MAHA REHMAN

Maha's research is at the intersection of development, in particular health and climate change, and behavioral economics. She undertakes field experiments in partnership with governments and non-governmental organizations in South Asia to understand binding institutional, political and social constraints. She combines this knowledge with rigorous empirical analysis, and microeconomic theory to design and test solutions that inform policy.

She works closely with local research firms and universities and enjoys carefully collating unique and large datasets that are necessary to answer the questions at hand. 

She is currently enrolled as a PhD Student at Cornell University.  Previously, she has taught at LUMS, Economics Department and was formerly Director Policy, Mahbub-ul-Haq Research Centre at LUMS.

From 2020-2022, she actively engaged in multi-pronged analytical response to COVID in Pakistan tracking the disease incidence and economic indicators, predicting disease outbreak, assessing impact on income, unemployment and remittances and evaluating the efficacy of policies using various quantitative methods. 

Prior to that she setup an Evaluations Wing that was also focused on embedding data in the decisions and operations of private and public sector companies to increase efficiency, impact and profit. She has also led research experiments in the fields of education, public finance and governance. She combines her coursework in economics with her interest in entrepreneurship and is also a Pakistan Acumen Fellow, 2016. She has completed her masters level graduate studies in Economics from Duke University, USA and has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics from LUMS. 

She frequently writes for DAWN and other daily publications and blogs.  Her articles have appeared in Herald, DAWN.com, Indian express, Nepali Times, The Daily Star, World Bank: End Poverty in South Asia, Harvard's Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, IGC and IDEAS Policy Blogs.

Follow her on twitter at: https://twitter.com/MahaRehman1