Key details
Professor Vegard Iversen
Head of Department, Livelihoods & Institutions, Natural Resources Institute
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.
Vegard 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. 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 uses 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 changes in gender norms and on the impacts of different implementation models for efforts to enhance the productivity of and increase women’s involvement in a dynamic rural sector in northwest Bangladesh.
A full staff profile can be seen on the Natural Resources Institute website.
Research / Scholarly interests
- Dams, irrigation and development;
- Migration (rural-urban and other);
- Labour markets and social networks;
- Social mobility;
- Social accountability;
- Identity and discrimination;
- The impacts of women’s representation (in politics; decentralised natural resource management);
- Impact Evaluation.
Recent publications
Article
Banerjee, Prasenjit , Iversen, Vegard, Mitra, Sandip, Sen, Kunal (2024), Politicians, institutional incentives and citizen welfare: evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in India. Oxford University Press. In: , , , . Oxford University Press, Oxford Economic Papers ISSN: 0030-7653 (Print), 1464-3812 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpae028).
Chaudhuri, Ananish , Iversen, Vegard, Jensenius, Francesca R., Maitra, Pushkar (2022), Time in office and the changing gender gap in dishonesty: evidence from local politics in India. Wiley Online Library. In: , , , . Wiley Online Library, American Journal of Political Science . pp. 1-17 ISSN: 0092-5853 (Print), 1540-5907 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12733).
Iversen, Vegard , Krishna, Anirudh, Sen, Kunal (2019), Beyond poverty escapes - social mobility in developing countries: a review article. Oxford University Press. In: , , , . Oxford University Press, The World Bank Research Observer, 34 (2) . pp. 239-273 ISSN: 0257-3032 (Print), 1564-6971 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkz003).
Dhillon, Amrita , Iversen, Vegard, Torsvik, Gaute (2019), Employee referral, social proximity and worker discipline: theory and suggestive evidence from India. University of Chicago Press. In: , , , . University of Chicago Press, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 69 (3) . pp. 1003-1030 ISSN: 0013-0079 (Print), 1539-2988 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/704512).
Iversen, Vegard and , Palmer-Jones, Richard (2018), All you need is cable TV?. Taylor & Francis. In: , , , . Taylor & Francis, The Journal of Development Studies . pp. 1-21 ISSN: 0022-0388 (Print), 1743-9140 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2018.1506581).
Puri, Jyotsna , Aladysheva, Anastasia, Iversen, Vegard, Ghorpade, Yashodhan , Brück, Tilman (2017), Can rigorous impact evaluations improve humanitarian assistance?. Taylor & Francis. In: , , , . Taylor & Francis, Journal of Development Effectiveness, 9 (4) . pp. 519-542 ISSN: 1943-9342 (Print), 1943-9407 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2017.1388267).
Afridi, Farzana , Iversen, Vegard, Sharan, M. R. (2017), Women political leaders, corruption, and learning: Evidence from a large public program in India. University of Chicago Press. In: , , , . University of Chicago Press, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 66 (1) . pp. 1-30 ISSN: 0013-0079 (Print), 1539-2988 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/693679).
Edited book
Iversen, Vegard , Krishna, Anirudh, Sen, Kunal (2021), Social Mobility in Developing Countries: Concepts, Methods, and Determinants. Oxford University Press (OUP). In: , , , Social Mobility in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press (OUP), Oxford (1st) . ISBN: 9780192896858 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192896858.001.0001).