Rema Hanna is an
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and is the Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South East Asia Studies at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's
Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
. Moreover, she currently serves as co-director of the Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) research programme at Harvard's
Center for International Development
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
and a scientific co-director for
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
at the
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fi ...
(J-PAL). Her research focuses on the efficiency and effectiveness of public services in
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
, with specific focus on service delivery and the impacts of corruption. She is also the co-chair of the editorial board for the academic journal Review of Economics and Statistics.
Biography
Rema Hanna earned a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in
policy analysis
Policy analysis is a technique used in the public administration sub-field of political science to enable civil servants, nonprofit organizations, and others to examine and evaluate the available options to implement the goals of laws and elected ...
from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in 1999 and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in economics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
in 2005. After graduating, she became an assistant professor in
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
's
Wagner School of Public Service
The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is the public policy school of New York University in New York City, New York. The school is named after New York City former mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. in 1989.
History
In 1938, NYU off ...
and its Department of Economics (2005–08). In 2009, Hanna moved to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's
Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
as junior faculty, where she was promoted to Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South East Asia Studies in 2016. In parallel, she has held visiting appointments at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(2011) and the
University of Zurich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
2015. Moreover, Hanna has served as co-director of Harvard University's Evidence for Policy Design programme and as scientific co-director for Southeast Asia at
J-PAL since 2012. Additionally, she maintains affiliations with
NBER
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
,
CEPR,
IZA, and
BREAD
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...
and edits the ''
Review of Economics and Statistics
''The'' ''Review of Economics and Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed 103-year-old general journal that focuses on applied economics, with specific relevance to the scope of quantitative economics. The ''Review'', edited at the Harvard University’s K ...
'', ''
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics'', and the ''
Journal of Human Resources
''The Journal of Human Resources'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering empirical microeconomics. It was established in 1965 and is published by The University of Wisconsin Press. The editor-in-chief is Anna Aizer (Brown Universi ...
''.
Research
According to
IDEAS/RePEc
Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...
, Rema Hanna currently (February 2018) belongs to the top 5% of most cited economists. Most of her research is located in
public economics
Public economics ''(or economics of the public sector)'' is the study of government policy through the lens of economic efficiency and equity. Public economics builds on the theory of welfare economics and is ultimately used as a tool to improve ...
, often with a focus on Asia. Key findings of her research include:
* Monitoring teachers in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and linking their salaries to attendance was effective in decreasing teacher absenteeism by 21%, which in turn increased students' test scores by 0.17 standard deviations, suggesting that teachers'
labour supply
In mainstream economic theories, the labour supply is the total hours (adjusted for intensity of effort) that workers wish to work at a given real wage rate. It is frequently represented graphically by a labour supply curve, which shows hypotheti ...
in developing countries may respond strongly to financial incentives (with
Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo, FBA (; born 25 October 1972) is a French–American economist who is a professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the co-founder and co-director of the Ab ...
and Stephen P. Ryan;
* Relative to
proxy means tests (PMT), which use households' assets to predict consumption and assess, community-based targeting methods, wherein the community (or its leaders) identify poor households, and a hybrid of PMT and community-based methods are found to be only slightly less effective in targeting
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n households living in
absolute poverty
Extreme poverty, deep poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, includi ...
, with community-based methods resulting in higher satisfaction, possibly because of the application of community-specific definitions of poverty (with Vivi Alatas,
Abhijit Banerjee
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee (; born 21 February 1961) is an Indian-American economist who is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Banerjee shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Priz ...
,
Benjamin Olken and Julia Tobias);
* Pollution's impact on health may negatively affect labour supply, as the closure of a large refinery in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
reduced
sulfur dioxide pollution in surrounding neighbourhoods by 19.7%, which in turn increased weekly work hours by 3.5% (with Paulina Oliva).
Hanna, R., Oliva, P. (2015). The effect of pollution on labor supply: Evidence from a natural experiment in Mexico City. ''Journal of Public Economics'', 122(C), pp. 68-79.
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References
External links
Profile of Rema Hanna on the website of Harvard University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, Rema
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni
Cornell University alumni
Harvard University faculty
American development economists
Environmental economists
Labor economists