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About
About
Prof Khan was the Chief Economist to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK.
Before joining the School of Public Policy, Professor Khan served as Research and Policy Director at the International Growth Centre at LSE and taught Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Professor Khan has spent more than 15 years in the policy world as a practitioner and policymaker, and more than 15 years in the research world as a researcher, teacher, and as a catalyser of research.
His areas of interest include geoeconomics, state capacity, political economy and public finance. He teaches courses on geoeconomics, public organisations, political economy, and development economics. His work focuses on designing, negotiating and operationalising policy reforms.
Research
- Building Trust in the State with Information: Evidence from Urban Punjab(with Andreas Stegmann, Warwick, Mahvish Shaukat, World Bank, and Sanval Nasim, LUMS). Working Paper. 2020.
- Political Connections and Vote Choice: Evidence from Pakistan (with Jacob Shapiro, Princeton, Michael Callen, LSE, Asad Liaqat, Facebook, Ali Cheema, LUMS, and Farooq Naseer, LUMS) Working Paper. 2019.
- Policy Decisions and Evidence Use among Civil Servants: A Group Decision Experiment in Pakistan(with Laura Metzger, HKS, and Theodore Svoronos, HKS). CID, STICERD Working Paper. 2020.
- Effect of Capacity in Delivery of Urban Services (with Gharad Bryan, LSE, Gerard Padro i Miquel, Yale, and Ali Cheema, LUMS). Working Paper. 2020.
- The Design of Social Protection Programs for the Ultra-Poor: Asset Transfers versus Unconditional Cash Transfers (with Oriana Bandiera, LSE, Robin Burgess, LSE, Orazio Attanasio, UCL, and Imran Rasul, UCL).
- Rebuilding the Social Compact: Urban Service Delivery and Property Taxes in Pakistan (with Benjamin Olken, MIT, Asim Khwaja, Harvard, and Mahvish Shaukat, MIT).
- Effect of Capacity in Delivery of Urban Services (with Gharad Bryan, LSE, Gerard Padro i Miquel, Yale, and Ali Cheema, LUMS). 2020.
- Judicial Access and Development: Evidence from Pakistan (with Daniel Chen, Toulouse, and Sultan Mehmood, New Economic School).
- Graduating out of Poverty: Testing the impact of Cash Transfers vs. Lump-sum Grants (with Benjamin Olken, MIT, and Rema Hanna, HKS).
- Transforming the Public Sector by Improving Bureaucratic Performance: Mission Match and Slack in Bangladesh (with Timothy Besley, LSE, and Dan Honig, John Hopkins)
- Institutional Reforms in Policing: Accountability, Organisational Culture and Social Norms (with Daron Acemoglu, MIT, Claudio Ferraz, UBC, and Zahra Mansoor, Oxford)
- Strengthening State Capacity and Enhancing Bureaucratic Effectiveness (with Zahra Mansoor, Oxford).
- Bureaucracy and Development (with Timothy Besley, LSE, Robin Burgess, LSE, and Guo Xu, Berkeley).
- Transforming the Public Sector by Improving Bureaucratic Performance: Mission Match and Slack in Bangladesh (with Timothy Besley, LSE, and Dan Honig, John Hopkins)
- Precision versus Proximity: Evidence from Survey Experiments with Civil Servants in India and Pakistan (with Michael Callen, LSE, Asim Khwaja, Harvard, and Asad Liaqat, Facebook).
- Graduating out of poverty: Testing the impact of Cash Transfers vs. Lump-sum Grants (with Benjamin Olken, MIT, and Rema Hanna, HKS).
- Technology Adoption and Mobile-phone based Agricultural Advice (with Shawn Cole, HBS).
- Evaluating the Take-up, Usage, and Impact of Mobile Money Accounts (with Greg Fischer, LSE, Joshua Blumenstock, Berkeley).
- Effect of Employment on Volunteering and Health Outcomes: Evidence from a Community Employment Project in Canada (with Steven Lehrer, Queens).
- Identifying the Impact of Decentralization (with Ali Cheema, LUMS, and Asim Khwaja, Harvard)
Teaching
- PP450: Public Organisations: Theory and Practice, School of Public Policy, LSE, 2020 –
- PP454E: Economic Development, EMPA/EMPP, School of Public Policy, LSE. 2019 –
- STICERD PhD Students Workshop: Working with policy actors, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2019-
Engagement and impact
- Co-chair, LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, International Growth Centre. Escaping the Fragility Trap (with Timothy Besley and Paul Collier), Final Report, April 2018, LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development.
- Targeting the Poor: Developing economies face special challenges in delivering social protection(with Rema Hanna, HKS, and Benjamin Olken, MIT), Finance and Development, December 2018, Vol. 55, No. 4, International Monetary Fund.
- Blog on Monkey Cage at Washington Post. 2017. "These 3 barriers make it hard for policymakers to use the evidence that development researchers produce".
- Rewarding bureaucrats: Can incentives Improve public sector performance? (with Oriana Bandiera and Julia Tobias) Growth Brief, International Growth Centre. 2017.
- Designing Incentive Structures in Bureaucracies: A case study for Civil Service Reform in Pakistan(with Asim Khwaja and Tiffany Simon). Essay for Princeton University Wilson Center’s forthcoming Volume on "Pakistan’s Institutions: We know they matter, but how can they work better?"
- Taxing to develop: When ‘third-best’ policies are optimal (with Henrik Kleven and Upaasna Kaul) Growth Brief, International Growth Centre 2016 (FT Blog in beyondbrics).
- Asset Transfer Program: One Year Impact Report(with Imran Rasul, UCL, Schanzah Khalid, CERP, and Shujaat Ali, CERP) PPAF-CERP, 2015.
- Tax in Developing Countries: Increasing Resources for Development (with Timothy Besley, LSE) Written Evidence for the International Development Select Committee, UK Parliament 2012.