Research

This picture was captured in one of Lahore's markets during the randomised control trial designed to increase mask uptake in urban areas.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

My research focuses on the dynamics of economic and social networks in developing countries, with an emphasis on how they shape industrial strategies and the delivery of public services during crises. By analysing micro-level interventions and their outcomes, I investigate the interplay between network structures, institutional efficiency, and economic impacts. I utilise experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation methodologies, alongside tools from empirical industrial organisation, to identify institutional constraints and misaligned incentives. By integrating these insights with rigorous empirical analysis and economic theory, I design and test solutions that address these challenges and inform effective policy-making.

Research Fields: Development, IO, Metrics.

PAPERS UNDER REVIEW and WORKING PAPERS

Industrial Reorganisation and Adaptive Distortions Post Disaster.

(Revise and Resubmit)

Increasing COVID Vaccine Uptake: A Randomised Control Trial in Lahore, Pakistan.

Rapid, efficient, and low-cost uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is essential to saving lives and livelihoods and bringing the global pandemic to a close. As supplies of COVID-19 vaccines increase, it is imperative for governments to find scalable ways to promote and support uptake of first and second vaccine doses amongst its citizens. Lahore has been the main urban centre driving COVID case count in Punjab, Pakistan. Less than 40% of its residents have received the first dose and it is in this context that Lahore District Administration has requested assistance in planning and delivering an efficient data-driven vaccination drive. In response to Lahore divisional administration’s request, this paper presents and tests a scalable model to vaccinate people en-masse in urban locations. The goal of the intervention is to create a social norm so that, during the vaccination drive, all or most residents receive COVID vaccination.

Timeline: June 2021 - November 2021

3. Increasing adoption of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions in Urban Settings: A Randomised Control Trial in Lahore, Pakistan with Mushfiq Mobarak.

(Submitted)

Lahore, a vibrant urban centre, home to 15 million residents, was driving a large percentage of COVID cases in Punjab and hence it was imperative that the transmission in Lahore was contained. Evidence established the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce transmission but most of the existing experimental and non-experimental literature was coming from rural South Asia. What group of interventions sustainably increase mask wearing in urban settings where mobility is high, influence of role models limited and networks are not spatial. In collaboration with Lahore Divisional Government, an innovative intervention was designed, seeking inspiration from rural trials conducted in Bangladesh (Abaluck et al., 2021 ), to increase mask wearing as the city awaited its vaccine supplies. The intervention, designed as a randomized control trial to increase mask wearing in markets and mosques in Lahore, registered a significant and sustained increase in mask wearing.

Timeline: June 2021 - September 2021

SELECTED NON-EXPERIMENTAL WORK IN PROGRESS

1. Public Goods Provision, Immunisation and Climate Change in the Indus Basin.

(Analysis ongoing)

SELECTED EXPERIMENTAL WORK IN PROGRESS

1. Increasing efficiency in electricity distribution companies by improving inventory control information flow: A Randomised Control Trial.

I am testing a series of interventions drawing on lessons from economics, psychology and management to improve efficiency in electricity distribution companies by improving information flow within the divisions and sub-divisions.

Pilot: June-July 2022

Scale-up (Planned): December 2024