The Evidence for Policy Design programme, for which I currently serve as faculty director, also aims to improve the lives of the very poor by designing, testing and enabling better policy in developing countries.
Given the ongoing challenges that many communities face from the Covid-19 pandemic, I have recently redirected my focus to examining social protections during times of crisis. The social and economic consequences of a pandemic are immense and for developing countries they are especially devastating, as these countries have fewer resources to provide the health and economic support that their citizens require.
Particularly in times such as these, scholars and researchers across globe must guide and support one another and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation has enabled this collaboration and two-way flow of research through its generous support of my chair and of South-East Asia Studies more broadly.A highly distinguished economist, Hanna is the Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies and Chair of the International Development Area at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Her work has been published in leading economics journals such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Political Economy, among others.