Faculty Co-Director, Evidence for Policy Design
Rafik Hariri Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School
Rafik Hariri Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School
EPoD India at IFMR, a joint program by Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at Harvard Kennedy School and the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), works with policymakers and key partners in India and Nepal through an iterative process of policy design. Together, we identify areas where research and data can make the greatest difference to policy, then engage in a process of designing, testing, and refining solutions to problems often affecting many millions of citizens.
We collaborate on research-policy engagements focused on governance, environmental and energy issues, financial inclusion, and gender equality – using theory, economic frameworks, and evidence to identify effective policies, and help build capacity to implement them.
Our Impact:
1. In collaboration with India's central government, we developed tools to democratize data from the world’s largest safety net program, and another app for government officials that leverages digital data trails to expedite direct benefit transfer payments to poor households. Our ongoing multi-state randomized control trial illustrates how this tool’s real-time data system and built-in feedback loops can increase efficiency and improve government accountability.
- Read more about this engagement, and our approach to research-policy engagements, here.
- Read about the role of data in governance.
2. A long-term engagement with the state of Gujarat and researchers affiliated with JPAL South Asia quantified the value of a third-party auditing system in curbing pollution and catalyzed statewide adoption of the evidence-backed policy.
3. We worked with the state of Madhya Pradesh and a major bank to determine how government-to-citizen payments that are paid into women’s own bank accounts, rather than that of the household head, impact rural women’s economic and social lives.
- Read our recommendations, based on this study, on how to improve the government’s financial inclusion initiatives.
- Read about the research here.
- Read about how this engagement is influencing the financial inclusion discourse.
Location:
EPoD India at IFMR
T-95 A, CL House, Third Floor
Gautam Nagar,
Near Green Park Metro Station
New Delhi, India 110049
Providing a poor rural woman with her own bank account and training her in its use impacts more than just her balance.
Can Skill India level the playing field and connect young women to work?
Under a new constitution, Nepal has recently elected representatives to 753 local governments.
Phones are crucial to participating in the modern economy. Yet twice as many Indian men as women own one.
Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world. Improved information tools are key to understanding this problem.
How can data captured by government programs be put to use to help vulnerable citizens?
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EPoD researchers identify the leading causes of the mobile gender gap and propose directions for how to reduce it.
A new program can reduce pollution by leveraging information and providing it to both industry and the public.
Public disclosure of information can make a difference in plugging the information void.
Female entrepreneurs may invest in their husband's household business rather than their own.
Promoters of safer cookstoves have struggled to find the perfect balance of efficiency, price, and a user-friendly design that would drive widespread adoption.
In an interview with Melinda Gates, Rohini Pande describes her work on how access to financial services affects women's work lives.
Less than 25 per cent of women who went through the major skilling programme we studied held a job for three or more months after their programme
Raising India's stubbornly low rate of female labour force participation will require behavioral interventions that address social norms.
EPoD India at HKS
EPoD India at IFMR
Research Associate
Research Consultant, PayDash project
Senior Research Associate
Research Associate
Support Staff
Research Associate
Policy Manager
Research Associate
Research Manager
Research Manager
Consultant
Research Fellow
Projects Finance Manager
Assistant Director, Core Programmes and Capacity Building
Senior Research Manager
Research Associate
Collaborating Researchers
Assistant Professor,
Department of Political Science,
Stanford University
Department of Political Science,
Stanford University
Assistant Professor,
Department of Political Science,
Stanford University
Department of Political Science,
Stanford University
Faculty Co-Director, Evidence for Policy Design
Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies, Harvard Kennedy School
Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies, Harvard Kennedy School
PhD Student in Computer Science,
New York University
New York University
Assistant Professor (Research) of Economics,
University of Southern California
University of Southern California
PhD Student in Public Policy,
University of Chicago
University of Chicago