Saumitra Jha

Biography

Saumitra Jha is an associate professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and, by courtesy, of economics and of political science at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences.

Professor Jha convenes the Stanford Conflict and Polarization Lab. He is also a senior fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law within the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Affairs, a faculty fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. 

Professor Jha’s research has been published in leading journals in economics and political science, including the American Economic Review, the American Political Science Review, Econometrica, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Development Economics.

His research examines how societies design institutions, financial systems, and organizations to manage political conflict, reduce violence, and foster cooperation across deep social divides.

Drawing on historical cases and contemporary experimental evidence, Professor Jha’s work explores how financial innovation can align incentives across rival groups, turning former combatants, ethnic factions, and political opponents into stakeholders in peace. His research on this subject spans seventeenth-century England, the early United States, Meiji Japan, and modern settings including Israel-Palestine, Brexit-era Britain, Mexico, and the United States.

Academic Publications

1) Jha, Saumitra “Breaking through the Ethnic Growth Trap”, Economic Policy, forthcoming, 2025.

2) Jha, Saumitra “Pax Economica: A Review”, Journal of Economic Literature, June 2025.

3) Jha, Saumitra, Moses Shayo and Chagai Weiss “Financial Market Exposure Increases Generalized Trust”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 242, February 2025.

4) Jha, Saumitra and Moses Shayo, “Trading Stocks Builds Financial Confidence and Compresses the Gender Gap”, the Economic Journal, Vol. 135, No. 665, January 2025, pp.235-263. Winner of the 2025 MAIA award for best global academic paper on financial literacy and inclusion.

5) Jha, Saumitra “Civil and Ethnic Conflict in Historical Political Economy”, in Jeffrey Jenkins and Jared Rubin eds., the Oxford Handbook of Historical Political Economy, February 2024, pp.597-622.

6) Cagé, Julia, Anna Dagorret, Pauline Grosjean and Saumitra Jha “Heroes and Villains: The Effects of Heroism on Autocratic Values and Nazi Collaboration in France”, American Economic Review, Vol. 113, No. 6, July 2023. Winner of the 2020 Oliver Williamson Best Paper Award from the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics.

7) Jha, Saumitra, “Building Resilient Inter-Ethnic Peace”, in Dominic Rohner and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, eds., Nation-Building: Big Lessons from Successes and Failures, Center for Economic Policy Research, February 2023.

8) Cagé, Julia, Pauline Grosjean and Saumitra Jha “The Influence of Heroic Networks”, in Dominic Rohner and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, eds., Nation-Building: Big Lessons from Successes and Failures, Center for Economic Policy Research, February 2023.

Education

PhD Economics, Stanford University

Part III Mathematical Tripos, University of Cambridge

MPhil Economics, University of Cambridge

BA Mathematics & Economics, Williams College

Doctoral Dissertation

Essays in the development of culture and governance

Institutions

Stanford University

Harvard University

Princeton University

Science Po

Yale University

Fields

Economics

Political Science

Topics

How Finance Can Be Used To Build Social Cohesion

How Trade Can Be Used To Build Social Cohesion

The Political Economy of South Asia

9) Diaz-Cayeros, Alberto, Juan Espinosa-Balbuena and Saumitra Jha “Pandemic Spikes and Broken Spears: Indigenous Resilience after the Conquest of Mexico”, Journal of Historical Political Economy, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.89-133, February 2022. Winner of the 2023 Lee J. Alston Prize for best paper published in the previous year by the Journal of Historical Political Economy.

10) Jha, Saumitra and Moses Shayo “Valuing Peace: The Effects of Financial Market Exposure on Votes and Political Attitudes”, Econometrica, Vol. 87. No. 5, pp.1561-1588, September 2019. Finalist for the 2020 Exeter Prize for the best paper in Experimental Economics, Decision Theory and Behavioral Economics published in the previous year.

11) Jha, Saumitra “Trading for Peace”, Economic Policy, Vol. 33, No. 95, pp. 485-526, July 2018.

12) Jha, Saumitra “A New Economic History of Colonial India: A Review”, Journal of Economic History, Vol. 77, Issue 2, pp. 641-643, June 2017.

13) Jha, Saumitra and Moses Shayo “Financial Market Exposure Raises Support for Peace” The Political Economist, American Political Science Association, Vol XII, Issue 1, Spring 2016.

14) Jha, Saumitra “Financial Asset Holdings and Political Attitudes: Evidence from Revolutionary England”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 103, No. 3, pp.1485-1545, August 2015.

15) Jha, Saumitra “`Unfinished Business’: Historic Complementarities, Political Competition and Ethnic Violence in Gujarat”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 104, pg. 18-36, August 2014

16) Bhavnani, Rikhil and Saumitra Jha “Gandhi’s Gift: Lessons for Peaceful Reform from India’s Struggle for Democracy’’, Economics of Peace and Security Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp.80-92, April 2014.

17) Jha, Saumitra “Trade, Institutions and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia”, American Political Science Review, Vol. 107, No. 4, pp. 806-832, November 2013. Winner of the 2014 Michael Wallerstein Award by the American Political Science Association for the best article published in political economy in the previous year.

18) Jha, Saumitra “Analyzing Political Risk in Developing Countries: A Practical Framework for Project Managers”, Business and Politics, Vol 15, No. 1, pp.117-136, April 2013.

19) Jha, Saumitra and Steven Wilkinson “Does Combat Experience Foster Organizational Skill? Evidence from Ethnic Cleansing during the Partition of South Asia”, American Political Science Review, Vol. 106, No. 4, pp. 883-907, November 2012.

20) Ban, Radu, Saumitra Jha and Vijayendra Rao “Who has Voice in a Deliberative Democracy? Evidence from Transcripts of Village Parliaments in South India”, Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 99, No. 2, pp. 428–438, November 2012.

21) Jha, Saumitra “Sharing the Future: Financial Innovations and Innovators in Solving the Political Economy Challenges of Development” in Masahiko Aoki, Timur Kuran and Gerard Roland, eds., Institutions and Comparative Economic Development, Volume I of the Proceedings of the 16th World Congress of the International Economic Association, Palgrave Macmillan, November 2012.

22) de Lara, Yadira, Avner Greif and Saumitra Jha “The Administrative Foundations of SelfEnforcing Constitutions”, American Economic Review: P&P, Vol 98, No. 2, pp. 105-109, May 2008.

23) Jha, Saumitra “Maintaining Peace across Ethnic Lines: New Lessons from the Past”, Economics of Peace and Security Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 89-93, July 2007.

24) Jha, Saumitra, Vijayendra Rao and Michael Woolcock “Governance in the Gullies: Democratic Responsiveness and Leadership in Delhi's Slums”, World Development, Vol 35, No.2, pp. 230-246, February 2007.

Honors, Grants, & Awards

2025 Money Awareness and Inclusion Award (MAIA) for best global academic paper on financial literacy and inclusion

2025 Center for Economic Policy Research ReCIPE Grant (co-PI)

2024 Stanford GSB Business, Government and Society Grant

2023 Lee J. Alston Best Paper Prize, Journal of Historical Political Economy

2022-23 Dan C. Chung Faculty Scholar at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Affairs.

2022- Inaugural Stanford Teagle Fellow in Liberal Education.

2020 Teacher of the Year Award, voted by the students of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Sloan Fellows (MSx) Program

2020 Oliver Williamson Best Paper Award, Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics

2019- Stanford King Center on Global Development Initiative Grant.

2018,19 Inaugural Peiros Family Faculty Fellow, Stanford GSB & King Center for Global Development

2018 Stanford Center for Global Poverty and Development Initiative Startup Grant

2017-18 Winnick Family Faculty Scholar, Stanford GSB

2015 Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies Award.

2014 Michael Wallerstein Award for best published article in Political Economy in the previous calendar year, American Political Science Association

2011,13 John A. Gunn and Cynthia Fry Gunn Faculty Scholar, Stanford GSB

2005-06 Koret Foundation Dissertation Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

2005 Humane Studies Fellow, Institute for Humane Studies

2005 Research Fellow, John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Stanford Law School

2001-04 Graduate Fellow, Department of Economics, Stanford University

1999-01 Dr. Herchel Smith Scholarship to Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

1999 Carl Van Duyne Prize for excellence and intellectual curiosity in Economics, Williams College

1998 Phi Beta Kappa (junior year inductee- top 5% of class)

1995-99 Haystack International Student Full Scholarship (1 of 5) to Williams College