About

Alaka Basu is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University, with a focus on Social Demography. Her research explores the diversity of human experience and the potential for change in social behaviors and practices related to reproduction, health, and survival. She emphasizes the social and cultural dynamics that influence individual choices, particularly in the context of gender relations, and studies how these dynamics have demographic consequences. Her work aims to derive policy lessons on maintaining protective behaviors and changing harmful ones, while also critically examining the politics and biases inherent in the policy process itself. Basu's teaching centers on analyzing demographic diversity and understanding the injustices and deprivations underlying this diversity. She has developed courses on reproductive theories, health inequalities, population dynamics, and gender and health, challenging students to evaluate preventable inequalities rooted in social organization and power structures. Beyond her academic research and teaching, she actively engages in public outreach through media contributions and presentations, and has worked to foster collaboration among researchers working on South Asia. Her contributions extend to editorial roles and participation in international conferences and commissions related to population and reproductive health.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Economics
• Sociology
• Law
• Business
• Virology
• Medicine
• Geography
• Economy
• Psychology
• Development economics
• Gender studies
• Political economy
• Demographic economics
• Finance

Selected publications

• The Complexity of Managing COVID-19: How Important Is Good Governance?

  India studies in business and economics · 2023 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Development economics
  • Economics
  PublisherDOI

• Issue Information

  Population and Development Review · 2022-12-01

  paratextOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bride price, dowry, and young men with time to kill: A commentary on men’s marriage postponement in India

  Population Studies · 2022 · 10 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  Rising numbers of young unmarried men in India reflect a marriage squeeze that goes beyond the shortage of brides created by sex-selective abortion. We describe a decline in men's marriageability caused by their falling economic prospects at the same time as families of brides are increasingly seeking grooms with stable employment. We group young men into those without jobs or much education, those with education but no work, and the privileged few with education as well as employment. This classification resolves some of the seeming contradictions in the qualitative literature on marriage in India. Some of this literature talks about the rising prevalence of bride price and some about the persistence of dowry, while some papers reflect in general on the costs of being young, male, and aimless. Our commentary includes a review of the growing literature on the physiological and (perhaps) consequently behavioural and health outcomes of men's anomie.

  PublisherDOI

• Reimagining the 'Global Economy': Building Back Better in a Post-COVID-19 World

  2020 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Economy
  • Political Science
  Publisher

• China’s rising leadership in science and technology: quantitative and qualitative indicators

  Scientometrics · 2018-08-03 · 47 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Accelerate progress—sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher–Lancet Commission

  eCommons - AKU (Aga Khan University) · 2018-06-01 · 627 citations

  review

  Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are fundamental to people's health and survival, to economic development, and to the wellbeing of humanity. Several decades of research have shown—and continue to show—the profound and measurable benefits of investment in sexual and reproductive health. Through international agreements, governments have committed to such investment. Yet progress has been stymied because of weak political commitment, inadequate resources, persistent discrimination against women and girls, and an unwillingness to address issues related to sexuality openly and comprehensively. Health and development initiatives, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the movement toward universal health coverage, typically focus on particular components of SRHR: contraception, maternal and newborn health, and HIV/AIDS. Countries around the world have made remarkable gains in these areas over the past few decades, but the gains have been inequitable among and within countries, and services have often fallen short in coverage and quality. Moreover, in much of the world, people have insufficient access to a full set of sexual and reproductive health services, and their sexual and reproductive rights are not respected or protected. Acceleration of progress therefore requires adoption of a more holistic view of SRHR and tackling of neglected issues, such as adolescent sexuality, gender-based violence, abortion, and diversity in sexual orientations and gender identities.

  Publisher

• Accelerate Progress—Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All

  2018-05-09 · 4 citations

  article
  Publisher

• Hopes, dreams and anxieties: India's one-child families

  Asian Population Studies · 2016-01-02 · 30 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  While rapid fertility decline in India in the last two decades has received considerable attention, much of the discourse has focused on a decline in high parity births. However, this paper finds that, almost hidden from the public gaze, a small but significant segment of the Indian population has begun the transition to extremely low fertility. Among the urban, upper income, educated, middle classes, it is no longer unusual to find families stopping at one child, even when this child is a girl. Using data from the India Human Development Survey of 2004-2005, we examine the factors that may lead some families to stop at a single child. We conclude that the motivations for this very low fertility are likely to be a more extreme form of those for low fertility rather than reflecting the qualitative change in ideologies and worldviews that is hypothesized to accompany very low fertility during the second demographic transition.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Prospects for an Imminent Demographic Dividend in Africa

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014-09-02

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The prospects for an imminent demographic dividend in Africa: The case for cautious optimism

  Working Paper Series · 2014-01-01 · 2 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper looks at the prospects of a demographic dividend in Africa in the near future. While acknowledging that the fertility declines which change population age structures and thus dependency ratios have been slow to begin and often seem to have stalled once they have begun, we nevertheless conclude that there are many underlying features of Africa today which might hasten the process. These features have to do with some of the preconditions under which fertility fell in other parts of the world—such as economic development, social modernization, mortality decline and a rise in ‘natural’ fertility—but also include the fact that the global world today is again, after a hiatus, interested in and proactively working towards investments in voluntary family planning. All these conditions are conducive to faster fertility decline than in the past and with the right policies could allow the region to exploit this demographic window of opportunity. We also comment on some of the economic implications of a demographic dividend in Africa, including the helpful fact that when it occurs, the economic impact of a relatively larger labour force may be enhanced because of, unlike in some other parts of the world, the historical and cultural acceptance of women in the labour force.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Sajeda Amin

  Police General Hospital

  8 shared

• Kaushik Basu

  Cornell University

  6 shared

• Kaushik Basu

  SC Johnson (United States)

  4 shared

• Alex Ezeh

  4 shared

• Rob Stephenson

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  3 shared

• Gamal I. Serour

  Al-Azhar University

  3 shared

• Jose Maria U. Tapia

  Cornell University

  3 shared

• Peter Aaby

  Bandim Health Project

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Editor, Policy Briefs of the Sociology of Development Sectio…
• Theme convener for ‘Culture, Ethnicity, Race, Religion and L…
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Population and Development…
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Asian Population Studies
• Member, Editorial Board, Geneaology