Agha Ali Akram is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. He received his Doctorate in Environmental Economics (2014) and Masters in Environmental Management (2008) from Yale University. Prior to joining LUMS, he was a Visiting Fellow at Yale University (2016-2017) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Evidence Action (2014 - 2016), where his research delved into the impact of seasonal income support programs on mitigating hunger risk in Bangladesh and the impact of innovative conditional cash transfer mechanisms on improving vaccination rates in Pakistan.
Ali’s research explores themes in public health, including drinking water quality, mental health, nutrition and family planning. His work uses field experiments to test innovations in these research areas, both in Pakistan and outside. His portfolio currently includes an experiment to improve youth mental health in Sierra Leone; field experiments to improve child nutrition and access to improved drinking water quality in Karachi, Pakistan; and a field experiment to improve contraceptive uptake in Lahore, Pakistan.
Ali is an affiliated fellow with Interactive Research and Development (IRD), the Institute for Development and Economics Alternatives (IDEAS), and the Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR). He has been awarded several research grants including National Science of Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant for Research in Economics (2012), Yale Institute of Biospheric Grant (2012), GiveWell (2014), Shahid Hussain Foundation grant (2018), LUMS Faculty Imitative Fund (2018) and most recently the World Bank’s Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) grant. He is also a John F. Enders Fellow (2012), Tropical Resource Institute Fellow (2010), Fulbright Scholar (2006) and a Leland Burt Scholar (2006).