.
Economics
Economics and international trade
Teaching experience includes microeconomics, macroeconomics, international trade, international finance, research methods and applied policy analysis.
Experience
More than fifteen years of university teaching, including undergraduate and graduate courses, research supervision, community-based projects and quantitative-methods training.
Research profile and scholarly record
Persistent identifiers and scholarly databases connect this website with independently indexed publication and citation records.
A complete list of publications can be accessed through the scholarly profiles linked here, including ORCID, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and OpenAlex.