Seema Jayachandran's research focuses on economic issues in developing countries. Her work examines children's health and education; environmental conservation; gender equality; labor markets; and political economy. She is a recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Early Career Development grant. She is a co-editor for the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. She also serves as a board member and chair of the Gender Sector for the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and as co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's development economics program. She received her PhD in economics from Harvard University in 2004, and also holds a master's degree in physics and philosophy from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT.

Seema Jayachandran joined IZA as a Research Fellow in July 2018.