Shanthi Nataraj is an economist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She serves as associate director of the RAND Arroyo Center Personnel, Training, and Health Program. Her research interests include economic development, labor markets, and environmental and resource economics.

In the area of economic development, she is currently co-leading two studies examining informal labor markets in Bangladesh. Her research also includes a study on fostering technological innovation and planning for the Guangzhou Development District in China; the calculation of Gross Regional Product for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq; ongoing analyses of the effects of India's trade liberalization, industrial licensing, and foreign direct investment (FDI) reforms on the productivity and growth of manufacturing firms; an examination of policies to encourage regional development in Indonesia; and an analysis of the impacts of labor regulations on employment in low-income countries. 

Nataraj's work on labor markets also extends to the United States, where she is leading a study on workforce talent management among Army civil service employees. She has developed projections of the future supply of Army and Department of Defense civilian personnel, studied how expectations about labor market conditions affect retention among Army officers, and examined the stay-or-leave decisions of mental health professionals in the military.

Nataraj received her Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley.