Karra Receives Grant from Hewlett Foundation for Program on Women’s Empowerment Research (POWER)

Mahesh Karra, Assistant Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Associate Director of the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) at the Global Development Policy Center, received a one-year grant for $100,000 this week from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for his new Program on Women’s Empowerment Research (POWER).

The goal of POWER is to “support rigorous, evidence-based research that investigates the causes and consequences of women’s empowerment on human well-being.” The grant will support the project entitled “For Women’s Decision-Making and Empowerment in Reproductive Health: Evidence from Malawi and India.”

The program will look critically at three core issues within the larger narrative of women’s empowerment, including human capital (health & education), mobility and access, and sustainable economic empowerment. Aligning with the mission of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Dr. Karra will take an interdisciplinary and analytic approach to this research. He will also engage the wider policy-making community with his findings to create a broader and more lasting impact.

We look forward to what Dr. Karra will accomplish this year, supporting the missions of both the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the Human Capital Initiative at the GDP Center, in advancing “policy research for a better world,” with generous support from the Hewlett Foundation.

The Hewlett Foundation is a private charitable foundation based in Menlo Park, California. The foundation was established in 1966 by Flora and William Hewlett. The foundation awarded around $400 million in grants in 2017. They fund projects and institutions around the world focused on education, environment, global development, women’s empowerment, and other special projects to promote making the world a better place.

Karra’s academic and research interests are broadly in development economics, health economics, quantitative methods, and applied demography. His research utilizes experimental and non-experimental methods to investigate the relationships between population, health, and economic development in low- and middle-income countries.