Nava Ashraf is a Professor at the Department of Economics and Research Director at the Marshall Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). As the Research Director she leads the Marshall Institute’s effort to imbue private action for the public good with the science that illuminates how to maximise its impact.

She received her PhD in Economics from Harvard University, where she was an Assistant and later Associate Professor from 2005 to 2016. She is also Lead Academic for Zambia at the International Growth Centre (IGC), a Fellow at BREAD and NBER as well as Affiliated Professor at MIT Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

Professor Ashraf’s research combines psychology and economics, using both lab and field experiments to test insights from behavioural economics in the context of global development in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

She has pioneered the concept of altruistic capital, a way of harnessing every individual's intrinsic desire to make a positive social impact. Her recent field experiments on health services delivery and educational investment have been carried out jointly with the Ministries of Health and Education in Zambia, using a model of co-generation of knowledge.

Professor Ashraf’s research is published in leading journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Professor Ashraf teaches the course "PP452: Applying Behavioural Economics for Social Impact: Design, Delivery, Evaluation and Policy".

Click here to download Professor Ashraf's CV.