I am a health economist who teaches policy relevant economic concepts to "non-economist" health managers. I am Director of Health Leadership and Management Program at School of Population Health at UNSW Sydney. My research focusses on efficiency improvement in health care systems mainly through preventive strategies such as behavioural change and signalling through healthcare financing. I am the recipient of Faculty of Medicine excellence in teaching award and senior fellow of Advanced HE (previously Higher Education Academy, UK). Currently I am CI and health economics lead on three NH&MRC Partnership grants, one NH&MRC Ideas grant and one COVID-19 research grant with funding exceeding $4.2 million. In the past I have been lead CI on one ARC discovery grant.

Current Position(s):

Associate Professor (Tenured) - Health Economics , School of Population Health, UNSW, Sydney

Program Director Master of Health Leadership and Management, School of Population Health, UNSW, Sydney

External Affiliate, Health Econometrics Data Group, University of York, York

Research Associate, Centre for Applied Macroeconomics, Australian National University, Canberra

Qualifications:

BSc, MA, MPhil, PhD (Economics) from Australian National University, Canberra

Grants and Awards

CIC: NH&MRC Ideas Grant # GNT2013323 "Hospital trajectories for 15 million Australians” (2022-2025). Total Amount: $655,934

CI and Health Economics lead: NH&MRC Partnership Grant # GNT2006240 "Developing a model of Preventative Healthcare for People with Intellectual Disability" (2021-2026). Total Amount: $1,244,755

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: $735,795.00

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

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

Alan Hodgkinson prize for outstanding contribution to teaching and student learning (Dec 2017)

CI A (2012-2014): Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant # DP120102252 The Role of taxes and subsidies in promoting healthy lifestyles: an economic analysis. Total amount $ 300,000

Research Interests

Health Management:

Applied economic modelling of Hospital choice among Elective surgery and ED patients

Health System Finance - Focussing on Impacts of Activity Based Funding

Patient Quality of Care - Measurement of Adverse Events, Hospital acquired infections

Modelling individual/institutional behaviour resulting from policy changes using large and complex secondary datasets: taxation of economic bads - soft drinks and alcohol

Research on Developing Countries: Program evaluation, malnutrition, stunting among children, impacts on poverty and education, gender disparities

Selected Publications:

Sinha K; Davillas A; Jones AM; Sharma A, 2021, 'Do socioeconomic health gradients persist over time and beyond income? A distributional analysis using UK biomarker data', Economics and Human Biology, vol. 43, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101036

Raj, SM, AA Chugtai, A. Sharma, T Tan and R MacIntyre (2019) “Cost- benefit analysis of a national influenza vaccination program in preventing hospitalisation costs in Australian adults aged 50-64 years old” Vaccine, vol. 37, pp. 5979 - 5985

Harrison R, A. Sharma, M Walton, E Esguerra, S Onobrakpor, BT Nghia and ND Chinh (2019) “Responding to adverse patient safety events in Viet Nam” BMC Health Services Research, vol. 19, pp. 677

Harrison R, A. Sharma, R. Lawton and K. Stewart (2019) “Is physician mentorship associated with the occurrence of adverse patient safety events?” Journal of Patient Safety, forthcoming

Lamichane, P, A. Sharma and A. Mahal (2017) Impact evaluation of free delivery care on maternal health service utilisation and neonatal health in Nepal, Health Policy and Planning, Forthcoming

Sharma, A, K. Sinha and B. Vandenberg (2017) Pricing as a Means of Controlling Alcohol Consumption, British Medical Bulletin, Forthcoming DOI: 10.1093/bmb/ldx020

Sharma, A, F. Etilé and K. Sinha (2016) The Effect of Introducing a Minimum Price on the Distribution of Alcohol Consumption: A Counterfactual Analysis, Health Economics, 25(9), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.3388

Etilé F and A. Sharma (2015) Do heavy consumers of sugar-sweetened beverages respond differently to price changes? A finite mixture IV Tobit approach, Health Economics 24(9), DOI: 10.1002/hec.3157 [Among top 15 articles (#12) of all articles tracked in Health economics based on Altmetric score as of July 2017]

Sharma, A., K. Hauck, B. Hollingsworth and L. Siciliani (2014) Response of different Income Groups to Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: A Censored Demand Approach Health Economics, 23(9), DOI: 10.1002/hec.3070 [Among top 10 articles (#8) of all articles tracked in Health economics based on Altmetric score as of July 2017]

Vandenberg B and A. Sharma (2015) Are alcohol taxation and pricing policies regressive? Product level effects of a specific tax and a minimum unit price for alcohol, Alcohol and Alcoholism, DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agv133

Sharma, A and B. Vandenberg and B. Hollingsworth (2014) Minimum Pricing of Alcohol versus Volumetric Taxation: Which Policy Will Reduce Heavy Consumption without Adversely Affecting Light and Moderate Consumers? PLoS ONE 9(1): e80936. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0080936 [Top 25% most cited article in the journal as of July 2017]

Sharma, A. , L. Siciliani and A. Harris (2013) Waiting times and socioeconomic status: does sample selection matter? Economic Modelling, 33

Sharma, A (2009) Inter-DRG Resource Dynamics in a Prospective Payment System: A Stochastic Kernel Approach. Health Care and Management Science, 12(1)

Sharma, A and Inder, B. (2011) The impact of co-located GP clinics and patient choice on duration of wait in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine Journal, 28(8)

Harris, A and A. Sharma (2010) Access Block and Overcrowding in Emergency Departments: An Empirical Analysis. Emergency Medicine Journal, 27(7).

Maitra, P, S. Pal and A. Sharma (2016) Misogyny or Rational Preferences of Households? An Analysis of Gender Gap in Private School Enrolment in India, World Development, 85

Jha, R, Gaiha, R and A. Sharma (2009) Calorie and Micronutrient Deprivation and Poverty Nutrition Traps in Rural India, World Development, 37(5).

Recent Teaching:

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

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

HDR Supervision:

PhD Main Supervisor: Six students (2 completed)

PhD Associate Supervisor: Two students (completed)

MSc. Health Economics Master's Thesis: Completed July 2013 Grade: First Class

Research in Media

Expert Opinion: Hospitals propped up by ‘broken bodies’ of workers, expert warns, as AMA calls for funding revamp (Canberra Times, October, 2021)

Whither female disadvantage? An analysis of private school enrolment in India (Ideas For India, October 2016)

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)