Rate My Professor Nasir Iqbal

Nasir Iqbal is Professor of Economics at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), where he also serves as Registrar and Head of the Macro Policy Lab. He earned his PhD in Economics from PIDE in 2013, completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Economics at Duke University from 2022 to 2023, and obtained his MA in Economics from the University of the Punjab in 2005, where he secured third position. Over 18 years of experience in research, teaching, and policy reform include serving as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at PIDE from 2019 to 2021, Additional Director General for Research and Development at the Benazir Income Support Program from 2015 to 2018, Assistant Professor of Economics at PIDE from 2014 to 2015, and Staff Economist at PIDE from 2006 to 2014. He led the research wing of the Benazir Income Support Program, contributing to macroeconomic models, graduation models, socioeconomic surveys, and data quality assurance.

Dr. Iqbal's research interests encompass public policy, governance, social protection, economic modelling, political economy, digital inclusion, poverty dynamics, regional economies, and climate economics. His work has appeared in journals such as Economic Inquiry, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Economic Modelling, Economics and Human Biology, and The Pakistan Development Review. Key publications include "Do unconditional cash transfers increase fertility? Lessons from a large-scale program" (Economic Inquiry, 2024), "Unconditional Cash Transfers, Health and Savings" (Economics and Human Biology, 2024), "Unconditional cash transfers, child labour and education: theory and evidence" (Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021), "Rent seeking opportunities and economic growth in transitional economies" (Economic Modelling, 2014), and "The Poverty Illusion: When Numbers Distort Reality" (PIDE Knowledge Brief, 2025). He has mentored over 15 PhD students, pioneered experiential learning approaches, led institutional reforms at PIDE, and shaped national policy debates on social protection and public finance. Awards include Postdoctoral Fellowship at Duke University (2022), Policy Pak award for "Policy Framework for Vaccinating All" (2022), and Best Paper award at the 1st International Conference on Energy, Regional Integration and Socio-Economic Development (2013).