Vegard Iversen

Vegard Iversen has a PhD in development economics from University of Cambridge and is a Professor in Development Economics and the Head of the Livelihoods and Institutions Department at NRI. He a Senior Research Fellow at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and was a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, from 2019 to 2023.

Between 2006 and 2018 he was based and worked in India holding positions in organisations and higher education institutions, including IFPRI (2006-07), Indian Statistical Institute Delhi (Planning Unit; visitor 2007-11), Jindal School of Government and Public Policy (Professor and Vice-Dean of Research and International Cooperation 2012-13), Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University (Adjunct Professor 2015-17), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (Professor, Economics Area 2017-18).

Vegard Iversen has extensive field, survey and other data collection experience. His applied research spans the use of modern impact evaluation techniques, mixed methods, behavioural experiments, archival work and the occasional sociological or anthropological detour.

His ongoing research covers a variety of themes, including social mobility in developing countries with a landmark edited volume published by Oxford University Press in 2021; together with co-authors he has generated unique and in-depth survey and behavioural experimental data to study politicians and local democracy in low-income contexts, including who gets elected for office, how to measure politician quality and whether time in office changes men and women politicians differently.

Other ongoing research focuses on gender norms in northwest Bangladesh.