Stanford Scholar Saumitra Jha Named Falling Walls FinalistIndia-West News DeskPALO ALTO, CA – Saumitra Jha, an associate professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has been named a finalist for the 2026 Social Sciences & Humanities category of the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year for his work on “Breaking through the Ethnic Growth Trap.” He describes this dynamic as an “ethnic growth trap,” where political divisions and low investment reinforce each other over time, limiting development. A senior fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Jha also convenes Stanford’s Conflict and Polarization Lab, where he studies ways to reduce political violence and polarization. Much of Jha’s research focuses on South Asia, while also including comparative work on other regions undergoing political and economic transitions. He has published in leading journals in economics and political science and serves on editorial boards including the ‘American Political Science Review’ and the ‘Journal of Development Economics’.