Gautam Yadama's field research and international collaborations have taken him to India, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, post-Soviet Republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus, and, most recently, China.
"The Brown School provides me with an intellectual climate to pursue my passion of social development in developing countries of the world.
"I am most excited about using some of the best thinking from different disciplines to better understand how we can impact the quality of life in impovershed communities. Economists, anthropologists, and political scientists have given a lot of attention to when and why people act collectively for the greater good. Their work has profound implications for understanding and pursuing social and economic development.
"I am particularly interested in knowing how quasi-public goods such as health services and community schools are provided and maintained through collective and innovative efforts of ordinary citizens. Once we understand these underlying social processes and how they contribute to the prevalence of these critical social services, then we are able to design better policy and program interventions to promote community development."