Ayesha Ali is an Associate Professor (tenured) of Economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, where she also serves as Senior Fellow at the Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre. Her work examines energy economics, digital technologies, and political economy in developing countries. Professor Ali has published in leading journals including Nature Human Behavior, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and Journal of Development Economics, and reputable interdisciplinary journals (Nature Health, Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review). Her research lies at the intersection of applied development, information economics, and energy economics. Her current research examines policies to control electricity theft, improve energy access, media literacy's role in combating misinformation, competition in news media markets, and AI’s role in labor markets, providing evidence to improve economic outcomes and strengthen democratic institutions in developing countries. She has received three Meta/Facebook Integrity Awards (2019, 2020, 2022), Google exploreCSR Award, and was named Academic of the Month by Meta Research (2021). Her work has been funded by J-PAL KCAI, the International Growth Centre, and Pakistan's Higher Education Commission. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto and an MA in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.
For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/view/ayeshaali/.
Mohazzam S., Ali A., Ali S.H. (2020). Greening Energy Provision in Urban Pakistan. In: Iftikhar M., Justice J., Audretsch D. (Eds.), Urban Studies and Entrepreneurship (227-247). The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15164-5_12
Ullah, Hayat, Kamal, I., Ali, A., & Arshad, N. (2018). Investor Focused Placement and Sizing of Photovoltaic Grid-Connected Systems in Pakistan. Renewable Energy, 121, 460-473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2017.12.048
Abbas, Samar, Bakar, A., Chandio, Y., Hafeez, K., Jadoon, T. M., & Alizai, M. H. (2018). Inverted HVAC: Greenifying Older Buildings, One Room at a Time. ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, 14 (3-4), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3229063
Ali, A., Munir, D. (2011) Entrepreneurship in the IT Industry in Pakistan, Background Paper for World Bank Finance and Private Sector Development, September 2011.
Ali, A. (2010). Institutional Reforms for Competitiveness - Recent Developments, Chapter in Pakistan State of Competitiveness Report, Competitiveness Support Fund: Islamabad, September 2010.
Ali, A. (In Progress, Revision of IGC Working Paper). Do Political Dynasties Hinder Development? Evidence from Natural Disaster in Pakistan. International Growth Center Working Paper 2017.
Ali, A. (2011). Rent-seekers or Entrepreneurs, Dawn Economics and Business Review, Feb 28, 2011
Ali, A., Hamid, N. (2011). The Silver Lining of the Noughties, Herald Pakistan Decade Review Edition, Jan 15, 2011.
Ali, A., Sarfraz, R. Z. (2018). Fake News and the General Election, Express Tribune, July 8, 2018
"Understanding the Effect of Digital Literacy on the Spread of Misinformation - Evidence from Pakistan." American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA. January 2020.
"Do Reward and Reprimand Policies Work in Reducing Electricity Distribution Losses." American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA. January 2019.
"Countering Misinformation Through Educational Interventions." International Conference on Media and Conflict. Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Islamabad. February 2020.
"Economic Consequences of Internet Censorship." American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA. January 2020.
"Do Reward and Reprimand Policies Work in Reducing Electricity Distribution Losses." 39th Middle Eastern Economic Association (MEEA) Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA. January 2019.
"Countering Misinformation Through Educational Interventions." Applied Development Economics Conference. Lahore School of Economics, Lahore. Sepetember 2019.
Hafeez, K., Chandio, Y., Bakar, A., Ali, A., Syed, A. A., Jadoon, T. M., & Alizai, M. H(2017). Inverting HVAC for Energy Efficient Thermal Comfort in Populous Emerging Countries. In Prabal Dutta & Hae Young Noh (Eds.), Proceedings from ACM BuildSys 17: The ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments (1-10). New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3137133.3137137
Ali, A. (Submitted). Electricity Outages and Employment: Evidence from Energy Prices and Thermal Power Plants in Pakistan. Review of Economics and Statistics.
Ali, A., Younas, J., & Gaibulloev, K. (In Preparation, 70% complete, Expecting to submit July 2020). The Effect of Reward and Reprimand Policies in Reducing Electricity Distribution Losses. Americal Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Ali, A., Qazi, I. A. (In Preparation, 80% complete, Expecting to submit May 2020). Countering Misinformation on Social Media through Educational Interventions. Journal of Development Economics