Saumitra Jha's research focuses on drawing new lessons from economic theory and history for fostering beneficial political reform and economic growth in developing societies. He is particularly interested in the role that can be played by financial and managerial innovations in encouraging political reform and supporting peaceful co-existence between members of different ethnic, religious and social groups.

Saumitra Jha is Assistant Professor of Political Economy at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

For MBAs, Saumitra teaches the global context of management and strategy beyond markets courses. For PhDs, he teaches a research seminar on political development economics. Topics include: corruption and "forensic" political economics, institutional reform and democratization, ethnic conflict and public goods provision, and the role of trade and financial innovations in political development.

Saumitra holds a BA from Williams College, master's degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in economics from Stanford University. Prior to joining the GSB, Saumitra was an Academy Scholar at Harvard University. Having grown up in England, Scotland and the Indian Himalaya, Saumitra's research now takes him around South Asia and further afield to sub-Saharan Africa, Mexico and the Pacific Rim. Saumitra has consulted on economic and political risk issues for the United Nations/ WTO and the World Bank.