Rohini Pande, currently the Rafik Hariri Professor of Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School, and co-director of the Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) Initiative, will join the department as Professor of Economics beginning in the fall 2019. Concurrently, she will begin a three-year term as Director of Yale’s Economic Growth Center.
Professor Pande is an economist whose research examines the economic costs and benefits of informal and formal institutions in the developing world and the role of public policy in affecting change. Her research focusses on gender, environmental regulation and state capacity and accountability.
Her work has examined how institutions - ranging from electoral to financial - can be designed to empower historically disadvantaged groups; how low-cost improvements in information collection and dissemination can enable flexible regulation and more efficient outcomes in areas as diverse as environmental protection and elections; and how biased social norms, unless challenged by public policy, can worsen individual well-being and reduce economic efficiency.
At Harvard Kennedy School, Professor Pande is also the Area Chair for International Development and teaches in the MPA/ID program. Her other current affiliations include board member of the Bureau of Research on Economic Development (BREAD), co-chair of the Political Economy and Government Group at Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Her publications have appeared in the top economics and policy journals.
Professor Pande received her Ph.D. in Economics from London School of Economics, M.A. from Oxford University, and B.A. in Economics from Delhi University.