Biography
Ramanan Laxminarayan's research deals with the integration of epidemiological models of infectious disease transmission and economic analysis of public health problems. His work on "resistance economics" has focused on improving the analytical framework to study problems such as bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and pest resistance to genetically modified crops. Another area of Laxminarayan's research is the economics of public health, particularly the evaluation of interventions to reduce the burden of disease in developing countries in the context of the Disease Control Priorities Project.
Laxminarayan has worked with the World Health Organization on evaluating malaria treatment policy in Africa, has served on two recent National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine Committees, and teaches at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Princeton.
Ph.D. in economics, University of Washington, 1999.
M.P.H. in epidemiology, University of Washington, 1999.
B.E. in engineering, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, 1992.
Professional Experience
Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future, 2006-present.
Fellow, Resources for the Future, 1999 - 2005.
Visiting Scholar and Lecturer, Princeton University, 2007
Adjunct Professor of International Relations, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2003 - present.
Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, 2001 - present.
Associate, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, 2005-present.
Consultant, World Health Organization, 2000 - 2001, 2003.
Visiting Faculty, University of Washington at Bothell, Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, 1998 - 1999.
Consultant, The World Bank, 1997, 2004-present.
Journal Articles
Trends in Hospitalizations and Deaths in the United States Associated with Infections Caused by Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA, 19992004 Eili Klein, David Smith and Ramanan Laxminarayan Emerging Infectious Diseases | Forthcoming
Economic incentives and mathematical models of disease Eili Klein, Ramanan Laxminarayan, David L. Smith, Chris Gilligan Environment and Development Economics | 2007 | Vol. 12 | pp. 1-26
Advancing Global Health: Key Messages from the Disease Control Priorities Project Laxminarayan R., D.T. Jamison, A. Mills, J. Breman, A. Measham, G. Alleyne, M. Claeson, P. Jha, P. Musgrove, J. Chow, S. Shahid-Salles. The Lancet | 2006 | Vol. 367, No. 9517 | pp. 1193-1208
Will a Global Subsidy of New Antimalarials Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives? Laxminarayan R., Mead Over, David Smith Health Affairs | 2006 | Vol. 25, No.2 | pp. 325-36 World Bank Policy Research Paper WPS3670
On the Importance of Incentives in Hospital Infection Control Laxminarayan, R., David Smith, Leslie Real and Simon Levin Discovery Medicine | 2005 | Vol.5, No. 27 | pp. 303-308
Antimicrobial Resistance in Developing Countries: Strategies For Containment Iruka N. Okeke, Keith P. Klugman, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Adrian G. Duse, Philip Jenkins, Thomas F. O'Brien, Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Ramanan Laxminarayan Lancet Infectious Diseases | 2005 | Vol. 5 | pp. 568-80
Antimicrobial Resistance in Developing Countries: Recent Trends and Current Status Iruka N. Okeke, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Adriano G. Duse, Philip Jenkins, Thomas F. O'Brien, Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Keith P. Klugman Lancet Infectious Diseases | 2005 | Vol. 5 | pp. 481-93
Strategic Interactions in Multi-institution Epidemics of Antibiotic Resistance Smith D.L., S.A.Levin, R. Laxminarayan Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2005 | Vol. 102, No. 8 | pp. 3153-3158
Monopoly Extraction of an Exhaustible Resource with Two Markets Carolyn Fischer, Ramanan Laxminarayan Canadian Journal of Economics | 2004 | Vol. 37, No. 1 | pp. 178-188 | Related Discussion Paper 04-08
Sequential Development and Exploitation of an Exhaustible Resource: Do Monopoly Rights Promote Conservation? Carolyn Fischer and Ramanan Laxminarayan Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | 2004 | Vol. 49., No. 3 | pp. 500-515
Tobacco Initiation, Cessation and Change: Evidence from Vietnam Ramanan Laxminarayan and Anil Deolalikar Health Economics | 2004 | Vol. 13, No. 12 | pp. 1191-1201
Does Reducing Malaria Improve Household Living Standards? Ramanan Laxminarayan Tropical Medicine and International Health | 2004 | Vol. 9, No. 2 | pp. 267-272 | Related Discussion Paper 03-50
ACT Now or Later: Economics of Malaria Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene | 2004 | Vol. 71 (S2) | pp. 187-195 | Related Discussion Paper 03-51
Malaria: Current Status of Control, Diagnosis and Treatment, and a Proposed Essential R&D Agenda Guerin, P., P. Olliaro, F. Nosten, P. Druilhe, R. Laxminarayan, F. Binka, W. Kilama, N.J. White Lancet Infectious Diseases | 2002 | Vol. 2 | pp. 564-73
Refuge Strategies for Managing Pest Resistance in Transgenic Agriculture Ramanan Laxminarayan and R. David Simpson Environmental and Resource Economics | 2002 | Vol. 22, No. 4 | pp. 521-536 | Related Discussion Paper 00-43
On the Implications of Endogenous Resistance to Medications Ramanan Laxminarayan and Martin L. Weitzman Journal of Health Economics | 2002 | Vol. 21, No. 4 | pp. 709-718
How Broad Should the Scope of Antibiotics Patents Be?
Ramanan Laxminarayan American Journal of Agricultural Economics | 2002 | Vol. 84, No. 5 | pp. 1287-92
Economic Issues and Antibiotic Resistance in the Community Shelby Reed, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Sean Sullivan, and Doug Black Annals of Pharmacotherapy | 2002 | Vol. 36 | pp. 148-154
Economics of Antibiotic Resistance: A Theory of Optimal Use Ramanan Laxminarayan and Gardner M. Brown Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | 2001 | Vol. 42, No. 2 | pp. 183-206 | Related Discussion Paper 00-36
Global Burden of Disease: Causes, Consequences and Intervention Strategies. Ramanan Laxminarayan and Dean Jamison Oxford Textbook of Medicine | David Warrell | Oxford UK: OUP | 2008
Human Interventions on Evolution of Host-Bacteria Interactions Smith, D. L. and R. Laxminarayan Introduction to Evolutionary Biology of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens | C. N. Fernando Baquero, Gail H. Cassell and José A. Gutiérrez | Netherlands: Elsevier | 2007
Ecology and economics of cycling antibiotics: Insights from mathematical modeling Ramanan Laxminarayan and David L. Smith Multiple drug resistant bacteria | Carlos-Amabile Cuevas | Norwich UK: Horizon Scientific Press | 2006
Intervention Cost-Effectiveness: Overview of General Messages Ramanan Laxminarayan, Jeffrey Chow, Shahid-Sonbol Salles, and Pamela Maslen Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries | D. Jamison et. al. Eds. | New York: Oxford University Press | 2006
Neurological Disorders V. Chandra, R. Pandav, Ramanan Laxminarayan, C. Tanner, B. Manyam, L. Morillo, S. Rajkumar, A. Ogunniyi, C. Brayne, Z. Zhang, S. Kasner, F. Hourihan, J. Chow Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries | D. Jamison et. al. Eds. | New York: Oxford University Press | 2006
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Implications for Health Policies in the Developing World Haile T. Debas, Ramanan Laxminarayan, S. Strauss Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries | D. Jamison et. al. Eds. | New York: Oxford University Press | 2006
Drug Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan, Z. Bhutta, A. Duse, P. Jenkins, T. O'Brien, I. Okeke, A.P. Mendes, K. Klugman Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries | D. Jamison et. al. Eds. | New York: Oxford University Press | 2006
Biological Limits on Agricultural Intensification: An Example from Resistance Management Ramanan Laxminarayan, R. David Simpson Environmental Costs and Benefits of Transgenic Crops in Europe | J. Wesseler, Ed. | Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers | 2004 Wageningen UR Frontis Series vol. 7
Economic Issues Related to Antimicrobial Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan Economics of Infectious Diseases | J. Roberts, Ed. | UK: Oxford University Press | 2006
Getting Serious About Antibiotic Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan New Approaches on Energy and the Environment: Policy Advice for the President | Richard D. Morgenstern and Paul R. Portney, eds. | RFF Press | 2004 | Chapter 20
Economic Responses to the Problem of Drug Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan The Resistance Phenomenon in Microbes and Infectious Disease Vectors: Implications for Human Health and Strategies for Containment | Washington, DC: The National Academies Press | 2003
Managing Pest Resistance: Timing the Initiation of Refuge Areas Ramanan Laxminarayan and R. David Simpson The Economics of Managing Biotechnologies | T. Swanson | Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers | 2001
Socioeconomic Issues Related to Antibiotic Use Shelby Reed, Ramanan Laxminarayan, and Sean Sullivan Appropriate Antibiotic Use | Donald E. Low, ed. | London, U.K.: The Royal Society of Medicine Press | 2001
Economic Consequences of Red Tides
Ramanan Laxminarayan National Oceanic and Atmosospheric Administration (NOAA) | Autumn 2000
Short Articles, Issue Briefs, and Other Publications
Economic burden of tuberculosis Ramanan Laxminarayan, Eili Klein, Chris Dye, Katherine Floyd, Sarah Darley, Olusoji Adeyi World Bank Policy Research Working Paper WPS 4295 Download this working paper
Will a Global Subsidy of Artemisinin-based Combinations (ACTs) for Malaria Delay the Emergence of Resistance and Save Lives? Ramanan Laxminarayan, Mead Over, David Smith World Bank Policy Research Paper WPS3670 | August 2005 Download this working paper
Using Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Data in a Decision Analysis Model for Acute Otitis Media Incorporating Treatment Failures and Treatment Costs Ramanan Laxminarayan, Dan Jernigan, Ben Schwartz, Cyndy Whitney, and Ron Dagan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) | 2001
Hospital Incentives to Control Drug Resistant Infections Ramanan Laxminarayan Modeling the dynamics of the Drug-Resistant killers of the Twenty First Century | AAAS | Boston MA | February 17, 2008
Antibiotics: Protecting a Vital Resource Ramanan Laxminarayan Annual Conference of the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics | Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics | Boston | October 29, 2007
Panel on "Resistance Prevention and Monitoring"
Gates Malaria Forum | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Seattle, WA | October 18, 2007
Infection Control Games Hospitals Play Ramanan Laxminarayan Conference on Game Theoretic Approaches to Epidemiology and Ecology | DIMACS | Rutgers University | October 15, 2007
Global Economics of Sustainable Malaria Control Ramanan Laxminarayan Gordon Malaria Research Conference | Magdalen College, Oxford | Oxford UK | September 13, 2007
Incentives for surveillance and reporting of disease outbreaks Ramanan Laxminarayan Economics Department Seminar | University of California, Riverside | March 2, 2007
Antibiotics: Protecting a Vital Resources Ramanan Laxminarayan Woods Environmental Forum | Stanford University | Stanford | March 1, 2007 University of California, Riverside Public Policy Seminar
Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics Annual Conference | Boston, MA | Oct 29, 2007
Intervention cost-effectiveness Summary of key messages of the Disease Control Priorities Project Ramanan Laxminarayan Global Launch of the Disease Control Priorities Project | NIH, World Bank, WHO | Beijing | April 3, 2006 East Africa launch of DCPP (Nairobi)
Southern Africa launch of DCPP (Pretoria)
The Influence of Economic Incentives on Hospital Infection Control and Surveillance Ramanan Laxminarayan DIMACS Seminar Series | Rutgers University | December 12, 2005
Infectious Disease, Resistance and Public goods Ramanan Laxminarayan DIMACS Workshop on Economic Epidemiology | DIMACS | Rutgers University | October 25, 2005
The Case for a Global Subsidy for ACTs Ramanan Laxminarayan Conference of Donors for the Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa | World Bank | Paris | September 9, 2005
Health-Environment Linkages: Role of Economic Analysis Ramanan Laxminarayan Conference on Health People (Workshop on Health, Environment and Economic Development: Building a Research Program) | Washington, D.C. | June 1, 2002
A Model of Spread Ramanan Laxminarayan University of Cambridge, Department of Plant Sciences | Cambridge, U.K. | May 1, 2002
On the Use of Mathematical Models and Economic Analysis in Malaria Control Ramanan Laxminarayan Ministry of Health | Peru | April 1, 2002
Economic Responses to the Problem of Drug Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan 50th Anniversary Council Meeting | Resources for the Future | Washington, D.C. | April 1, 2002
Comments on Future Research Directions on Antimicrobial Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan Forum on Emerging Infections; Workshop on Issues of Resistance: Microbes, Vectors, and the Host | Institute of Medicine | Washington, D.C. | February 1, 2002 (panel discussion)
The Economics of Antimicrobial Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan Bayer-Canada | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | October 1, 2001
The Economic Case for Combination Therapy for Malaria Ramanan Laxminarayan World Health Organization | Geneva, Switzerland | June 1, 2001
On the Implications of Endogenous Resistance to Medications Ramanan Laxminarayan Environment and Natural Resources Seminar | Stanford University | Stanford, CA | April 1, 2001 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, October 2001.
The Rise of Antibiotic Resistance: Depletion of a Public Resource Ramanan Laxminarayan Center for Risk Analysis Seminar Series | Harvard School of Public Health | Cambridge, MA | February 1, 2001 Delhi School of Economics, March 2001.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, March 2001.
Biological Limits on Agricultural Intensification: An Example from Resistance Management Ramanan Laxminarayan Presented at Rutgers University, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics | New Brunswick, NJ | January 4, 2001
Combination Therapy for Malaria: Economic Issues and Methodology Ramanan Laxminarayan World Health Organization (WHO) Workshop on Combination Therapy | WHO | Cambridge, MA | January 1, 2001
Refuge Strategies for Managing Pest Resistance in Transgenic Agriculture and Implications for Land Use Ramanan Laxminarayan Presented at the American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting | AEA | New Orleans, LA | January 1, 2001
Economics of Antibiotic Resistance: A Theory of Optimal Patents Ramanan Laxminarayan International Agricultural Economists Association (IAEA) Conference, Mini-symposium on Food Safety | IAEA | Berlin, Germany | August 1, 2000
Survey of Agricultural Biotechnology in India Ramanan Laxminarayan Biotechnology and the Public Interest: Prospects of Biotechnology in the Developing and Developed World | Berkeley, CA | May 1, 2000
Socio-economic Determinants of Disease Transmission in Cambodia Ramanan Laxminarayan Madras School of Economics | Chennai, India | April 1, 2000
Public Participation in Environmental Decision Making: The Role of NGOs Ramanan Laxminarayan Workshop on Public Participation in Environmental Decision Making | International Student Exchange Program/Resources for the Future | Bangkok, Thailand | April 1, 2000
Economic Responses to the Problem of Drug Resistance Ramanan Laxminarayan 50th Anniversary Council Meeting | Resources for the Future | Washington, D.C. | April 1, 2000
Optimal Cycling of Antibiotics Ramanan Laxminarayan International Workshop on Antibiotic Resistance: Global Policies and Options | Cambridge, MA | February 1, 2000
Bacterial Resistance and the Optimal Use of Antibiotics Ramanan Laxminarayan Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics | Beer Sheva, Israel | April 1, 1999 Also presented at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, February 2002.
Awards
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1998 - 1999.
University of Washington, Department of Economics, Grover and Creta Ensley Fellowship for Public Policy, 1998.
University of Washington, Hewlett Fellowship by Center for Study of Demography and Ecology (CSDE), 1997.
Professional Activities
Committee Memberships: World Health Organization Task Force on Drug Resistance and Policies for Malaria (WHO-TDR), April 2000 - December 2001. National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine Committee on The Economics of Antimalarial Drugs, 2002 - 2004. National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine Review Panel on Malaria Control: A Reconsideration of the Role of DDT (2004) Roll Back Malaria Antimalarial Subsidy Task Force (2006-present) Roll Back Malaria Finance and Resources Working Group (2006-present)
Journal Referee: Journal of Political Economy Jounral of Environmental Economics and Management Environmental and Resource Economics Environment and Development Economics Marine Resource Economics B.E. Journals in Economic Analysis RAND Journal of Economics Health Affairs Health Policy and Planning Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics Marine Resources Economics Ashgate Publishers Swiss National Science Foundation USDA Economic Research Service
Public Service
Panels and Symposiums:
Co-organizer (with David Smith), Workshop on Economic Epidemiology: Computational and Mathematical Epidemiology Series, Rutgers University, NJ (Oct. 2005)
Co-organizer (with Yanping Zhang), RFF-Taiyuan CDC Workshop on Air Pollution and the People's Health (in collaboration with Taiyuan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Taiyuan, China (March 2005)
Co-organizer (with Cao Dong), RFF-CAEP Workshop on Policy Activities to Improve Urban Air Quality in China: Experience from Taiyuan and Other Cities (in collaboration with the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning), Sanya, China (November 2004)
Co-organizer (with Paul Portney), RFF Workshop on Discounting for Health in Developing Countries, Washington, DC (May 2003)
Organizer, Resources for the Future Conference on Economics of Resistance, Airlie House, VA (April 2001)
Facilitator, World Health Organization workshop on economics of drug resistance in malaria, Bamako, Mali (May 2001)
Organizer, Harvard University/Center for International Development International Workshop on Antibiotic Resistance: Global policies and options, Boston, MA (February 2000)
