Paper Presenters

Dr Muhammad Zaheer Abbas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. In this role, he is working with Professor Matthew Rimmer on his Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘Inventing the Future: Intellectual Property and 3D Printing’. In March 2020, he completed PhD in Law at QUT as a recipient of QUT Postgraduate Research Award (QUTPRA). Previously, he studied law at International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) and obtained BA General and LLB (Hons) with distinction in 2010. He also obtained LLM in International Law, with distinction, from the same university. He served as a Lecturer in Law at IIUI and has nearly 10 years of legal teaching and research experience. He also served as Associate Editor of 'Islamabad Law Review', a peer-reviewed journal of Faculty of Shariah and Law, IIUI. He has published 24 refereed articles, mostly related to intellectual property protection and the public interest. He has also presented 31 conference papers on related topics.

Md Abdul Aahad is a 4th-year undergraduate student at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Syed Shujaat Ahmed is working with Sustainable Development Policy Institute since 2016. Currently he is working as consultant. Before working as consultant he has been associated with SDPI as Research Associate. He is currently working on projects related to trade and integration (Export Competitiveness amid Covid-19 in Pakistan and Global Pakistan). In the past he has been associated with projects related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Rule of Law Program, Investment and Value Chain, Tax Reforms, Trade and Governance and has also published in these areas. Beside working on projects he is regular contributor to national newspapers and write on issues related to fiscal, trade, sustainable development goals, investment and tax reforms.

Md. Tuhin Ahmed is a Senior Research Associate (SRA) at South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). Before being promoted to SRA, he worked as a Research Associate at the same organization. He completed his MSS (Master of Social Science) and BSS (Bachelor of Social Science) in Economics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has been awarded Shah A.M.S Kibria Gold Medal and Dr Jalal Alamgir Memorial Gold Medal for achieving the highest CGPA in MSS. His area of research interest includes labour economics, poverty & inequality, and business economics. As a part of the research team at SANEM, he was engaged in several research projects. In the project titled “Drafting the Technical Framework of 8th Five Year Plan (FY 2021-2025) of Bangladesh”, he conducted KIIs and analysed survey data. He engaged in collecting secondary data, data analysis, as well as econometrics analysis under two projects titled “Recognition of Women’s Unaccounted Work in National GDP and Its Inclusion in Gender Responsive Budgeting” & “Climate-Induced Migration (CIM), is an issue-based project”. He intensively involved in sample design, preparing the questionnaire, training enumerators, conducting and executing surveys, survey data analysis, and report writing in the project entitled “Business Confidence in Bangladesh: Results from Firm-level Survey”. He was involved in data analysis and report writing in a research work conducted by SANEM titled “COVID-19 Impact on Poverty Dynamics in Bangladesh: An Analytical Investigation”. He was also a member of the SANEM Team in a recent household survey (around 5500 households) conducted by SANEM as well. In this project, he intensively engaged in questionnaire design, field supervision, data cleaning, as well as data analysis.

Dr Abdullah Altun is Assistant Professor, Department of Economics Gebze Technical University, Turkey. Dr Abdullah completed his Ph.D. degree in 2017 from the Gebze Technical University, Turkey. His primary research interest is international trade and economic growth. In his studies, he mainly focuses on the macroeconomic impacts of GVCs. He was visiting scholar at the Faculty of Technology Management and Technopreneurship of the UniversitiTeknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTEM), Malaysia and at the Faculty of Economics of University of Warsaw, Poland. Before the full-time academic career, he was working as a Senior Specialist in Informatics and Information Security Research Center in The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

Aziza Akrami is senior student at Economics Faculty (Department of Management Information System) of Kabul University. She is interested in delving deep into the analysis of industrial and trade phenomena using economic tools.

Nishat Tasnim Anika is a 3rd-year undergraduate student at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. She is a development enthusiast who is interested in achieving sustainability in organizations and initiatives. Furthermore, she wants to study on the implementation of data-driven policymaking in developing countries.

Dr Zubaria Andlib is an Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, (FUUAST) Islamabad, Pakistan. Her areas of interest include Labour Economics, Environmental Economics.

Selvia Arshad is currently working as a Consultant in the Macro Trade and Investment Global Practice at the World Bank, Dhaka Office. She completed her MSc in International Finance and Economics with a Distinction from the University of Sussex, UK. She earned a BA in Economics from Asian University for Women (AUW). Previously, she worked as a Research Officer at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), an autonomous think tank, under the Ministry of Planning Bangladesh. She has also interned at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group and at the Grameen Bank. Besides being an aspiring economist, she advocates for women empowerment and is also an avid traveler.

Navaratnam Balamurali is currently working as a senior lecturer of Economics, Dept of Social Studies, the Open University of Sri Lanka. He has obtained BA (Hons) in Economics, MA in Economics, MSc in Agricultural Economics, from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Currently he is pursuing MPhil in Economics with Research from Department of Economics, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. His research interest is cross sectional and time series data analysis, labour market, food consumption pattern etc. He has participated in many international research conferences internationally and locally and presented his research papers.

Tanima Banerjee is currently working as Assistant Professor at Department of Economics Adamas University, India. She completed her M.SC Applied Economics from Presidency College. Ms Banarjee pursued her M.Phil degree from University of Calcutta in 2010. Her areas of expertise includeSpecialisation in Econometrics, Labour Economics and Financial Economics In 2015 Ms Banarjee received ‘LABOUR ECONOMICS AWARD FOR YOUNG SOUTH ASIAN SCHOLARS’ from South Asia Research Network (SARNET) in Collaboration with ILO.

Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha is a professor in the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. She did her bachelors as well as masters from the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and MSc from the University of Bath, UK. She obtained a PhD in Labour Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interest lies in labour economics, development economics, population economics and micro econometrics. Her work involves both empirical analysis as well as policy focused research with emphasis on developing countries. In the context of Bangladesh, she worked on a number of research projects on labour market, gender and women empowerment, gender budgeting, migration and remittance earning, credit and food security, population and development, economic growth and exchange rate movements, skill and education, demographic dividend and youth population etc. In addition, Dr Bidisha has also worked closely with the Government of Bangladesh in preparing various policy documents and government flagship objects. In particular, she was actively engaged in drafting a number of chapters of the 6th Five Year Plan of Bangladesh. (e.g. Education and Training, Agriculture, Health and Nutrition) and also Perspective Plans of the country. She has worked with several international as well as national organisations e.g., the World Bank, IDRC, ILO, FAO, UNICEF, DFID etc. and has published a number of articles/book chapters in peer reviewed publications both at home and abroad.

Pradeep Kumar Choudhury is currently working as Assistant Professor of Economics of Education at Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Prior to this he worked as Assistant Professor in the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi, India for two and half years and also as a research Fellow in Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi. Dr Choudhury has completed his Post Graduation in Economics from University of Hyderabad and PhD from National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), the think tank for the ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and a premier training and research university in the area of educational planning and management. He works on the issues related Economics of education, education and health, education and labour market, applied development economics. His specific Research Interests are Private provisioning of education and market policies, educational inequalities, school choice, family investment in education, student loan market, rural education.

Dr Mofakhar Hussain is Adjunct Lecturer Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation University of Toronto, Canada. He completed his Ph.D. in Health Economics from Graduate Center, City University of New York. Dr Hussain’s areas of interest include Health Economics, Health Services Research, Global Health, Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy. He is a member of the community providing the groundbreaking perspectives and inspiring contributions that define IHPME.

MD. Anik Islam is an undergraduate student studying Economics at the University of Dhaka. He is a researchenthusiast interested in the fieldof development and behavioraleconomics. He is also acting asJoint Secretary at the EconomicsCultural Club of DhakaUniversity. Apart from academicactivities, he is also passionateabout playing guitar.

Sarah Farheen Khan is an environmentalist working as a Programme Assistant at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development. She is also a member of the Global Coordination Team of YOUNGO (Children and Youth Constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC).

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and is working on publishing one of her research titled “COVID-19 and Mental Stress among the Urban Youths of Dhaka City.”

Furthermore, Sarah has been engaged in advocating for youth, climate, gender and health. So that no thoughts powerful enough to tackle climate change or reduce inequalities remain unheard. She has been a youth speaker at the CBA 14, CBA 15 and the #Youth4ClimateLive Series, hosted by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, in collaboration with Connect4Climate – World Bank Group and the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

Mst. Shila Khatun is currently studying Master of Social Science (MSS) under the Department of Economics at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University. She has completed her graduation from the same university with CGPA 3.89. During her degree, she completed a monograph paper titled “Impact of beauty premium on academic performance of undergraduate student: An evidence from Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University”. and also completed afieldwork on “Socio-economic condition of Garo ethnic people in Madhupur, Tangail. Besides, she has participated in three well-known international conferences during this pandemic time.

Farzin Mumtahena is an undergraduate student at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. She is currently the General Secretary of Economics Study Center, a student chapter of her department, where she works towards bridging the gap between students, academicians and policymakers. Her interest mainly lies in development issues, including education, poverty, and labour market participation. She is curious to learn how evidence-based research can translate into policy in developing countries.

Chathuni Pabasara is a Senior Research Assistant at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. At LKI, she has researched and published on various regional and bilateral economic and foreign policy issues and has also provided research assistance to senior researchers in the creation of technical reports, working papers and other knowledge products. She holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce, majoring in Applied Economics, from Monash University, Malaysia.

Dr Panchalingam is a Postdoctoral scholar at Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California, San Diego. Her primary research lies at the intersection of Economics of Health, Food, and Consumer Behavior. She received a BS (Agricultural Technology and Management) from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, an MS (Agricultural and Applied Economics) from University of Wyoming, and a PhD in Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics from The Ohio State University.

Alberto Posso is a Professor of Economics and Director Centre for International Development, RMIT University, Australia. His core areas of understanding are in international development, focusing on labour markets, international trade, education, health, migration, wages, employment, inequality, and poverty. His work aims at generating evidence based policy advice to developing countries at both the national and community level. Geographically, his area of specialisation covers East Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. Alberto has over 35 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious outlets. Alberto holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University (ANU) with specialisations in labour economics, development and applied econometrics.

Dr Selim Raihan is Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and the Executive Director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, UK.

He is the Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the alumni of the Harvard University’s program on “Cutting Edge of Development Thinking”. Dr Raihan possesses vast expertise in empirical research on international trade, economic growth, poverty, labour market, macroeconomic policies, political economy, and climate change issues. He has worked quite extensively on applied economics, especially assessing impacts of trade and economic policies, using country- specific and global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models, and micro and macro-econometric modelling and estimation techniques. He has a long experience in teaching international trade, economic modelling, quantitative economics, econometrics, development economics, and poverty dynamics. He has more than 15 years of experience in conducting international and national training programmes on economic modelling in various countries, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Dr Raihan has published several journal articles, books, book chapters and working papers.

Dr Raihan is the editor of “Thinking Aloud” – a monthly digest from SANEM. He regularly writes columns in leading English and Bengali dailies in Bangladesh. Dr Raihan contributed extensively to the preparation of the Sixth and Seventh Five-year National Plans of Bangladesh. He led a research team to prepare the “SDG Financing Strategy: Bangladesh Perspective” -a flagship publication of the Planning Commission of Bangladesh. Dr Raihan has worked for several national and international organizations including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, UNDP, UNESCAP, UNCTAD, IFPRI, the Commonwealth Secretariat, FAO, European Commission, ILO, IDRC, DFID, etc. He has led and has also been a member of a number of regional and international research projects on trade and regional integration issues. Also, he has been working on the political economy analysis of economic issues. The most recent ones are the studies on “Institutional Diagnostics of development in Bangladesh “, which are prepared under his leadership and supervision, for the DFID, UK.

Ravindri Paranagama is a Research Assistant at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. At LKI she has assisted in coordinating events such as conferences, working group meetings and webinars and has also contributed to knowledge products and research activities providing policy recommendations on regional and bilateral issues. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Sociology from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.

Dr Saon Ray is an economist specializing in industry and international trade issues, her areas of interest include global value chains, technological upgrading of Indian industries, free trade agreements and trade creation effects, technology transfer, foreign direct investment, efficiency and productivity of firms, financial inclusion and energy and climate change related issues. She has published widely on these issues in books and journal articles. Her PhD in Economics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University examined the role of intellectual property rights in transferring technology to developing countries.

Dr Shafiun Shimul is an Associate Professor of Health Economics at University of Dhaka with more than 14 years of work experience on wide range of issues including on health economics, public finance, economics of nutrition, social safety nets. Currently, he is serving the World Bank as a consultant in a project that aims to assess the impact of motivational intervention through a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) experiment. Besides, Dr Shimul worked on projects funded by UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, Pathfinder, USAID, FAO, etc. Dr Shimul have been doing extensive research work on COVID-19 issues including projections of COVID-19; economic impact of lockdown, effectiveness of lockdown in developing countries. He has been a part of CoMo (Covid-19 Modeling) Consortium of Oxford University. His work on COVID-19 received a great media attention both in national and international and news media. Dr Shimul holds his PhD. in Economics (Public Economics concentration).

Jahnvi Toshniwal is a final year student at Ashoka University in India, with a major in Economics and Finance. Her areas of interest are in Development Economics, Labour Economics, and the Economics of Gender. In her undergraduate dissertation, she used survey data to study gender gaps and the extent of discrimination in self-employment in India. She will be heading to the University of Oxford in the coming fall to pursue an MPhil degree in Economics.

Mahtab Uddin is a Lecturer of Economics at the University of Dhaka and a Research Economist (honorary) at SANEM. Mahtab has Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics from the University of Dhaka where he topped his class in both of the exams.

Mahtab has been extensively engaged in academic and policy research over the past couple of years. He has worked with the IOM, IDRC, ILO, UNDP, UNDESA, amongst others, on projects mostly related to labour market, migrations, remittances, poverty and inequality, and social safety net issues. He was a core team member in UNDP commissioned several major studies on social protection such as “Midterm Implementation Review of the National Social Security Strategy”, “Analysis to increase efficiency and effectiveness of Small Social Security Programme Harmonisation in Bangladesh”, “Evaluation of the existing workfare programmes in terms of coverage and skill development and its link to the Job market”, etc. He was also a core team member to the UNDP commissioned study on “Impact of the Rohingya Refugee Crisis on the host communities in Cox’s Bazar”. As a research economist, he contributed to the IOM commissioned “An Effective Implementation of the Labour Market Information System (LMIS) in Bangladesh”. Amongst other notable works, he worked as the National Consultant for the UNDESA on identifying the macroeconomic impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on Bangladesh economy.

Mahtab started his career as Programme Associate at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in February 2015 and later moved to SANEM as a Research Associate in July 2015. He joined the University of Dhaka as a lecturer of Economics in July 2016.

Asanka Wijesinghe is a Research Economist at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) with research interests in macroeconomic policy, international trade, labour and health economics. He is also interested in the impact of adjustment costs of trade, gravity modelling in trade, econometrics and the trade origins of populist politics. Asanka holds a BSc in Agricultural Technology and Management from the University of Peradeniya, an MS in Agribusiness and Applied Economics from North Dakota State University, and an MS and PhD in Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics from The Ohio State University.

Hashini Wijeskerais a final year undergraduate, following Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Economics, at the Department of Economics, University of Colombo (ACCA UK Affiliate). She issecretary for the Board of Economics Students’Association of the Department of Economics, Universityof Colombo 2020/2021.

Dr Bushra Yasmin is Associate Professor of Economics and Faculty Advisor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi. She has been serving at teaching and research institutes for the last 24 years and is the member of various statutory bodies. She earned her PhD degree from Quaid-i-Azam University with research fellowship from University of Sussex, UK. And accomplished her Post-Doctorate in International Economics from Harvard University, USA as Fulbright Scholar. She has Star Award, Fulbright award and Australian Award for Women in Executive Leadership on her credit. She is an active researcher and has published widely in the journals of national and international repute. She has been awarded with highly competitive national and international research grants: Competitive Grants Program, Planning Commission, USAID; Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW); National Research Program for Universities (NRPU), HEC; Alumni Small Grant by Pakistan-US Alumni Network (PUAN), USEFP. She instigated a number of measures for promoting quality teaching and research: initiated working paper series; organized webinars, international conference and workshops and launched the Higher Education Leadership and Management & Mentoring programs. She is an efficient and highly motivated administrator who is always ready to take up the challenges especially for women empowerment.