Radha Jagannathan is a Professor of Statistics in the Urban Planning and Policy Development Program at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. She has been a long standing Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton University’s Office of Population Research and has held visiting fellowships at the Bendheim Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing.

Professor Jagannathan’s research spans labor economics, education, public welfare, and child and youth policy, with a strong emphasis on inequality, human capital formation, and program evaluation. Her work integrates econometric modeling with institutional and policy analysis, often in comparative and cross national contexts. Recent scholarship focuses on overeducation and wage penalties, gendered labor market outcomes, school to work transitions, and the role of educational and social institutions in shaping life course trajectories.

She has published extensively in leading journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Marriage and Family, American Journal of Public Health, Social Service Review, Social Science & Medicine, and Child Abuse & Neglect. She is the author of two books published by Oxford University Press and one published by Bristol University Press that examine decision making frameworks in child welfare services, cultural economics, and youth employment strategies.

Professor Jagannathan has received multiple international and national research honors, including Fulbright Scholarships to Germany, Hungary and Finland, a DAAD Fellowship to the University of Konstanz, and the Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize from the University of Chicago for outstanding applied policy research. She is also the recipient of Rutgers University’s Jerome G. Rose Distinguished Teaching Award, Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award, and Global Impact Award.

Her current and recent projects include large scale evaluations of youth employment and workforce development programs in U.S. cities; comparative European research on youth unemployment and economic self sufficiency as part of the EU funded CUPESSE project; and international collaborative work on education, skills formation, and labor market transitions. She is also developing cross national research on nature based education and STEM learning in the United States and Europe.

In collaboration with colleagues from Rutgers University and supported by public private partnerships, Professor Jagannathan co founded Nurture thru Nature (NtN), an evidence based, experimental education program that integrates nature based learning with STEM and language arts for elementary school students. Rigorous evaluations show positive impacts on academic achievement and student engagement, particularly for students from under resourced communities.

Professor Jagannathan teaches graduate courses in statistics, econometrics, and research methods, as well as substantive courses in demography, poverty, public policy, and international development. She is deeply committed to mentoring students and to research that informs policy, advances equity, and bridges scholarship with real world impact.

Research Interests

• Youth labor markets, overeducation, and wage inequality
• School to work transitions and youth employment
• Gender, family, and life course outcomes
• Public education, STEM learning, and nature based interventions
• Poverty, public welfare, and child welfare policy
• Program evaluation and applied econometrics
• International and cross national comparative research

 Graduate Courses

• Methods of Planning Analysis I
• Program Evaluation
• Discrete Choice Methods