Dr. Rijo M John

 

Dr. Rijo John is a health economist with a PhD from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, and a post-doctoral fellowship from the University of California San Francisco. He consults for global institutions like WHO, World Bank, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Johns Hopkins University, and occasionally teaches at IIM Kozhikode. Formerly, he held academic positions at IIT Jodhpur, University of Illinois at Chicago, and American Cancer Society, Atlanta. Dr. John has published extensively in several international public health journals.

• PhD. (Development Studies): Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, 2006
• MA (Economics): Hyderabad Central University, 2001 (University 2nd Rank)
• BA (Economics): MG University, Kerala, 1999 (College Topper from Sacred heart college, Thevara)

• "Independent consultant (consultant to The World Bank, The World Health Organization, Campaign for Tobacco Free-kids, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Asian Development Bank) 2020- till date".
• Independent consultant (Guest faculty at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, consultant to World Health Organization, Campaign for Tobacco Free-kids, affiliating senior fellow at CPPR) 2017-2020
• Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India, 2013-2017
• Associate Professor & Associate Dean (Research), Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore, India, 2012
• Director, International Tobacco Control Research, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2009-2011
• Visiting Senior Research Scientist, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, USA, 2008-2009
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2006-2008
• Independent consultant (Guest faculty at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, consultant to World Health Organization, Campaign for Tobacco Free-kids) 2020- till date.

• Public health policy, global health, economics of non-communicable diseases, development studies, data science

• 2024    "Taxation of Sugar sweetened beverages in India" -- Funded by the World Health Organization
• 2023-24   "Health Taxes in India ". Funded by the World Bank"
• 2022    "Quantifying the Impoverishing effect of tobacco Consumption in India ". Funded by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Washington DC, USA. 2022
• 2022    "Technical assistance on using household expenditures surveys and research on the economics of tobacco control". Funded by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
• 2021    " Estimating the impact of tobacco, alcohol and sugary-sweetened beverage use on poverty in Timor Leste ". Funded by the World Health Organization, Geneva.
• 2021    "Support for research on tobacco control economics in India". Funded by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India.
• 2021    "Technical assistance on using household expenditures surveys and research on the economics of tobacco control". Funded by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
• 2021    "Technical assistance in conducting research on population demographics, and household incomes and expenditures in a defined set of countries". Funded by the Hana Ross, Economic Consultant, Cape Town, South Africa
• 2020    "Economic cost of secondhand smoking in India". Funded by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Washington DC, USA. 2020.
• 2020    "Study to assess the economy-wide impact of a reduction in tobacco use prevalence in India". Funded by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India.
• 2020    "Technical assistance on using household expenditures surveys". Funded by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
• 2019    "Impact of Increase in Tax on Prices and Consumption of Sugar-sweetened beverages in India". Funded by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India. 2019.
• 2019    "Trends in affordability to tobacco products and the impact of GST in India". Funded by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Washington DC, USA. 2019.
• 2018    "Treatment of Tobacco under GST and the Estimate of illicit trade in cigarettes in India". Funded by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Washington DC, USA. 2016-2018.
• 2018    "Development of a toolkit and technical assistance on using household expenditures surveys ". Funded by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
• 2018    "Study on trends in consumption, tax, price, and affordability of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in India". Funded by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India. 2018.
• 2018    "Report on Economic burden of tobacco-related diseases in India". Funded by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India. 2018.
• 2017    "Study on the economic burden of tobacco-related diseases in India, 2017". Funded by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India. 2017.
• 2017    "Workshop on health and economic impact evaluation for the Philippines Department of Health". Funded by Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative through Vital Strategies, New York, USA. 2017.
• 2017    "Workshop on the economics of harmful products for the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health". Funded by Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative through the Vital Strategies, New York, USA. 2017.
• 2013    "Health-Cost Study to estimate the economic burden of tobacco-related disease at national and sub-national levels in India". Funded by the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi through the project grant received from the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India. 2012-2013.
• 2007    "Economics of Tobacco Taxation in India" jointly with Frank Chaloupka, Professor of     Economics, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, and Prabhat Jha,   Professor of Epidemiology, University of Toronto, Canada. Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies (2008-2010).

• Rijo M. John, Badri Narayanan, Sumathi Chakravarthy, Sindhu Bharathi, Praveen Sinha, Vineet Gill Munish, and Mark Goodchild. “Economy-Wide Impact of a Reduction in Tobacco Use in India.” Tobacco Control, September 27, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2023-058471
• Rijo M John & Estelle Dauchy, "A Quantitative Exploration of the Influence of Tobacco Use on Poverty in India", Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae129 
• Rijo M. John "Tobacco taxation pre and post GST: Unrealized potential for Public Health and Government revenue", Health For the Millions, 2024 Vol. 49(2), Pp 41-43
• Guindon GE, Abbas U, Trivedi R, Garasia S, Johnson S, Rijo M John, "Socioeconomic differences in the impact of prices and taxes on tobacco use in low- and middle-income countries– A systematic review". PLOS Glob Public Health, 2023 Vol. 3(9): e0002342. 
• Estelle Dauchy & Rijo M John, "The Effect of Price and Tax Policies on the Decision to Smoke or Use Smokeless Tobacco in India", Prevention Science, 2022 Vol 23, Pp 1101-1114
• Sharma N, Nazar GP, Chugh A, Chopra M, Mdege ND, Rijo M. John, Arora M, Karan A, "Socio-Economic Status Differences in Changing Affordability of Tobacco Products from 2011-2012 to 2018-2019 in India.", Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2022 Vol. 25 (4), Pp 709-717
• Rijo M John & Estelle Dauchy, " Healthcare costs attributable to secondhand smoke exposure among Indian adults ", Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2022 Vol 24, Pp 1478-86 https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntac048
• Rijo M John, Fikru T. Tullu, Rachita Gupta. Price elasticity and affordability of aerated or sugar-sweetened beverages in India: implications for taxation", BMC Public Health 2022 Vol 22 (1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13736-2
• Estelle Dauchy & Rijo M John, "The Effect of Price and Tax Policies on the Decision to Smoke or Use Smokeless Tobacco in India", Prevention Science, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01360-w
• Rijo M John, Praveen Kumar, Vineet M, Fikru T. Tullu. "Economic Costs of Diseases and Deaths Attributable to Tobacco use in India, 2017", Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaa154 
• Rijo M John, Estelle Dauchy, "Trends in affordability of tobacco products before and after the transition to GST in India ", BMJ Tobacco Control, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055525  
• Rijo M John, Estelle Dauchy, Mark Goodchild, "Estimated impact of the GST on tobacco products in India", BMJ Tobacco Control, 2019 Vol 28 (5), PP 506-512. https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054479
• Rijo M John "Economic costs of bidis smoking in India, 2018", BMJ Tobacco Control, 2019 Vol 28 (5), PP 513-518 https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054493
• Rijo M John, Hana Ross, "Sales of Illicit Cigarettes in India: Findings from a Retail Survey”. BMJ Tobacco Control, Vol. 27(6) pp 684-688 https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-053999  
• Veeranki SP, Rijo M John, Abdallah Ibrahim, Divya Pillendla, James F. Thrasher, Daniel Owusu, Ahmed E. O. Ouma, Hadii M. Mamudu. "Age of smoking initiation among adolescents in Africa”, International Journal of Public Health, 2016 Vol. 62 (1) Pp 63-72 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0888-7
• Daniel Owusu, Hadii M. Mamudu, Rijo M John, Abdallah Ibrahim, Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma, Veeranki SP. "Never-smoking adolescents' exposure to secondhand smoke in Africa”, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2016 Vol. 51 (6) Pp 983-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.08.040
• Hadii M. Mamudu, Sreenivas P. Veeranki, Rijo M John, Kioko D., Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma. "Secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmoking adolescents in West Africa", American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 105(9) Pp 1823-1830, 2015 https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2015.302661
• Hadii M. Mamudu, Rijo M John, SP. Veeranki, AE Ogwell. “The odd man out in Sub-Saharan Africa: Understanding the tobacco use behavior in Madagascar”, BMC Public Health, Vol.13. No.1, P 856-66, 2013 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-856
• Rijo M John, Hadii M. Mamudu, Alex Liber “Socioeconomic implications of tobacco use in Ghana”, Nicotine and Tobacco Research, Vol.14. No.10, Pp 1205-12, 2012 https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/nts013
• Rijo M John, Hana Ross, Evan Blecher “Tobacco expenditures and its implications for household resource allocation in Cambodia”, BMJ Tobacco Control, Vol. 21 Pp 341-46, 2012 https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.042598
• Rijo M John, Hai-Yen Sung, Wendy Max, Hana Ross, “Counting 15 Million More Poor in India, Thanks to Tobacco”, BMJ Tobacco Control, Vol. 20, No. 5, Pp 349-352, Aug 2011 https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.040089
• Rijo M John, “Price Elasticity Estimates for Tobacco Products in India” Health Policy    and Planning, Vol. 23 No. 3, Pp 200-9, 2008 https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czn007
• Rijo M John, “Crowding-out Effect of Tobacco Expenditure and Its Implications on Household Resource Allocation in India” Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 66 (6), Pp 1356-67, 2008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.020
• Rijo M John and Rohit Mutatkar, “Statewise Estimates of Poverty among Religious Groups In India”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40 No.13, Pp 1337-44, 2005 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4416399
• Rijo M John, "Tobacco Consumption Patterns and Its Health Implications in India". Health Policy, Vol. 71 No.2, Pp 213-222, 2005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2004.08.008
• Selected other Peer-Reviewed Publications
• Rijo M John, Grieve Chelwa, Violeta Vulovic, Frank Chaloupka. “A Toolkit on Using Household Expenditure Surveys for Economics of Tobacco Control Research”, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2019. https://tobacconomics.org/research/a-toolkit-on-using-household-expenditure-surveys-for-research-in-the-economics-of-tobacco-control/
• Rijo M John, R. Kavitha Rao, M. Govinda Rao et al. “The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxation in India” Paris: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, 2010. https://goo.gl/Q9v7AX
• Burki SJ, Pasha AG, Pasha HA, Rijo M John, Jha P, Baloch AA, Kamboh GN, Cherukupalli      R, Chaloupka FJ. “The Economics of Tobacco and       Tobacco Taxation in Pakistan” Paris: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, 2013. https://goo.gl/o2jgDs
• Rijo M John, Rout S K, Kumar B R, Arora M. Economic Burden of Tobacco Related Diseases in India. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. New Delhi. 2014 May. http://mohfw.gov.in/node/3236
• Rijo M John, Hana Ross “The Global Economic Cost of Cancer”, 2010 http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@internationalaffairs/documents/document/acspc-026203.pdf

Books/Books chapters

• Hana Ross and Rijo M. John. “Excise Tax Policy and Cigarette Use in High-Burden Asian Countries”, Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2023. https://www.adb.org/publications/excise-tax-policy-cigarette-use-asian-countries
• Rijo M John, Grieve Chelwa, Violeta Vulovic, Frank Chaloupka. “Updated Toolkit on Using Household Expenditure Surveys for Research in the Economics of Tobacco Control”, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2023. https://www.tobacconomics.org/research/updated-toolkit-on-using-household-expenditure-surveys-for-research-in-the-economics-of-tobacco-control/
• Rijo M John, Mark Goodchild, Sarit K. Rout, "Economics of Tobacco Control in India" in Swasticharan L, Arora M, Sinha P, Ray CS, Munish VG and Shrivastav R, Editors.  “Report on Tobacco Control in India 2022 (Vol 2).” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. https://t.co/lL6yCAcBdw
• 2019    Rijo M John, Grieve Chelwa, Violeta Vulovic, Frank Chaloupka. “A Toolkit on Using Household Expenditure Surveys for Economics of Tobacco Control Research”, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2019.
• 2017    Rijo M John, Amit Yadav “Price and tax measures on SLT” Chapter 2.1, Pp 11-28 in Mehrotra R, Sinha DN, Szilagyi T. Global smokeless tobacco control policies and their implementation, WHO FCTC Global Knowledge Hub on Smokeless Tobacco, ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida, India, 2017.
• 2016    Rijo M John. “Economics of Tobacco Control” Chapter 13, Pp 143-154 in Sonu Goyal, Sitanshu Sekhar Kar, Rana J Sing, eds., “Tobacco Control-A Module for Public Health Professionals”. PGIMER, 2016.
• 2015    Rijo M John, Rout S K, Kumar B R, Arora M. Economic Burden of Tobacco Related Diseases in India. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. New Delhi. 2014 May. http://mohfw.gov.in/node/3236
• 2013    Burki SJ, Pasha AG, Pasha HA, Rijo M John, Jha P, Baloch AA, Kamboh GN, Cherukupalli      R, Chaloupka FJ. “The Economics of Tobacco and   Tobacco Taxation in Pakistan” Paris: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, 2013. https://goo.gl/o2jgDs    
• 2010    Rijo M John, R. Kavitha Rao, M. Govinda Rao et al. “The Economics of Tobacco and    Tobacco Taxation in India” Paris: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung           Diseases, 2010. https://goo.gl/Q9v7AX
• 2010    Rijo M John, Hana Ross “The Global Economic Cost of Cancer”, 2010             http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@internationalaffairs/documents/document/acs pc-026203.pdf

 

• 2021    5th National Conference on Tobacco or Health (virtual), PGIMER, Chandigarh, India, September 25-27, 2021. Papers presented “Current status and impact of tobacco taxation in India” AND “Economic Burden of Tobacco-Related Disease in India, 2017-18”
• 2021    International Conference on Tobacco control and smoking cessation: Evidence to action (virtual), Indian Society of Clinical Oncology, Chandigarh, India, August 20-21, 2021. Paper presented “Estimating the economic burden of tobacco use: a case study from India”
• 2020    Virtual conference on "Current status of Covid-19 Research and Epidemiology", Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Developmental Studies (RGIDS), Trivandrum, India, November 19-21, 2020. Paper presented “COVID19 Testing in India: Has India done it right?”
• 2019    International Meeting on “Tobacco Advertisement Promotion and Sponsorship: Ban for Smokeless Tobacco. WHO-FCTC secretariat’s global knowledge hub on smokeless tobacco at National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India, November 6-7, 2019. Paper presented “Health burden and economics of smokeless tobacco products”.
• 2019    "National Workshop for capacity building of Law enforcers under National Tobacco Control Programme”. World Health Organization, New Delhi, India, October 14, 2019.
• The 12th Vietnam Economists Annual Meeting, Dalat, Vietnam, June 17-18, 2019. Paper presented “Economic burden of bidi smoking attributable diseases in India”
• Twelfth Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, Bali, Indonesia, September 13-16, 2018. Two papers presented “Economic burden of bidi smoking attributable diseases in India, 2017” AND "Goods and Service Tax Reform and Estimated Impact on Tobacco Products in India".
• Applied STATA Course, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 14-16 2018. Lecture and hands-on training on “Price Elasticity Estimation Using Household Expenditure Data”
• Applied STATA Course, Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia, June 27-28 2018. Lecture and hands-on training on “Price Elasticity Estimation Using Household Expenditure Data”
• The 11th Vietnam Economists Annual Meeting, Hanoi, Vietnam, June 11-12, 2018. Paper presented “Consumption of Illicit Cigarettes in India: Findings from a Retail Survey”
• Seventeenth World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Cape Town, South Africa, March 7-10, 2018. Two papers presented “Consumption of Illicit Cigarettes in India: Findings from a Retail Survey” AND "Goods and Service Tax Reform and Estimated Impact on Tobacco Products in India".
• "Workshop on health and economic impact evaluation”. Department of Health, Philippines and Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative organized by Vital Strategies. Cebu, Philippines, July 2-6, 2017
• "National Consultation on Accelerating Implementation of WHO FCTC for achievement of SDGs". World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, New Delhi, June 8-9, 2017. Paper presented “Tobacco Taxation in India and GST”.
• "Workshop on economics of harmful products”. Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka and Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative organized by Vital Strategies. Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 14-19, 2017
• "South Asia Tobacco Control Leadership Program". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) and the Ministry of Health, Nepal, Kathmandu, May 7-13, 2017. Paper presented “Do we need a dedicated fund for tobacco control?”
• "Informal Consultation on Emerging Research on the Economics of Tobacco Control”, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, August 27-28, 2015
• "Expert Group Consultation on alternative livelihood for tobacco farmers and workers”, World Health Organization, South-East Asia Regional Office, New Delhi, July 30-31, 2015
• "National Consultation on Illicit Trade in Tobacco". World Health  Organization and the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, New Delhi, India, May 29, 2015
• "Expert Group Consultation on Studying Alcohol Pricing and Taxation Policies in India". Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India, April 9-10, 2015
• Fifteenth World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Singapore, March 20-24, 2012. Paper presented “Socioeconomic implications of tobacco use in Ghana”
• International Smokeless Tobacco Meeting, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA, December 8-9, 2010
• Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, Sydney, Australia, Oct 6-9, 2010. Paper presented “Counting 15 Million More Poor in India, Thanks to Tobacco”
• UICC World Cancer Congress, Shenzhen, China, Aug 18-21, 2010. Paper presented “Global Economic Loss from Cancers”
• Annual Meeting, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Chicago, IL, USA, June 4-8, 2010. Poster presented “Global Economic Loss from Cancer”
• 136th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, San Diego, CA, USA, Oct 25-29, 2008. Paper presented “Economic Cost of Tobacco use in India, 2004”
• “Boston-India Symposium: Essential Interfaces in Public Health” jointly organized by Global Health Initiative at Boston University, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology, and Tufts University at Boston, MA, USA, October 22-23, 2007. Paper presented “Economic Cost of Tobacco use in India, 2004”
• Thirteenth World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Washington DC, USA, July 12-15, 2006. Paper presented “Price Elasticity Estimates for Tobacco in India”
• “Sixty seventh annual meeting of the “Health Economists’ Study Group” (HESG), University of Newcastle, Upon Tyne, UK, June 29-July 1, 2005. Paper presented: “Price elasticity Estimates for Tobacco and Other Addictive Goods in India”

• “Best Young Scholar Award 2008” sponsored by World Health Organization & International Society of Addiction Journal Editors
• Postdoctoral Fellowship by UCSF during 2006-2008

• Member, Tobacco Policy Research Program, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA. http://www.etsu.edu/cph/hsmp/tobaccopolicy/faculty-staff/default.php
• Full time work experience at University of Illinois at Chicago, USA and American Cancer Society, Atlanta, USA
• Post-doctoral research experience at University of California San Francisco, USA
• Been part of different academic engagements in more than 20 countries