About
Current Visiting Scholars and PhDs

Shreyasee Das

I am an Instructional Assistant Professor at Temple University, where I am also affiliated with the Global Studies program and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program. I completed my Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Houston. My research interests are in the fields of gender and development economics, with a regional focus on India. Some of my work examines marriage market outcomes in the event of natural and industrial disasters, and the impact of property rights on women’s empowerment. I am currently researching the impact of river water allocation rules and their impact on women’s health.

Mark Gradstein

I am a Sumner T. White Professor at the Economics Department, Ben Gurion University, Israel, where I have served twice as the department chair and carried out many additional administrative responsibilities at various levels. I am also affiliated with a number of international research networks, such as the CEPR, CESifo, and IZA. While at UNU-WIDER, I am studying aspects of demographic transition in sub-Saharan Africa.  In particular, one project studies the causal effect of economic development on fertility reduction in a sample of Africa’s regions. 

Jacqueline Mosomi

I am a researcher in the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) based at the University of Cape Town. I am an economist with a PhD from the University of Cape Town.  My broad areas of study are labour, education and gender inequality. My current research is on occupational sorting and the gendered impact of COVID-19 in South Africa. 

Saher Asad

I’m a development economist interested in studying the impacts of interventions leveraging Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on agricultural and labor market outcomes. My secondary research interests include studying the impacts of news media in developing countries as well as evaluating impacts of interventions targeted towards improving public service delivery.

James McKeown

My research interests are in Biopolitics of development, conflict research and democratization. I am currently working on Ghana’s biopolitical responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for life and the economy.

Achinthya Koswatta

My current research explores how production complexity, innovation and the overall quality of institutions interact with trade liberalization in developing countries.

Andre Pereira Mancha

I am interested in crime, law and economics and I am currently studying how changes in law enforcement affect robbery and theft outcomes in developing countries.

Nyemwererai Matshaka​

My interest is in macroeconomics, social and development economics with current focus on the relationship between macroeconomic policy and inequality.

Vinitha Varghese

My research focuses on poverty and economic development, specifically topics such as gender, health and education and my current research explores the impact of school consolidation on school enrollment and schooling quality.

Pierfrancesco Rolla

I am a political economist using mixed methods to study organized crime and development. I am currently researching the social consequences of organized crime groups in Italy. My research focus also includes the evaluation of early childhood development programmes in Rwanda, inequality in Colombia and migration in Zimbabwe.

Kwamivi Gomado

I am interested in analysing the macroeconomic effects of structural reforms in developing countries. My current research focuses on the one hand on the distributional effects of structural reforms and on the other hand, the impact of IMF conditionality policies on structural reforms.