Dr Usha Kanagaratnam

Senior Research Officer
usha.kanagaratnam@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Biography

Usha leads the global Multidimensional Poverty Index project at OPHI. In 2018, she successfully led the first major revision of the global MPI since it was introduced in 2010. She has extensive experience in managing and analysing large-scale quantitative survey data. Usha is the academic coordinator of the OPHI Summer Schools on multidimensional poverty measurement.

Usha’s previous field experience includes carrying out participatory poverty assessments in rural villages in Bangladesh, Indonesia and India.

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  • Education

    DPhil in Sociology, University of Oxford
    MSc in Sociology, University of Oxford
    BSc in Human Development, University of Putra Malaysia (UPM)

  • Research interests

    International comparative research on multidimensional poverty, education and labour markets; determinants of geographic variation in poverty. 

  • Selected publications

    Alkire, S., Oldiges, C. and Kanagaratnam, U. (2021). ‘Examining multidimensional poverty reduction in India 2005/6–2015/16: Insights and oversights of the headcount ratio’, World Development, 142, pp. 1–25.

    Alkire, S., et al. (forthcoming) ‘The first ever revision of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Empirical insight and robustness’. 

    Alkire, S. and Kanagaratnam, U. (2020). ‘Revisions of the global multidimensional poverty index: Indicator options and their empirical assessment’, Oxford Development Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2020.1854209.