Dr Anurag Sharma

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School :

Public Health & Community Med

Phone :

x52372

Email :

anurag.sharma@unsw.edu.au

University role :

Senior Lecturer (Health Economics) and Co-Director Public Health Programs

I am a Senior Lecturer in Health Economics and Director of Health Leadership and Management (MHLM) Program at School of Population Health. Previously I worked at Centre for Health Economics, Monash University. I obtained PhD in Economics from the Australian National University, Canberra. My research is mainly focussed on answering policy questions regarding:

i) supply and demand side of healthcare management such as modelling hospital choice, tackle overcrowding in Emergency Departments, role of elective surgery waiting times in private hospital utilisation, hospital behaviour under activity based funding, patient safety and workforce development

ii) health promotion policies and behavioural change: Impact of taxing sugar sweetened beverages on different income groups, body weight and obesity; Impact of alcohol taxation policies on alcohol consumption, pricing strategies to encourage health diet in disadvantaged groups

iii) public health issues in low income settings: Program evaluation to improve maternal and child health (Nepal), improving nutritional status of children (India), modelling chronic diseases (Mongolia), relationship between poverty and nutrition (India).

My research involves rigorous applied methods using large and complex datasets. I am currently CI and lead health economist on two NHMRC Partnership Grants, one NSW Health COVID19 research grant and have been lead CI on one ARC Discovery grant in the past. I have also worked on several consultancy based research contracts including for OECD.

I have supervised four PhD students to completion (two as main supervisor) and currently supervising four PhD students as primary supervisor.

I am part of the Health Leadership and Management Group at the school and convene one core unit of MHLM (size ~ 250) and one elective unit (size ~ 80) on introductory and advanced health economics respectively. I am also a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK.

Personal Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/anuragunsw/

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anurag_Sharma

Qualifications :

Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, UK

PhD (Economics) , ANU, Canberra

MPhil (Economics), IGIDR, Mumbai, India

MA (Economics), University of Rajasthan, India

BSc (Physics, Chemistry, Maths), Maharaja's College, Jaipur, India

Grants :

Category 1

CIE and Health Economics lead: NH&MRC Partnership Grant # GNT1196912 "Community Health workers Extending Care in the Community" (2020-2025). Total Amount: $1,004,341

CIH and Health Economics lead: NH&MRC Partnership Grant # GNT1192469 "Unifying and quality assuring disparate health silos with a common data model." (2020-2023). Total Amount: $735,795

Primary Chief-Investigator (CI A) from 2012-2014: Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant # DP120102252 The Role of taxes and subsidies in promoting health lifestyles: an economic analysis. Total amount $ 300,000: 2012 $110,000 2013 $100,000 and 2014 $90,000. (Co-Investigators: Bruce Hollingsworth, Robin Room, Cathy Burns, Katharina Hauck, Luigi Siciliani and Frank Windmeijer).

Other Grants

Chief Investigator and health economics lead from 2021-22 : NSW Health COVID-19 Research Grant "24/7 eICU Model of Care" . Total Amount: $500,000

Chief Investigator from 2019-2021 : Roberts Pizzarotti (NSW) / NSW Government "Well Being of Construction Workers at Concorde Hospital". Total Amount: $272,512

Investigator 2019: Economic Evaluation of HammondCare Darlinghurst: an aged care home for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness

Investigator 2019 : NSW Health "Develop a preferred method to cost the health benefits of active transport". Total Amount: $81,000

Awards :

Faculty of Medicine Teaching award at UNSW: Award for Educational Excellence (Academic Staff) - 2019

Alan Hodgkinson prize for outstanding contribution to teaching and students learning - 2017

Research

Socio-economic Objective (SEO) tags :

Microeconomic Effects of Taxation

Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health)

Field of Research (FOR) Tag :

Health Economics

Applied Economics

Health Promotion

Public Health and Health Services

Teaching & Supervision

I am available to supervise :

Yes

Areas of supervision :

Health Policy: Strategies to reduce Obesity, reduce consumption of sugar sweetened beverages and alcohol, encouraging health lifestyles

Health Management: Modelling hospital choice, strategies to reduce elective surgery waiting times and ED overcrowding and patient adverse events, Activity based Funding

Low income settings: Program evaluation, malnutrition, stunting among children, impacts on poverty and education, gender disparities

Methods: Health economic analyses, applied economics analysis, large datasets, statistical modelling, economic evaluation, regression analyses, spatial data analysis and similar quantitative methods

Currently supervising :

I am currently supervising four PhD students as primary supervisor on following topics:

Effectiveness of Strategies to improve Health services sustainability in public health systems

What should be the role of health decision makers in health research to support knowledge translation?

Analyse the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) reimbursement framework in Australia

Hospital Sustainability – Improving value of care through leveraging new technology and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data

Completed PhD Supervision

1. The relationship between income and alcohol: Implications for public health policy (Main Supervisor)

2. Linkages of HDI Nutrition in a Transient Economy of India (Main Supervisor)

3. Essays on impact evaluation of maternal and child health interventions in Nepal and India (Associate Supervisor)

4. Economic Implications of Cardiovascular Diseases in Mongolia (Associate Supervisor)

Supervision keywords :

health economics

health economic modeling

economic evaluation

behavioural economics

health management

hospital administration

obesity

alcohol policy

poverty alleviation

gender equality

waiting lists

quantitative methods

econometric

nonparametric

developing countries

Teaching :

Recent Teaching:

Course Convenor: PHCM9441 - Introduction to Health care Economics and Financial Management (T1, 2020) - Blended Delivery- [Evaluation: 5.77/6]

Course Convenor: PHCM9082 - Advanced Health care Economics and Financial Management (T2, 2020) - Blended Delivery- [Evaluation: 5.57/6]

Media

LinkedIn :

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anurag-sharma-14154748

Twitter Account :

https://twitter.com/anuragunsw

Engagement

Expert Opinion: Sugar tax could save 1600 lives, raise $400 million, Australian research shows (Sydney Morning Herald, April 2016)
Interviewed by SYN Radio regarding soft drink tax introduced in England (March, 2016)
Increasing Tax On Our Cheapest Alcohol Could Reduce Consumption, New Monash University Study Shows (Huffington Post, January 2016)
Why higher booze tax is good for your health (Herald Sun, January 2016)
Increasing tax on alcohol key to reducing consumption, says study (The Age, January 2016)}
National Seven News, Channel 7 (May 2015)
Australian researchers say taxing soft drinks could improve the nation's health (Ninemsn, March 2015)
Experts propose 20c-a-litre soft drink levy to tax nation's waistline (Herald Sun, June 2014)
National Nine News, Channel 9 (June 2014)
Radio Interview on Triple R, Melbourne Radio (June 2014)
Alcohol tax reform: a minimum price is in the public interest (The Conversation, May 2014)
Urgent health care's catch-22 (Canberra Times, March 2013)
GP clinics can ease pressure on emergency care (Australian Medical Association, April 2013)
GP clinics at hospitals: an interview with Dr Sharma, Monash University (News Medical, April 2013)

Publications related to this Person

Books

Jha R; Chand S, A. Sharma (2003)?The Fiscal Constraint on India?s Economic Growth? in R. Jha (ed.) Indian Economic Reforms, Basingstoke, Houndmills, Palgrave Macmillan

Book Chapters

Sharma A, 2014, 'Poverty Nutrition Traps in Rural India*', in Diets, Malnutrition, and Disease, Oxford University Press, pp. 123 - 141, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099215.003.0006

Sharma A; Harris A, 2013, 'Victoria (2000-2011) in Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector What Works?', in Victoria (2000-2011) in Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector What Works?

Sharma A; Harris A, 2013, 'OECD Health Policy Studies Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector What Works?', in Luigi S; Michael B; Valerie M (ed.), OECD Health Policy Studies Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector What Works?, OECD Publishing

Jha R; Bhanu Murthy KV; Sharma A, 2008, 'Market integration in wholesale rice markets in India', in The Indian Economy Sixty Years after Independence, pp. 233 - 246, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230228337

Jha R; Murthy KVB; Sharma A, 2008, 'Market Integration in Wholesale Rice Markets in India', in The Indian Economy Sixty Years After Independence, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 233 - 246, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230228337_13

Journal articles

Chan DKY; Liu FX; Irwanto D; Prasetyo D; Ozorio G; Li F; Smith M; Sharma A; Chen J, 2018, 'Experience of establishing an acute geriatric outreach service versus subacute service to nursing homes', Internal Medicine Journal, vol. 48, pp. 1396 - 1399, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imj.14104

Harrison R; Lee H; Sharma A, 2018, 'A survey of the impact of patient adverse events and near misses on anaesthetists in Australia and New Zealand', Anaesthesia and intensive care, vol. 46, pp. 510 - 515, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0310057X1804600513

Harris A; Sharma A, 2018, 'Estimating the future health and aged care expenditure in Australia with changes in morbidity', PLoS ONE, vol. 13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201697

Lamichhane P; Sharma A; Mahal A, 2018, 'Does safe disposal of child faeces matter? An assessment of access to improved sanitation and child faeces disposal behaviour and diarrhoea in rural Nepal', International Health, vol. 10, pp. 277 - 284, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihy030

Lamichhane P; Sharma A; Mahal A, 2017, 'Impact evaluation of free delivery care on maternal health service utilisation and neonatal health in Nepal', Health Policy and Planning, vol. 32, pp. 1427 - 1436, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czx124

Lamichhane P; Sharma A; Mahal A, 2017, 'Impact of cleaner fuel use and improved stoves on acute respiratory infections: Evidence from India', International Health, vol. 9, pp. 349 - 366, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihx041

Sharma A; Sinha K; Vandenberg B, 2017, 'Pricing as a means of controlling alcohol consumption', British Medical Bulletin, vol. 123, pp. 149 - 158, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldx020

Sharma A; Etilé F; Sinha K, 2016, 'The Effect of Introducing a Minimum Price on the Distribution of Alcohol Purchase: A Counterfactual Analysis', Health Economics (United Kingdom), vol. 25, pp. 1182 - 1200, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.3388

Vandenberg B; Sharma A, 2016, 'Are Alcohol Taxation and Pricing Policies Regressive? Product-Level Effects of a Specific Tax and a Minimum Unit Price for Alcohol', Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire), vol. 51, pp. 493 - 502, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agv133

Maitra P; Pal S; Sharma A, 2016, 'Absence of Altruism? Female Disadvantage in Private School Enrollment in India', World Development, vol. 85, pp. 105 - 125, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.04.005

Etilé F; Sharma A, 2015, 'Do High Consumers of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Respond Differently to Price Changes? A Finite Mixture IV-Tobit Approach', Health economics, vol. 24, pp. 1147 - 1163, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.3157

Sharma A; Hauck K; Hollingsworth B; Siciliani L, 2014, 'The effects of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages across different income groups', Health Economics (United Kingdom), vol. 23, pp. 1159 - 1184, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.3070

Sharma A; Vandenberg B; Hollingsworth B, 2014, 'Minimum pricing of alcohol versus volumetric taxation: which policy will reduce heavy consumption without adversely affecting light and moderate consumers?', PloS one, vol. 9, pp. e80936 - e80936, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080936

Sharma A; Siciliani L; Harris A, 2013, 'Waiting times and socioeconomic status: does sample selection matter?', Economic Modelling, vol. 33, pp. 659 - 667, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2013.05.009

Sharma A; Jha R, 2012, 'Fiscal deficits, banking crises and policy reversal in a semi-open economy', Economic Modelling, vol. 29, pp. 271 - 282, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2011.10.005

Sharma A; Inder B, 2011, 'Impact of co-located general practitioner (GP) clinics and patient choice on duration of wait in the emergency department', Emergency Medicine Journal, vol. 28, pp. 658 - 661, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.2009.086512

Sharma A; Srivastava P, 2011, 'Does disaggregation affect the relationship between health care expenditure and GDP? An analysis using regime shifts', Australian Economic Papers, vol. 50, pp. 27 - 39, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8454.2011.00409.x

Jha R; Gaiha R; Sharma A, 2010, 'Mean consumption, poverty and inequality in rural India in the 60th round of the National Sample Survey', Journal of Asian and African studies, vol. 45, pp. 485 - 503, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021909610373892

Harris A; Sharma A, 2010, 'Access block and overcrowding in emergency departments: an empirical analysis', Emergency Medicine Journal, vol. 27, pp. 508 - 511, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.2009.072546

Sharma A, 2009, 'Inter-DRG resource dynamics in a prospective payment system: a stochastic kernel approach', Health care management science, vol. 12, pp. 38 - 55, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10729-008-9078-3

Jha R; Gaiha R; Sharma A, 2009, 'Modelling variety in consumption expenditure on food in India', International Review of Applied Economics, vol. 23, pp. 503 - 519, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02692170902954809

Jha R; Gaiha R; Sharma A, 2009, 'Calorie and micronutrient deprivation and poverty nutrition traps in rural India', World Development, vol. 37, pp. 982 - 991, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.09.008

Sharma A, 2008, 'Incomplete reform or opportunity: the role of the banking sector in the credit transmission mechanism in India', Journal of Economic Policy Reform, vol. 11, pp. 273 - 288, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17487870802567315

Jha R; Murthy KVB; Sharma A, 2005, 'Fragmentation of wholesale rice markets in India', Economic and Political Weekly, pp. 5571 - 5577

Jha R; Sharma A, 2004, 'Structural Breaks, Unit Roots, and Cointegration: A further test of the sustainability of the indian fiscal deficit', Public Finance Review, vol. 32, pp. 196 - 219, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1091142103260858

Jha R; Sharma A, 2003, 'Spatial distribution of rural poverty: last three quinquennial rounds of NSS', Economic and Political Weekly, pp. 4985 - 4993

Conference Papers

Vandenberg B; Sharma A, 2013, 'ARE ALCOHOL TAXATION AND PRICING POLICIES REGRESSIVE? A COMPARISON OF VOLUMETRIC TAXATION AND A MINIMUM PRICE FOR ALCOHOL IN AUSTRALIA', in DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, WILEY-BLACKWELL, WILEY-BLACKWELL 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA, pp. 69 - 69, WILEY-BLACKWELL 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA, http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000326649400214&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a

Maitra P; Sharma A, 2009, 'Parents and children: Education across generations in India', in 5th annual conference on economic growth and development, ISI Delhi, Delhi

Reports

Moeller H; Haigh F; Sharma A; Veerman L, 2019, Proposal for a preferred method to cost the health benefits of active transport in New South Wales, NSW Health, Sydney

Working Papers

Sinha K; Davillas A; Jones AM; Sharma A, 2018, Distributional analysis of the role of breadth and persistence of multiple deprivation in the health gradient measured by biomarkers, WP 18/31

Maitra P; Pal S; Sharma A, 2014, What Explains the Gender Gap in Private School Enrolment? Recent Evidence from India

Maitra P; Pal S; Sharma A, 2013, Returns to Schooling, English Skills and Gender Gap in Private School Enrolment: Evidence from India

Sharma A; Harris A; Richardson J, 2008, Use of elective surgery in public hospitals: modeling access-cost quality trade-offs in a spatial framework, Faculty of Business and Economics, Centre for Health Economics

Other

Maitra P; Sharma A, 2007, Does exercise reduce obesity? evidence from Australia, Monash University Centre for Health Economics

School of Population Health

Dr Anurag Sharma

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