Profile
Shanthi Manian is a doctoral candidate in economics and a trainee in the Division of Global Public Health’s interdisciplinary program on HIV and related infections in substance-using populations. Her research applies an economic approach to questions of public health interest, with a focus on vulnerable women and girls. In current work, she is studying sex worker registration programs, which allow female sex workers to avoid some criminal penalties if they register at a health clinic and agree to regular medical check-ups. She is implementing a field experiment that aims to cleanly identify the effects of a registration program in Dakar, Senegal, on the market for sex work and health. Her dissertation also includes a paper studying the impact of drug-related violent conflict in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on risky sexual behavior among female sex workers and their clients. This paper received the Economics Department’s Walter Heller Memorial Prize Runner-Up. Beyond her research, Shanthi has been a leader of the UCSD Women in Economics program for three years. In this role, she has created new mentoring opportunities for female Ph.D. students in Economics and organized a one-day conference bringing together 8 female alumnae of the Ph.D. program with current faculty and Ph.D. students.
