Finally, she has worked as a consultant for United Nations Development Program and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
[10] Much of Jayachandran's work is in development economics, including maternal and child health in Africa and South Asia.
[12] She estimates that fertility decline can explain one-third to one-half of the increase in the number of "missing women" in India.
[13] In work with Erica Field and Rohini Pande, she also finds evidence that patriarchic gender norms in India constrain female entrepreneurship, with Muslim women (the sociocultural group with the most restrictions) being unable to benefit from business training.
In a 2008 publication, she showed that massive forest fires in Indonesia caused air pollution that had adverse impacts on pregnant women and babies in poor communities, leading to more than 15,000 fetal and infant deaths.