Pascaline Dupas

Professor of Economics, Stanford University & JPAL Co-Chair, Health

Pascaline Dupas is a Professor in the Economics Department at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, a Research Associate at NBER and an affiliate of the MIT Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 2011, she taught at Dartmouth College and UCLA. Dupas' primary areas of research are health, education, microsavings, technology adoption and governance. Her primary geographical expertise is Africa. She studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris before receiving a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in 2006.

Karen Macours

Associate Professor, Paris School of Economics & JPAL Co-Chair, Health

Dr. Karen Macours is an associate professor at the Paris School of Economics and researcher at French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). Her research focuses on the micro-economic constraints to agricultural productivity and rural poverty reduction. Much of her current research involves the evaluation of programs addressing rural households’ productive and human capital investments and related measurement questions in Sub Sahara Africa and Latin America. She is an affiliate of CEPR and JPAL Europe. She received her MS in Agricultural Engineering from the K.U. Leuven and her PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Roberta Gatti

Chief Economist, Human Development

World Bank

Roberta Gatti is the Chief Economist of the Human Development practice group in the World Bank. Roberta joined the World Bank in 1998 as a Young Professional in the Development Research Group. Her papers, which includes theoretical and empirical contributions on labor and household economics, political economy, growth, and social inclusion, are published in international refereed journals such as the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Economic Growth, and the Journal of Development Economics. After a period based in the Bank’s office in Bulgaria, Roberta became sector manager and Human Development Lead Economist in the Middle East and North Africa and in the Europe and Central Asia regions, overseeing work on aging, skills, jobs, pensions, social safety nets, and the Roma inclusion agenda. She also worked as Lead Economist based in the Bank’s Warsaw office and as the Global Lead for Labor policies. Roberta is the lead author of numerous World Bank flagship reports, including Jobs for Shared Prosperity: Time for Action in the Middle East and North Africa and Being Fair, Faring Better: Promoting Equality of Opportunity for Marginalized Roma. Roberta holds a B.A. from Università Bocconi and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. She has also taught at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities.

Renos Vakis

Lead Economist, Poverty & Equity GP

World Bank

Renos Vakis is a Lead Economist with the Poverty and Equity Global Practice where he heads the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD). The unit integrates behavioral science in the design of anti-poverty policies in a wide range of issues such as financial inclusion, early childhood development, social protection, health and education. As a member of the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) team in the Development Data Group of the World Bank, he also conducts experiments to improve household survey measures of behavioral dimensions of well-being. He has written extensively on issues related to poverty dynamics and mobility, risk management, social protection, market failures and rural development, especially in Latin America and South Asia and has led the design of impact evaluation of anti-poverty interventions in various settings. Most recently, he has completed a book on Chronic Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean. Renos has also taught economics at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mickey Chopra

Lead Health Specialist, Health, Nutrition & Population GP

World Bank 

Dr. Mickey Chopra is currently the Global Solutions Lead for Service Delivery in the Health Nutrition and Population global practice of the World Bank. He leads its work around the organization, management and quality of health services. Previous to this he was the Chief of Health and Associate Director of Programs at UNICEF’s New York Headquarters. Additionally, he has chaired the Evaluation and Research Group at the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria to ensure that their investments are reaching those most in need and chaired the Special Committee for Large Countries for GAVI that worked on ensuring increased coverage of vaccines for Nigeria and India in particular. He led the technical team that oversaw the UN Commission on Essential Medicines and Commodities. Dr. Chopra is qualified as a medical doctor with an additional degree in medical sociology from the University of Southampton, England, MPH (Primary Health in Developing Countries) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a  Ph.D. from Faculty of Medicine, University of Uppsala in Sweden.

Lukas Hensel

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Blavatnik School of Government and CSAE

Lukas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Development Economics at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Centre for the Study of African Economies. He leads the research on labour economics at the Mind and Behaviour Research Group. He investigates how (biased) beliefs and labour market frictions affect job-seekers and firms in urban labour markets in developing countries. Lukas has a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford. He previously obtained a MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford and a BSc in International Economics from the University of Tübingen.