I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh.  

I am also an affiliate of Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), IZA- Institute of Labor , Center for Governance and Markets, and Mahbub ul Haq Research Center

My Ph.D. is from the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of BusinessI use field experiments and policy experiments to study topics at the intersection of development economics, political economy, and behavioral economics. 



Email: yasir.khan@pitt.edu

Published and Accepted Articles:

(1) Mission Motivation and Public Sector Performance: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan,  Conditional Accept at the American Economic Review (2025)

(2) “Good Politicians”: Experimental Evidence on Motivations for Political Candidacy and Government Performance, with Saad Gulzar  , The Review of Economic Studies (2025)

(3) Personalities and Public Sector Performance: Experimental Evidence from Pakistanwith Michael Callen, Saad Gulzar, Ali Hasanain, and Arman Rezaee,  Economic Development and Cultural Change (2024), forthcoming

(4) The Political Economy of Public Employee Absence: Experimental Evidence from Pakistanwith Michael Callen, Saad Gulzar, Ali Hasanain, and Arman Rezaee, Journal of Public Economics (2023)

(5) No bulls: Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Veterinarian Ratings in Pakistanwith Ali Hasanain and Arman Rezaee,  Journal of Development Economics (2023)

(6) Using Preference Estimates to Customize Incentives: An Application to Polio Vaccination Drives in Pakistanwith James Andreoni, Michael Callen, Karrar Hussain, and Charlie Sprenger, Journal of the European Economic Association (2023) 

(7)  Data and Policy Decisions: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan , with Michael Callen, Saad Gulzar, Ali Hasanain, and Arman Rezaee, Journal of Development Economics (2020), volume 146

(8)  Improving Public Health Delivery in Punjab, Pakistan: Issues and Opportunities,  with Michael Callen, Saad Gulzar, Ali Hasanain, Abdul Rehman Khan, Zia Mehmood, The Lahore Journal of Economics, 18 : SE (September 2013): pp. 249–269

Working Papers:

(1)  Economic and Political Consequences of Credit Policy for Minorities: Evidence from India, with S. K. Ritadhi 

Work in Progress:

(1) Time Preferences and Dishonesty in the Public Sector, with Priyoma Mustafi & Dhwani Yagnaraman

 [baseline]

(2) Social Norms, Men’s Beliefs, and Women Voting, with Saad Gulzar [data cleaning]

(3)  Psychotherapy and Performance of Workers, with Prashant Bhandari [pilot in progress]

(4) "Hot Shots": Effect of Climate on Vaccinator Performance , with Karrar Hussain, Jiawei Lyu, and Gabe Tourek [prelim analysis in progress]

(5) Extending State Capacity with Technology: Interactive Mobile Support to Improve Consistency and Accuracy for Community Health Workers,  with Erica Field, Nicola Singletary, Laura Stilwell, & Kate Vyborny [pilot]

Monographs and Permanent Working Papers

(1) Learning in Public Schools, with Tahir Andrabi, Sohaib Khan and Farooq Naseer

(2) Norms, Beliefs, and Networks: Descriptive Findings on Women's Political Participation in Pakistan, with Saad Gulzar and Luke Sonnet