Education & Professional History
Northwestern University, BA, MA, PhD
I spent much of my formative years growing up in a middle-income household in Dhaka, Bangladesh. My interest in development is strongly related to my upbringing there. I left Bangladesh in 2000 and received a bachelors and subsequently masters and doctoral degrees in Economics from Northwestern University (IL, USA). Although I began college with the aim of studying Physics and Mathematics, thanks to some incredible economics professors at Northwestern, during my sophomore year, I decided to change my focus towards Economics.
Living in Bangladesh, I have always been astonished by the high degree of conspicuous consumption that people of all socioeconomic backgrounds seem to indulge in. I was convinced very early on that interpersonal comparisons play a major role in individual decisions. Consequently, my graduate work involved constructing a theoretical model of interdependent preferences to study how peer comparisons affect labor supply decisions, subjective well-being, rural-to-urban migration and the economy as a whole. My research has since expanded to determinants of different subjective wellbeing measures, mental suffering, quality of life research, microfinance, survey methodology, perception formation, and income inequality, particularly as it all relates to economic development.
I enjoy teaching microeconomics of development, labor economics, and welfare economics. A huge fan of the Bangladesh cricket team, the Argentine soccer team, Barcelona FC and mainstream music, I love playing soccer, cricket, badminton, ping pong and listening to music.
At Carleton since 2010.
Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations
President, Nourish Bangladesh
GLO Fellow, Global Labor Organization
Advisor, The Happiness Alliance
Consultant, Global Team for Local Initiatives
Director, Winter Break Off-Campus Studies to Bangladesh, Carleton College, MN
Off-Campus Studies Fellow (past), Carleton College, MN
Director, Minnesota Economic Association (past)
Reviewer:
- World Development
- Applied Economics (Incorporating Applied Financial Economics)
- Journal of Business Venturing
- Journal of Happiness Studies
- Economics Journal of International Wellbeing
- Journal of Economics and International Finance
- Choice, Association of College and Research Libraries
Member:
- International Society for Quality of Life Studies
- Midwest Economic Association
- American Economic Association
- Western Economic Association International
Current Courses
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Winter 2023
ECON 111: Principles of Microeconomics
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ECON 240: Microeconomics of Development
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Spring 2023
ECON 111: Principles of Microeconomics
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Fall 2023
ECON 240: Microeconomics of Development
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ECON 274: Labor Economics
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Winter 2024
ECON 201: Analysis of Microeconomic Development Models
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Spring 2024
ECON 246: Welfare Economics and Mechanism Design