Sanjana Kadyan

PhD Candidate in Public Policy (Economics)
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

Economist and former civil servant, studying how politics, institutions and incentives decide whether environmental policy works in the Global South.

• Political Economy
• Environmental Economics
• Development Economics

sanjana.kadyan@duke.eduLinkedInCV

• 5 yrs
  Indian Economic Service, Ministry of Finance
• 3
  Economic Surveys of India co-authored
• 10
  Courses taught at Duke, Tufts and Delhi
• 6
  Op-eds in India’s national press

About

I came to research by way of government. For five years I was an officer of the Indian Economic Service at the Ministry of Finance, where I co-authored three editions of the Economic Survey of India, built the Ministry's GDP nowcasting model, and helped write behavioural economics into national programmes.

Those years left me with a question I now study at Duke: why do environmental policies that look sound on paper so often stall in practice? My work looks at the politicians, bureaucrats and civil-society actors who stand between a policy and its outcome, with a focus on India and the Global South.

Current work

• Climate institutions
  Carbon dioxide removal in the Global South
  With Celina Scott-Buechler · 2026–
  How state, market and civil-society institutions combine in CDR projects across India, Brazil and Kenya.
• Political economy
  Politicians, bureaucrats and NGOs in environmental policy
  With Subhrendu Pattanayak · 2025–
  Who implements environmental policy in developing countries, and what incentives they face. Grew out of a new Duke course, PUBPOL 890.
• Sustainable finance
  Environmental policy uncertainty and sustainable investing
  MSc thesis, Tufts · 2023
  Uncertainty about US environmental policy raises volatility and lowers returns for environmentally exposed firms, yet macro uncertainty matters more, suggesting ESG risk is under-priced.
  Abstract and PDF

Journey

1. 2023PhD, Duke Sanford
   Public Policy (Economics). Research on climate institutions in the Global South.
2. 2021MSc Economics, Tufts
   Research track. Thesis on environmental policy uncertainty and sustainable investing.
3. 2018Office of the Chief Economic Adviser
   Assistant, then Deputy Director. Economic Survey team; GDP nowcasting; behavioural policy.
4. 2016Indian Economic Service
   All-India Rank 6. Ministry of Finance, New Delhi.
5. 2014Lecturer, University of Delhi
   Public, development, environmental and macro economics.

Teaching

Teaching assistant at Duke and Tufts; lecturer at the University of Delhi. Teaching statement and courses →

• PUBPOL 574Economics of Sustainable Development
• PUBPOL 811Microeconomics: Policy Applications
• PUBPOL 607Cost-Benefit Analysis
• EC 0161International Trade
• EC 0005Principles of Economics
• DelhiPublic, Development, Environmental, Macro & Industrial Economics