Hamna Ahmed
Hamna is a Senior Research Fellow at CREB and Assistant Professor at the Lahore School of Economics. Her research focuses on the behavior of individuals and small groups in low-income settings. Her research interests are in the areas of behavioural economics, gender, education, and performance of non-state institutions. She studies constraints faced by young women from low-income households in entering the workforce, and their labor market decisions when exposed to positive role models. In other work, she studies the demand for health microinsurance and telehealth services among female microfinance borrowers, the constraints they face in take-up and the effect of such programs on their physical and mental health outcomes. In a nationwide study, Hamna is testing the effect of systematic self-reporting and non-financial incentives on the performance of community-based, non-state institutions. In follow-up work to this study, she focuses on understanding how donor organizations respond to bottom-up information on the efficiency of non-state institutions. Hamna is co-PI on several collaborative projects with local and international researchers from the Lahore School of Economics, Oxford, Duke and Exeter. Her research has been supported by several international competitive grants such as the GLM, PEDL, NSF and the IGC.
Learning Losses from COVID-19 in collaboration with The Citizen’s Foundation (with IjazBajwa,Sadia Hussain and Kate Vyborny)
The unintended consequences of accountability: Quasi-experimental evidence from policing in Pakistan (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny)
Leveraging technology to promote women's health and bargaining power: Evidence from a pilot program (with Sadia Hussain and Muhammad Ahmed Nazif)
Overcoming Constraints to Female Labor Force Entry: Do role model interventions work? (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee)
Institutional Capacity as an Organizational Challenge: A Field Experiment in Pakistan (with Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny). RAs: Ahsan Ansari, Salman Khalid, Saheem Khizer, Shahmir-ul-Haq, Abbas Raza and Yushma Umar
Incentivizing NGOs: A Field Experiment in Pakistan (with Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny). RAs: Ahsan Ansari, Salman Khalid, SaheemKhizer, Shahmir-ul-Haq, Abbas Raza and Yushma Umar
Working Papers
Leveraging technology to promote women's health: Evidence from a pilot program (with Sadia Hussain and Muhammad Ahmed Nazif) GLO Discussion Paper No. 939 (2021)
Student Experiences and Outcomes during COVID-19 (with IjazBajwa, Sadia Hussainand Kate Vyborny) Insights for TCF, 2021
Determinants of School Choice: Evidence from Rural Punjab, Pakistan (with Masooma Habib, Syed Ahsan Shah and Sahar Amjad Sheikh), CREB Working Paper, No. 01-13, 2013
Journal Articles
Distance and health facility choice: Evidence from a health micro insurance program in Punjab, Pakistan ( with Dareen Latif ),The International Journal of Health Planning and Management , 2022
Encouraging Female Graduates to Enter the Labor Force: Evidence from a Role Model Intervention in Pakistan (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Tirmazee), Economic Development and Cultural Change , 2022
The Role of Bundling in promoting Sustainability of Health Insurance: Evidence from Pakistan (with Sadia Hussain),Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Volume 44-5, 2019
Determinants of School Choice: Evidence from Rural Punjab, Pakistan (with Sahar Amjad Sheikh),The Lahore Journal of Economics, 19(1), pp.1-30, 2014
Patterns of Export Diversification, Evidence from Pakistan (with Naved Hamid),The Lahore Journal of Economics, SE Vol. 19, 307-326, 2014
The Impact of Public School Enrolment on Child Labour in Punjab, Pakistan Lahore Journal of Economics, Vol. 17:2, pp.1-34, 2012
Determinants of Export Performance in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis: Evidence from South Asia (with Farah Said), Pakistan Development Review, Special Edition 57 (4), 2012
What Determines Innovation in the Manufacturing Sector? Evidence from Pakistan (with Mahreen Mahmud),Pakistan Development Review, Special Edition 53 (4), 2011
Financing Constraints; Determinants and Implications for Firm Growth in Pakistan (with Naved Hamid), The Lahore Journal of Economics, Vol. 16, 2011
Capital Flows and Real Exchange Rate Overvaluation -A Chronic Ailment: Evidence from Pakistan, The Lahore Journal of Economics, Volume 14, Special Edition, pp.51-86, 2009 Book Chapters Exports: Lessons from the Past and the Way Forward (with Naved Hamid and Mahreen Mahmud), Rashid Amjad and Shahid Javed Burki (Eds.),Pakistan: Moving the Economy Forward, Cambridge University Press, 2015 Private Schooling: Determinants and Implications for Social Justice in Rural Punjab, Pakistan (with Masooma Habib and Sahar Amjad Sheikh), I. Macpherson, S. Robertson, & G. Walford (Eds.), Education, Privatisation and Social Justice: Case studies from Africa, South Asia and South East Asia, 2014 Other Publications COVID-19 and well-being of female borrowers in Lahore, Pakistan (with Sadia Hussain and Muhammad Ahmed Nazif), CREB Policy Brief, No. 03-20, 2020 Undergraduate Female Students in Lahore: Perceived Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), CREB Policy Paper, No. 01-20, 2020 COVID-19 and urban households in Lahore, Pakistan (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee),CREB Policy Brief, No. 01-20, 2020 Utilization of Health Microinsurance: Evidence from Focus Group Discussions (with Sadia Hussain and Muhammad Ahmed Nazif), CREB Policy Paper, No. 02-19, 2019 Utilization of Health Microinsurance in Punjab: Insights from Administrative Data (with Sadia Hussain), CREB Policy Paper, No. 01-19, 2019 Disability: Inclusion of People with Disability in Pakistan's Third Tier Organisations (TTOs) (with Asha Gul, Muhammad Salman Khalid, Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Research Brief, 2019 Group decision-making: Evidence from a framed field experiment with community organisations in Pakistan, CSAE Conference Proceedings, 2018 Rainfall shocks and child health in rural Pakistan, CSAE Conference Proceedings, 2017 Funding and activities of Third Tier Organizations (TTOs) in Pakistan(with Asha Gul, Saheem Khizer, Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny),Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Research Brief, 2017 Rainfall shocks and children’s well-being in India, CSAE Conference Proceedings, 2016 Third Tier Organizations (TTOs) and their Partner Organizations (with Asha Gul, Saheem Khizer, Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Research Brief, 2016 Women’s inclusion in Pakistan’s Third Tier Organizations (TTOs) (with Asha Gul, Saheem Khizer, Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Research Brief, 2015 A Strategy for Reversing Pakistan’s Dismal Export Performance (with Naved Hamid, Mahreen Mahmud and Talal ur Rahim), CREB Policy Paper, No. 01-10, 2010
The unintended consequences of accountability: Quasi-experimental evidence from policing in Pakistan (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny), Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) Conference, 2022
Political Influences on Police Responses to Crime (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny), ISI Dehli Conference, 2021
Political Influences on Police Responses to Crime (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny), Third International Conference on Applied Development Economics, 2021
Political Influences on Police Responses to Crime (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny), NOVAFRICA Webinar Series on Economic Development, 2021
Political Influences on Police Responses to Crime (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny), Workshop on the Political Economy of South Asia (WPESA), 2021
Undergraduate Female Students in Lahore: Perceived Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), GIGA Lunch Time Seminar, University of Hamburg, 2021
Undergraduate Female Students in Lahore: Perceived Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), Ahmedabad University's 2nd Annual Economics Conference: Economics in Challenging Times, 2021
Learning Loss during COVID-19: Evidence from Pakistan (with Ijaz Bajwa, Sadia Hussain and Kate Vyborny) Lahore School/LUMS/Duke DevLab Joint Workshop, 2020
Encouraging Female Graduates to Enter the Labour Force: Do Role Model Interventions Work? (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), Lahore School/LUMS/Duke DevLab Joint Workshop, 2020
Political Influences on Police Responses to Crime (with Dareen Latif and Kate Vyborny), Lahore School/LUMS/Duke DevLab Joint Workshop, 2020
Aid to NGOS: Evidence from a donor rule change in Pakistan (with Kate Vyborny), Applied Development Economics Seminar Series, 2020
Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation in Pakistan (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), Seminar at Govt. Allama Iqbal College, Sialkot, 2020
Undergraduate Female Students in Lahore: Perceived Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), GLM-IZA Conference on “Labor Markets in South Asia: Evidence and Policy Lessons”, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2019
Undergraduate Female Students in Lahore: Perceived Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), Second International Conference on Applied Development Economics, Lahore School of Economics, 2019
Group decision-making: Evidence from a framed field experiment with community organisations in Pakistan, IPS/Monash University conference on Economic Development, 2019
The Role of Bundling in promoting Sustainability of Health Insurance: Evidence from Pakistan (with Sadia Hussain and Muhammad Ahmed Nazif) Gender and Health Microinsurance: Research Prospects and Challenges, Lahore School of Economics, 2019
Nudging policy makers for greater transparency and accountability, Symposium on Behavioral Economics in Policy Making, Lahore School of Economics and B4Development, 2019
Institutional Capacity as an organizational challenge: Pilot Results from a Field Experiment in Pakistan (with Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny), Advances with Field Experiments, Boston University, 2018
Overcoming constraints to female labour force entry (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), IZA/DFID Conference on New Research on Labour Markets in Low Income Countries, 2018
Institutional Capacity as an organizational challenge: Pilot Results from a Field Experiment in Pakistan (with Simon Quinn and Kate Vyborny), First International Conference on Applied Development Economics, Lahore School of Economics, 2018
Group decision-making: Evidence from a framed field experiment with community organisations in Pakistan, Centre for the study of African Economies Conference, 2018
Constraints to Female Labour Force Participation in Pakistan (with Mahreen Mahmud, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee), Empirical Study of Gender (EGEN), Lahore, 2018
Rainfall shocks and child health in rural Pakistan, Centre for the study of African Economies Conference, 2017
Group decision-making: Evidence from a framed field experiment with community organisations in Pakistan, CIREQ Ph.D. Students’ Conference, McGill University, 2016
Rainfall shocks and children’s well-being in India, Centre for the study of African Economies Conference, 2016
Co-convener (with Maryiam Haroon, Farah Said and Zunia Saif Tirmazee) Applied Development Economics Conference, Lahore School of Economics, 2021
Conducted skills training workshop on Impact Evaluation Toolkit (with Hijab Waheed), Lahore School of Economics, 2021
Co-convener (with Maryiam Haroon and Farah Said) Applied Development Economics Conference, Lahore School of Economics, 2018, 2019, 2020
CERP-CLEAR Evidence Based Program Design Workshop (with Farah Said and Anam Shoaib), 2020
Shared knowledge and experience in the field on Behavioral Economics in Policy Making (with Fadi Makki and Farah Said), National School of Public Policy, Lahore, 2020
Share knowledge and experience in the field (with Farah Said), Behavioral Economics in Policy Making, National School of Public Policy, Lahore, 2019