Zahra Mansoor
Welcome – I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Public Policy at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol.
I work in close collaboration with governments in low- and middle-income countries across South Asia and Africa to answer research questions pertaining to service delivery, policy implementation, civil service reform, and evidence-based decision making. My research has a sectoral focus on education, and (more recently) gender. My research has been funded by the International Growth Center (IGC), Economic Development Institutions (EDI), World Bank, and the University of Oxford.
Research Interests
I answer research questions that are important academic puzzles but also equally important to policymakers such as: how can public sector organisations improve the performance of bureaucrats through financial and non-financial incentives? How can we better understand the impact of system-level governance reforms on policy implementation? How can we employ the tools and principals of behavioural science and economics to strengthen evidence-based decision making and inclusive governance in low-and middle-income countries?
I use experimental and quasi experimental methods to answer my questions of interest, while drawing on data from large-scale surveys and administrative data.
Working
Papers
My DPhil research explored the role of financial and non-financial incentives in improving frontline staff performance in collaboration with the Education and Agriculture department in Punjab, Pakistan:
“Making Recognition Rewards Count: A Field Experiment on Recognition Rewards for Public School Teachers” (new version coming soon)
“Rules versus Discretion: Experimental Evidence on Incentives for Public Extension Staff" (with Garance Genicot and Ghazala Mansuri) (new version coming soon)