Research Work 

Breaking the Cycle: The Effects of Child-Marriage Legislation on Child Marriages and the Next Generation’s Health

Child marriage is a significant global challenge as one among five girls marry in childhood. To overcome the persistent issue of child marriages, Sindh province of Pakistan enacted Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, which set the minimum legal age of marriage at 18 years. This study uses difference-in-difference technique and nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys data to empirically investigate the effect of this legislation on child marriages and child health outcomes. Findings of the study suggest that the legislation reduced the likelihood of child marriages by 13 percentage points and increased age at marriage by 1.3 years in Sindh province. Following the legislation, delay in marriages led to 3.2 percentage points decline in neonatal mortality, a significant outcome for a country facing the twin problem of child marriages and child mortality. Moreover, the legislation resulted in women empowerment particularly their agency in child health care decision, improved utilization of maternal health care, and child immunization.

Immunity Through Ages: The Role of Variolation in Shaping Use of Modern Vaccines

This study examines the persistent role of the historical practice of Variolation in influencing the use of modern vaccines in selected African countries. Variolation, a practice that saved thousands of lives worldwide, preceded Edward Jenner’s development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796. Drawing on ethnographic histories, early immunization records, and Demographic and Health Survey data, I hypothesize that communities with a documented history of Variolation demonstrate higher acceptance of modern vaccines. The empirical results show that Variolation has a significant positive effect on overall vaccination 5.4 percentage points, and the effect for specific vaccines is 5.1 percentage points for BCG, 3.2 percentage points for DPT and 7 percentage points for polio vaccination. Variolation is also associated with a significant reduction in child mortality 2.3 percentage points; however, the effect declines when modern vaccines are included in the model, suggesting that the influence of Variolation operates through modern vaccines. To account for potential biases and endogeneity, I use Instrumental Variable technique using the distance to historical trade routes as an instrument. IV estimation also reports a positive effect of Variolation on the use of modern vaccines. By analyzing the magnitude of the effect across different groups, I find that Variolation has higher effect on vaccination for children from Muslim identified households.

Public Health Insurance and Maternal–Child Health

This paper evaluates Sehat Sahulat Program, a publicly funded health insurance program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The study uses difference-in-differences estimation technique and repeated cross sectional data from multiple rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys data. Empirical results show that the program has positive impacts on skilled births, antenatal care visits, and access to private health care facilities. Moreover, the study provide evidence that the program has positive impact on child immunization, an unintended but positive outcome.

Climate Shocks and Child Marriages 

This project examines whether exposure to excessive rain, drought and heat stress pushes households toward early-marriage decisions as a coping mechanism. By combining high-resolution climate data with DHS marriage histories and with local and household socio-economic conditions, I show that adverse climate events increase the likelihood of child marriage, with larger effects where main source of income is agriculture and dowry burdens are high. This contributes to the literature on climate adaptation by highlighting human-capital consequences of environmental risk. [draft coming soon]

Colonial Administrative Systems and Human-Capital Formation 

This project studies whether colonial land-revenue regimes created persistent institutional legacies that shape modern educational outcomes in Pakistan. By exploiting boundary discontinuities in historical governance and linking them to current household indicators, I investigate channels through which colonial institutions affect public-goods provision and intergenerational mobility. This extends research on institutional persistence to a context with limited prior evidence. [work in progress]

Insurgency Exposure and Birth Spacing 

In this early-stage project, I examine how insurgent violence affects fertility timing by altering household stability and access to family planning. Linking geocoded DHS birth histories with high-frequency conflict-event data, I estimate how exposure to insurgency influences birth intervals. This work contributes to understanding the hidden demographic costs of insecurity and their implications for long-run development. 

Pre-Doctoral Work

Shah, S., Khan, I. H., & Mehboob, G. R. (2020). Catastrophic Health Expenditures and Its Socio-economic Consequences: A Case Study of Tehsil Utman Khel Tribal District, Bajaur. Pakistan Journal of Economic Studies (PJES), 3(1), 87–104. 

Mehboob, G., Hassan, A., & Shah, S. (2018). An Assessment of Community Intervention for Reduction of Waterborne Illnesses in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Journal of Development Policy Research and Practice (JoDPRP), 2(1), 106–119.