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Dr. Handa joined the Department in July, 2003
as an Associate Professor. He received his PhD in Economics
from the University of Toronto in 1993, and his BA in Political
Economy from The Johns Hopkins University in 1987.
Dr. Handa conducts research on household economic
and demographic behavior in developing countries, and his
current work spans 4 broad areas: 1) The determinants of household
headship and family structure and the impact of family structure
on child outcomes; 2) The role of demand side factors (parental
education, income), supply side factors (infrastructure) and
their interaction in determining children's schooling and
health outcomes; 3) Household behavioral responses to exogenous
shocks (such as macroeconomic crises) and their impact on
household and children's welfare; 4) The optimal design of
poverty alleviation programs and the performance of alternative
techniques of program evaluation (propensity score matching,
randomized trials, etc.).
Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Handa worked in the Regional
Operations Department 3 at the Inter American Development
Bank from 2000-03, where he designed projects in the areas
of social protection, poverty alleviation and nutrition, and
provided technical assistance to IDB member countries on poverty,
social sector development, monitoring and program evaluation.
From 1999-2000 Dr. Handa was outposted to Mexico City by the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to work
on the impact evaluation of PROGRESA, the Mexican's Government's
premier poverty alleviation program. From 1997-1999, also
with IFPRI, he lead a capacity strengthening project based
in the Agricultural Economics and Rural Extension Department
of the Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique, where
he also provided technical assistance and capacity strengthening
to the Poverty Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Planning
for their Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Before moving
to Mozambique, Dr. Handa was a Lecturer in the Department
of Economics at the University of the West Indies in Kingston,
Jamaica from 1993-1997, where he conducted research using
the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions.
Dr. Handa currently teaches Quantitative Methods (PLCY175)
to undergraduates and Applied Micro Theory (PLCY289) to graduate
students.
http://www.unc.edu/~shanda/
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