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Faculty


Dr. Hamna Ahmed

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics & Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)
Research Interests

Development economics (with an emphasis on health, community-led development and gender issues)

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching Introduction to Macroeconomics (Spring 2015, 2013, 2012)
Introduction to Microeconomics (Winter 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012)
Pakistan Economy (Summer 2013, 2012, 2015)
Development Economics (Summer 2009)
International Economics (Winter 2009)
Graduate Teaching Econometrics II (Winter 2017)
Macroeconomic Topics in Economic Development, (Spring 2012, 2013)

Publications

Journal Articles "Determinants of School Choice, Evidence from Punjab, Pakistan" (with Sahar Amjad) (2014) Lahore Journal of Economics, Volume 19-1. (2014).
"Patterns of Export Diversification, Evidence from Pakistan" (with Naved Hamid) (2014). Lahore Journal of Economics SE Vol. 19, 307-326.
"The Impact of Schooling on Child Labor in Punjab, Pakistan" (2012) Lahore Journal of Economics, Vol 17-2.
"Determinants of Export Performance in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis- Evidence from South Asia" (with Farah Said) (2012) Pakistan Development Review, Vol. 54, No. 4.
"What Determines Innovation in the Manufacturing Sector? Evidence from Pakistan" (with Mahreen Mahmud) (2011) Pakistan Development Review, Vol. 53, No. 4.
"Financial Constraints; Determinants and Implications for Firm Growth in Pakistan" (with Naved Hamid) (2011) Lahore Journal of Economics, Vol. 16.
"Capital Flows and Real Exchange Rate Overvaluation -A Chronic Ailment: Evidence from Pakistan" (2009) Lahore Journal of Economics, Volume 14.

Book Chapters

"Exports: Lessons from the Past and the way forward", (with Naved Hamid and Mahreen Mahmud) (2013) Pakistan: Moving the Economy forward.
"Private Schooling: Determinants and Implications for Social Justice in Rural Punjab, Pakistan" (with Sahar Amjad and Masooma Habib) (2013). Education, Privatisation and Social Justice: Case studies from Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.

Work in Progress

"Incentivizing NGOs: A Field Experiment in Pakistan" (with Simon Quinn, Kate Vyborny, Naved Hamid and Asha Gul)
"Governance information and giving in Non-Profit Organizations: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in Pakistan" (with Kate Vyborny and Rashid Imtiaz)

Ongoing Research

1. Institutional capacity as an organizational challenge: a field experiment in Pakistan: (with Simon Quinn, Kate Vyborny and Asha Gul). This project involves a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) that aims to test whether community organizations can be incentivized to improve their performance through (i) Systematic self-assessment and reporting of defined key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and (ii) a transparent non-financial rewards scheme based on these KPIs. In addition, we study how each part of a large, complex organization (the donor) responds to new information on performance (of recipient organizations) on KPIs. Expected publications from this project:


  • Study on RCT results (expected in 2020)
  • Study based on a Regression Discontinuity Design: The aim of this study will be to test whether community organizations that support the winning politicians able to mobilize more resources and funding for their communities relative to organizations that were supporting the runner up politicians. (expected in 2020)
  • Group decision making: evidence from a framed field experiment in rural Pakistan. The objective of this paper is to understand the process of collective decision-making within community development organizations in rural Pakistan. We investigate how individual preferences of members running community organizations aggregate into group preferences and we study the role of intrinsic characteristics in determining whether member's individual preferences are represented or ignored in-group preferences. (expected in 2019).

2. The impact of bundling health microinsurance with microcredit: Evidence from Punjab, Pakistan


  • (with Sadia Hussain and Naveed) A policy report that explores and analyses the main trends in utilization of the program since its inception (expected April 2018).
  • (with Sadia Hussain) An academic paper that employs a Diff-in-Diff design to study the causal impact of bundling health microinsurance with microcredit on utilization of health facilities and client retention. (to be sent out to Geneva Papers on risk and insurance by June 2018).

3. Rainfall Shocks and child health:


  • Rainfall Shocks and Children's Well-being in India (expected 2018)
  • Rainfall Shocks and Child Health in Rural Pakistan (expected 2019)

4. Overcoming constraints to giving (with Kate Vyborny and Sadia Hussain). In this study we propose a lab experiment to test


  • how potential donors respond to additional information; and
  • whether their response to additional information varies if charitable giving is framed religiously or if giving decisions are made public. We study the impact of information on three aspects of donor behaviour: their perceptions about quality of recipient organizations, choice of organizations to donate to, and amount of donations. (expected in 2019)

5. Overcoming constraints to female labor force entry (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Tirmazee). We propose a randomised controlled trial to test the impact of two low-cost interventions to overcome psychological and information constraints to female labor force participation (FLFP). In particular, our research questions are, does (i) motivating female students and (ii) providing information about searching and applying for jobs, promote female labor force entry. We have recently received funding from PEDL for this study. (expected 2019)

Presentations

"Group Decision-Making: Evidence from a Framed Field Experiment with Community Organizations in Rural Pakistan" Twelfth CIREQ Ph.D. Students' Conference, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, May 2016.
"Group Decision-Making: Evidence from a Framed Field Experiment with Community Organizations in Rural Pakistan" Research Seminar, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, March 2016.
"Rainfall Shocks and Children's Well-being in India." Centre for the Study of African Economies Conference, Oxford, UK, March 2016.
"Rainfall Shocks and Child Health in Rural Pakistan" Research Seminar, Lahore School of Economics, Lahore, Pakistan, December 2015
"Rainfall Shocks and Children's Well-being in India." Research Seminar, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, November 2014
"Time and Risk Preferences of Managers: Evidence from Community Organizations in Pakistan" University of Heidelberg, Germany, April 2014.
"Incentivising development: Evidence from a field experiment with NGOs in Pakistan" CSAE Research Seminar, Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford, UK, October 2013.
"Determinants of School Choice, Evidence from Punjab, Pakistan". Privatization in Education Research Initiative (PERI) regional conference, Kathmandu, Nepal, August 2012.
"What Determines Innovation in the Manufacturing Sector? Evidence from Pakistan" 27th Annual General Meeting of the Pakistan Society of Development Economics (PSDE), Islamabad, Pakistan, December 2011.
"The Impact of Schooling on Child Labor in Punjab, Pakistan" 11th Conference of the UK Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET), Oxford University, UK, September 2011.
"Financial Constraints; Determinants and Implications for Firm Growth in Pakistan" 7th Annual Conference of Lahore School of Economics, Lahore, Pakistan, April 2011.

Degrees :
PhD in Economics, University of Kent, UK
M.Sc. Economics, Warwick University, UK
B.Sc. (Hons) in Economics, LUMS, Pakistan

Email : hamnaa@gmail.com
Tel : +92-423-656-1230
Office : CREB

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