Published Papers:
(* denotes current or former student/post-doc co-authors)
Sharma, Sharan, Sonalde Desai, Debasis Barik and O.P. Sharma. Forthcoming. “Gone and Forgotten? Predictors of Birth History Omissions in India,” Forthcoming Demographic Research.
Choudhuri, Pallavi, Santanu Pramanik and Sonalde Desai. 2023. “Urban Exclusion: Rethinking Social Protection in India in the Wake of COVID-19”, Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 17(1–2): 59-93.
*Yan, Xu, Sonalde Desai and Debasis Barik. 2023. “"Gender and Generation: Land Ownership and Older Indians’ Autonomy", Feminist Economics. Published online 17 October 2023. DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2023.2255878
*Yu, Sojin, Feinian Chen and Sonalde Desai. 2023. “Aligning household decision-making with work and education: A comparative analysis of women's empowerment,” Demographic Research, punished online April 2023. DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2023.48.19
Desai, Sonalde, Santanu Pramanik and Bijay Chouhan. 2022. “The paradox of declining fertility and declining contraceptive use in India: An artefact of survey design?” Social Science and Medicine: Population Health, 19: 101256.
Desai, Sonalde, Feinian Chen, Shilpa Reddy and Amy McLaughlin. 2022. Measuring Women’s Empowerment in the Global South. Annual Review of Sociology, 48:507-527.
* Lei, Lei and Sonalde Desai. 2021. “Male Out-Migration and the Health of Left-Behind Wives in India: The Roles of Remittances, Household Responsibilities, and Autonomy,” Social Science and Medicine, 280, Published online May 2021.
Choudhuri, Pallavi and Sonalde Desai. 2021. “Lack of Access to Clean Fuel and Piped Water and Children's Educational Outcomes in Rural India,” World Development, 265. Published online May 2021.
*Desai, Sonalde, Neerad Deshmukh and Santanu Pramanik. 2021.” Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty: Gendered Employment Patterns during the Lockdown in India,” Feminist Economics., 27(1-2),152-172.
*Chatterjee, Esha and Sonalde Desai. 2020. “Regional Fertility Differences in India,” in Schoen, Robert (Ed.) Analyzing Contemporary Fertility. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. Pp. 133-172.
Frumkin Howard, Das Maitreyi Bordia, Negev Maya, Rogers Briony C, Bertollini Roberto, Dora Carlos et al. 2020. “Protecting health in dry cities: considerations for policy makers” BMJ; 371 :m2936.
Lei, Lei, Sonalde Desai and Feinian Chen. 2020. “Fathers’ migration and nutritional status of children in India: Do the effects vary by community context?” Demographic Research, 43(20): 545-580.
*Lin, Zhiyong, Sonalde Desai and Feinian Chen. Forthcoming. “The Emergence of Educational Hypogamy in India,” Demography.
Choudhuri, Pallavi and Sonalde Desai. 2020. “Gender Inequalities and Household Fuel Choice in India” Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 265:1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121487
*Desai, Sonalde and Omkar Joshi. 2019. “The Paradox of Declining Female Work Participation in an Era of Economic Growth”. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 62(1): 55-71. DOI: 10.1007/s41027-019-00162-z
Lei, Lei, Sonalde Desai and Reeve Vanneman. 2019. “Village Transportation Infrastructure and Women’s Non-agricultural Employment in India: The Conditioning Role of Community Gender Context.” Feminist Economics, 25(4): 94-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2019.1655162 NIHMS934824
*Chatterjee, Esha and Sonalde Desai. 2019. “Physical versus Imagined Communities: Migration and Women’s Autonomy in India.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(16): 2977-2996.
Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean, Sonalde Desai and Gavin Jones. 2018. “Families in Southeast and South Asia.” Annual Review of Sociology, 44:469-495.
* Vikram, Kriti, Feinian Chen and Sonalde Desai. 2018. “Mothers' work patterns and Children's cognitive achievement: Evidence from the India Human Development survey” Social Science Research, 72:207-224. PMCID: PMC6003423
* Chatterjee, Esha, Reeve Vanneman and Sonalde Desai. 2018. “Indian paradox: Rising education, declining womens’ employment.” Demographic Research, 38: 856-875. PMCID: PMC6424343
Barik, Debasis, Sonalde Desai and Reeve Vanneman. 2018. “Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India: Is the Relationship Sensitive to Choice of Indicators?” World Development. 103:176-187. PMCID: PMC5828167
Joshi, Omkar, Sonalde Desai, Reeve Vanneman and Amaresh Dubey. 2017. “Who participates in MGNREGA?” Review of Development and Change, 22(1): 108-127.
Desai, Sonalde. 2017. “Doing Gender Vs. Doing Modernity,” in Bhatia, Manjeet (Ed.) Locating Gender in the New Middle Class in India, Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
Thorat, Amit, Reeve Vanneman, Sonalde Desai and Amaresh Dubey. 2017. “Escaping and Falling into Poverty in India Today,” World Development, 93:413-426. PMCID: PMC5619671
*Myroniuk, Tylor, Reeve Vanneman and Sonalde Desai. 2017. “Getting a Child Through Secondary School and To College in India: The Role of Household Social Capital,” Sociology of Development, 3(1): 24-46. PMCID: PMC5381932
Desai, Sonalde. 2016. “Demographic Deposit, Dividend and Debt,” Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 58(2):217-232.
Thorat, Amit and Sonalde Desai. 2016. “Recent Evidence Shows Slow Improvement in Undernutrition in India,” in Desai, Sonalde, Lawrence Haddad, Deepta Chopra and Amit Thorat (Editors). 2016. Investing in the Future: Public Policy Opportunities to End Undernutrition in India. London: Routledge. Pp. 71-76.
Basu, Alaka and Sonalde Desai. 2016. “Hopes, dreams and anxieties: India's one-child families,” Asian Population Studies, 12(1):4-27. PMCID: PMC4869707
Desai, Sonalde and Reeve Vanneman. 2015. “Enhancing Nutrition Security via India’s National Food Security Act: Using an axe instead of a scalpel?” India Policy Forum Vol. 11. Shah, Shekhar, Arvind Panagariya and Subir Gokarn (Eds.) New Delhi: Sage. PMCID: PMC4811376
Barik, Debasis, Tushar Agarwal and Sonalde Desai. 2015. “After the Dividend: Caring for a Greying India.” Economic and Political Weekly, 50(24): 104-112. PMCID: PMC4869707
*Desai, Sonalde and Gheda Temsah. 2014. “Muslim and Hindu Women’s Public and Private Behaviors: Gender, Family and Communalized Politics in India” Demography, 51(6) 2307-2332. PMCID: PMC4431977
Barik, Debasis and Sonalde Desai. 2014. “Patterns of Health Care Expenditure in India” in Basu, Sambit (Editor) India Infrastructure Report, 2013: Health. New Delhi: Routledge.
Desai, Sonalde. 2013. “It Takes More than a Village,” in Chandler, Clay and Adil Zainullbhai (Eds.) Reimagining India. New York: Simon and Schuster. Pp. 243-246.
Desai, Sonalde and Amit Thorat. 2013. “Beyond the Great Indian Nutrition Debate,” Economic and Political Weekly, 48(45): 18-22.
Desai, Sonalde. 2013. “Women in Workforce: Burden of Success, Decline in Participation”. Yojana, 57: 56-59.
*Andrist, Lester, Banerji, Manjistha and Sonalde Desai. 2013. “Negotiating Marriage: Examining the Gap between Marriage and Cohabitation in India”, in Ravinder Kaur and Rajni Palriwala (Eds.) Marrying in South Asia: Shifting concepts, changing practices in a globalising world. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
Desai, Sonalde and Amit Thorat. 2013. “Social Inequalities in Education” in Basu, Sambit (Editor) India Infrastructure Report, 2012: Private Sector in Education. New Delhi: Routledge. Pp. 44-52.
*Vikram, Kriti, Reeve Vanneman and Sonalde Desai. 2012. “Linkages between maternal education and childhood immunization in India”, Social Science and Medicine, 75(2): 331-339. PMCID: PMC3495071
Desai, Sonalde and Amaresh Dubey. 2011. “Caste in 21st Century India: Competing Narratives, “ Economic and Political Weekly, 46(11): 40-49. PMCID: PMC3379882
Desai, Sonalde. 2010. “The Other Half of the Demographic Dividend,” Economic and Political Weekly, 45(40): 12-14. PMCID: PMC3381360
* Desai, Sonalde and Lijuan Wu. 2010. “Structured Inequalities: Spatial Disparities in maternity Care in India,” Margin: A Journal of Applied Economics, 4(3): 293-320. PMCID: PMC3992970
* Desai, Sonalde and Lester Andrist. 2010. “Gender Scripts and Age at Marriage in India,” Demography. 47(3):667-687. PMCID: PMC3000052
Desai, Sonalde. 2010. “Caste and Census: A Forward Looking Strategy.” Economic and Political Weekly, 45(9):10-13.
* Desai, Sonalde and Veena Kulkarni. 2009. “Unequal Playing Field: Socio-Religious Inequalities in Educational Attainment in India" in Rakesh Basant and Abusaleh Shariff (Ed.) Muslims of India: Empirical Perspectives. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
* Desai, Sonalde, Cecily Adams and Amaresh Dubey. 2009. “Segmented Schooling: Inequalities in Primary Education.” In Sukhdeo Thorat and Katherine Newman (Eds.) Blocked by Caste: Discrimination and Social Exclusion in Modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Desai, Sonalde, Amaresh Dubey, Reeve Vanneman and Rukmini Banerji. 2009. “Private Schooling in India: A New Landscape,” India Policy Forum Vol. 5. Pp. 1-58, Bery, Suman, Barry Bosworth and Arvind Panagariya (Editors). New Delhi: Sage
Desai, Sonalde. 2009. “Soldiers of Saffron, Sonal Shah and Secularism,” Economic and Political Weekly, 44(7):25-27. (Opinion)
* Desai, Sonalde and Manjistha Banerji. 2008. “Negotiated Identities: Male Migration and Left Behind Wives in India.” Journal of Population Research, 25(3):337-355. PMCID: PMC2916725
* Desai, Sonalde and Veena Kulkarni. 2008. "Changing Educational Inequalities in India in the Context of Affirmative Action,” Demography, 45(2): 245-270. PMCID: PMC2474466
Desai, Sonalde. 2008. "Obama, Indian Americans and a Conversation about Race,” Economic and Political Weekly, 43(14):23-26 (Opinion)
Desai, Sonalde. 2008. "Review of Gender Trouble Makers: Education and Empowerment in Nepal,” Contemporary Sociology, 37(2):83-84.
Desai, Sonalde. 2007. "Indian Middle Class" in Basu, Kaushik (Ed.) Oxford Companion to Economics in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
* Desai, Sonalde and Kiersten Johnson. 2005. “Women’s Decisionmaking and Child Health: Familial and Social Hierarchies,” in Kishor, Sunita (Edited) A Focus on Gender. Calverton, Maryland: ORC Macro.
Bloch, Francis, Vijayendra Rao and Sonalde Desai. “Wedding Celebrations as Conspicuous Consumption: Signaling Social Status in Rural India,” Journal of Human Resources. 39:675-695.
* Desai, Sonalde B and Maitreyi Bordia Das. 2004. “Is Employment Driving India’s Growth Surge?” Economic and Political Weekly, 39:345-351.
Desai, Sonalde and Rahul Kanakia. 2004. “Indian Americans: Portrait of a Diasporic Community.” Seminar, 538:48-52.
Desai, Sonalde B. 2004. “Population Change,” in Ritzer, George (Ed.) Handbook of Social Problems: A Comparative International Perspective. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
* Das, Maitreyi Bordia and Sonalde Desai. 2003. “Why are Educated Women Less Likely to be Employed in India? Testing Competing Hypotheses.” Social Protection Discussion Paper Series No. 0313. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
Desai, Sonalde B. 2001. “A Tale of Two Middle Classes,” in proceedings of National Sample Survey 50th Anniversary Proceedings, New Delhi, India.
Sathar, Zeba and Sonalde Desai. 2000. "Class and Gender in Rural Pakistan: Differentials in Economic Activity." In Garcia, Brigida (Ed.) Women, Poverty and Demographic Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Desai, Sonalde. 2000. “Maternal Education and Child Health: A Feminist Dilemma,” Feminist Studies, 26(2):425-446.
Desai, Sonalde. 2000. "Maternal Education and Child Health: Evidence and Ideology". In Garcia, Brigida (Ed.) Women, Poverty and Demographic Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Desai, Sonalde and Katharine Sreedhar. 1999. “India: Growth and Inequity,” in Harrison, Selig, Paul H. Kreisberg and Dennis Kux (Ed.) India and Pakistan: The First Fifty Years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Desai, Sonalde and Soumya Alva. 1998. “Maternal Education and Child Health: Is there a Strong Causal Relationship?” Demography, 35: 71-81.
* Desai, Sonalde and Soumya Alva. 1998. “Land Redistribution: A Population Stabilisation Strategy?” Economic and Political Weekly, 33:533-536
* Desai, Sonalde and Samia Ahmad. 1998. “Female Headed Households,” in Nelly Stromquist (Ed.) Women in the Third World. New York: Garland Publishing.
Desai, Sonalde. 1998. “Engendering Population Policy,” in Krishnaraj, M., R. Sudarshan and A. Shariff (Eds.) Gender, Population and Development. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Sathar, Zeba and Sonalde Desai. 1996. “Work Patterns in Rural Pakistan: Intersections between Gender, Family and Class.” The Population Council Research Division Working Paper No. 90.
Desai, Sonalde. 1995. "When Are Children In Large Families Disadvantaged? Evidence from Cross-National Analysis," Population Studies, 49:195-210.
Desai, Sonalde and Devaki Jain. 1994. "Maternal Employment and Changes in Family Dynamics: The Social Context of Women's Work in Rural South India," Population and Development Review, 20, 115-136.
Desai, Sonalde. 1994. “Health and Equity: Refocusing on Basic Needs and Livelihood Strategies,” Research Division Working Paper No. 56. The Population Council, New York.
Desai, Sonalde. 1994. "Women's Burdens: Easing the Structural Constraints." In Sen, Gita, Adrienne Germain and Lincoln Chen (Ed.) Population Re-Considered: Health, Empowerment, and Rights. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Desai, Sonalde. 1993. "The Impact of Family Size on Children's Nutritional Status: Insights from a Comparative Perspective," in Cynthia B. Lloyd (Ed.) 1993. Fertility, Family Size, and Structure: Consequences for Families and Children Consequences for Families and Children. New York: The Population Council.
Desai, Sonalde. 1992. "Children at Risk: The Role of Family Structure in Latin America and West Africa," Population and Development Review, 18:689-717.
A preliminary version included in Conference Proceedings of The Demographic and Health Surveys World Conference.
Lloyd, Cynthia and Sonalde Desai. 1992. "Children's Living Arrangements in Developing Countries." Population Research and Policy Review, 11:193-216.
Chase-Lansdale, Lindsay, Robert T. Michael and Sonalde Desai. 1992. "L'Effet De L'Emploi Chez Les Meres D'Enfants En Bas Age: Le Role De L'Environnement Familial". In B. Pierrehumbert (Ed.) L'Accueil Du Jeune Enfant: Politiques et Recherches dan les Differents Pays. Paris: ESF Editeur.
Desai, Sonalde and Linda Waite. 1991. "Women's Employment During Pregnancy and After the First Birth: Occupational Characteristics and Work Commitment." American Sociological Review, 56:551-566.
Chase-Lansdale, Lindsay P., Robert T. Michael and Sonalde Desai. 1991. "Maternal Employment During Infancy: An Analysis of "Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY)". In J. Lerner and N. Galamobs (eds.) Employed Mothers and their Children. New York: Garland Publishing.
Desai, Sonalde, Robert T. Michael, and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale. 1990. "The Home Environment: A Mechanism Through Which Maternal Employment Affects Child Development." Population Council Working Paper No. 20.
Desai, Sonalde, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Robert T. Michael 1989. "Mother or Market? Effects of Maternal Employment on Intellectual Development of Four-Year-Old Children." Demography, 26:545-562.