The University of Texas at Austin

Shama Gamkhar, an economist by training, teaches courses on public finance, financial management and environmental economic policy at the LBJ School. Her research interests include fiscal federalism, intergovernmental grants, public school finance, and environmental policy.

Gamkhar received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park, an M.Phil. in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University and an M.A. in economics from the University of Bombay. She is the author of Federal Intergovernmental Grants and the States: Managing Devolution published by Edward Elgar in its series Studies in Fiscal Federalism and State and Local Finance. Her research papers have been published in the National Tax Journal, Public Finance Review, Public Budgeting and Finance, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law and National Tax Association Papers and Proceedings.

Gamkhar currently serves on a committee for the study of the long-term viability of the fuel tax for transportation finance conducted by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.

Education

Ph.D. in economics, University of Maryland at College Park; M. Phil. in economics, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University; M.A. in economics, University of Bombay; B.A. in economics (honors), Delhi University.

Current Positions

Member Standards Committee, National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA).

Previous Positions

Member, committee for the study of the long-term viability of the fuel tax for transportation finance, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies (2003-05); Consultant World Bank, Washington DC (1992, 2005); Researcher, Texas School Finance Project, Joint Select Committee on Public School Finance, Texas State Legislature ( 2003-04); Commissioner, Community Development Commission (CDC), City of Austin, Texas, (1998–2003); Lecturer, Delhi University, Delhi, India (1985-1989); Consultant, Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi (1984-85)

Author, Federal Intergovernmental Grants and the States: Managing Devolution (Edward Elgar Publishers, 2002); co-author, The Fuel Tax and Alternatives for Transportation Funding, A Report of the National Research Council, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington DC, 2006; co-author “Political Economy of Grant Allocations: The Case of Federal Highway Demonstration Grants,” Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Winter 2008, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 1-21; co-author “A Modest Proposal: Let’s Report Tax Abatements, Journal of Government Financial Management, Spring 2008, pp. 31-36.; authored and co-authored book and research papers published by the Oxford University Press, National Tax Journal, Public Finance Review, Public Budgeting and Finance , Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, and National Tax Association Papers and Proceedings

Budgeting and Public Financial Management
Community Development
Economics
Education Policy
Environmental Policy
Local Government
Tax Policy (Federal)
Urban Policy