Rate My Professor Morgan Hardy

Morgan Hardy is an Associate Professor of Economics in the Social Science Division at New York University Abu Dhabi, a position she has held since advancing from Assistant Professor in 2024. She also serves as Faculty Director for Study Abroad since 2025. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University in 2016, an M.A. in Economics from Brown in 2011, and a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy & Economics from Columbia University in 2008.

As a development economist, Morgan Hardy's research focuses on private enterprise development and employment in low-income countries. Her research has employed a variety of experimental and applied methods, using originally collected data from Africa. She has active field projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria, on topics including combatting youth unemployment, improving small business profits, community-level impacts of industrialization, gender pay inequality, and the dynamics of small business owner networks. Notable publications include: "Allocating labor across small firms: experimental evidence on information constraints" (2024, Journal of Development Economics); "Can financial incentives to firms improve apprentice training? Experimental evidence from Ghana" (2024, American Economic Review: Insights); "Are small firms labor constrained? Experimental evidence from Ghana" (2023, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics); "Lights off, lights on: the effects of electricity shortages on small firms" (2021, The World Bank Economic Review); and "It's getting crowded in here: experimental evidence of demand constraints in the gender profit gap" (2020, The Economic Journal). She is an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) since 2024 and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) since 2021. Hardy has received fellowships such as the Hazeltine Dissertation Fellowship (2015–2016) and the NSF Integrative Graduate Education & Research Traineeship (2011–2013). Her research projects have secured funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Growth Centre, and others, contributing to policy insights on labor markets, firm dynamics, and gender gaps in developing economies. She teaches courses including Inclusive Data Literacy, Economic Capstone, and Research Design for Development Economics at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Accra, and advises master's theses.