Nava Ashraf is an Associate Professor in the Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. Professor Ashraf’s research combines psychology and economics, using both lab and field experiments to test insights from behavioral economics in the context of development projects in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Her experiments address behavior change in health and health services delivery, in agricultural production, and in microfinance. She has conducted research on questions of intra-household decision making in the areas of finance and fertility, with a special focus on women’s empowerment. Her research is published in leading journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Professor Ashraf teaches a second year MBA course in Managing Global Health and a University-wide Ph.D. course in Field Experiments. She has also taught in the first year MBA sequence on Negotiation, and is part of the Executive Education program of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, where she teaches Impact Evaluation and Performance Measurement for Nonprofit Management.
She is a Faculty Affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, dedicated to the use of randomized trials as a tool for learning what works in international development, and a Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining HBS, she worked at the World Bank on trade negotiations between Morocco and the European Union, as a consultant for several nonprofit organizations in developing countries, and as founder of a business skills training institute for women in west Africa.
Professor Ashraf received her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2005, and her BA in Economics and International Relations from Stanford University. She has been awarded a Queen's Jubilee Medal for service by the Government of Canada, and is the youngest person ever to receive the Order of British Columbia.
Learn more about Professor Ashraf's research in a Harvard magazine cover article.
Please contact Michelle Bavester at mbavester@hbs.edu or 617.495.6664 for additional information.
Featured Work
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Rx: Human Nature
How Behavioral Economics is Promoting Better Health Around the World
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Altruistic Capital: Harnessing Your Employees' Intrinsic Goodwill
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Grand Challenges Canada
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Science Magazine Profiles Research on Family Planning and Fertility
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Leveraging Altruistic Capital
No Margin, No Mission? Motivating Agents in the Social Sector
Listen to a Zambian barber talk about persuasion in selling female condoms here: (VIDEO).
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Publications
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Article
| American Economic Review
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Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Zambia
Nava Ashraf, James Berry and Jesse M. Shapiro
Keywords: Price;
Product;
Information;
Zambia;
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Article
| World Development
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Female Empowerment: Further Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin
Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to and marketing of an individually held commitment savings product lead to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift toward female-oriented durable goods purchased in the household.
Keywords: Policy;
Microfinance;
Goals and Objectives;
Decision Making;
Welfare or Wellbeing;
Gender Characteristics;
Product;
Power and Influence;
Philippines;
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Journal Article
| American Journal of Agricultural Economics
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Finding Missing Markets (and a Disturbing Epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya
Nava Ashraf, Xavier Gine and Dean Karlan
Farmers may grow crops for local consumption despite more profitable export options. DrumNet, a Kenyan NGO that helps small farmers adopt and market export crops, conducted a randomized trial to evaluate its impact. DrumNet services increased production of export crops and lowered marketing costs, leading to a 32% income gain for new adopters. The services collapsed one year later when the exporter stopped buying from DrumNet because farmers could not meet new EU production requirements. Farmers sold to other middlemen and defaulted on their loans from DrumNet. Such experiences may explain why farmers are less likely to adopt export crops.
Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness;
Trade;
Profit;
Marketing;
Standards;
Failure;
Non-Governmental Organizations;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Kenya;
European Union;
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Journal Article
| American Economic Review
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Spousal Control and Intra-Household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines
Nava Ashraf
Using an experimental design I elicit causal effects of spousal observability and communication on financial choices of married individuals in the Philippines. Making choices public moves men from putting money into their own account to consumption; communication with their spouse drives men to put income in their wives' account. The strong effect on men but not women of information and communication appears to be driven not as much by gender as by control: men whose wives control household savings are much more likely to exhibit this treatment effect, and women whose husbands control savings exhibit the same pattern as men. These results suggest that existing household models and policies are incomplete without taking into account the bargaining process and, in particular, the way in which this process interacts with underlying control structures in the household.
Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions;
Gender Characteristics;
Household Characteristics;
Personal Finance;
Saving;
Governance Controls;
Family and Family Relationships;
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Article
| Experimental Economics
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Decomposing Trust and Trustworthiness
Nava Ashraf, Iris Bohnet and Nikita Piankov
Keywords: Trust;
Change;
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Article
| Quarterly Journal of Economics
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Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin
Keywords: Information;
Product;
Philippines;
Citation: Ashraf, Nava, Dean Karlan, and Wesley Yin. " Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines." Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, no. 2 (May 2006). ( Winner of TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award Certificate of Excellence For an outstanding research publication containing ideas that the public and private sectors can use to maintain and improve America's lifelong financial well being presented by TIAA-CREF Institute .)
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Journal Article
| Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy
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Deposit Collectors
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin
Citation: Ashraf, Nava, Dean Karlan, and Wesley Yin. " Deposit Collectors." Art. 5. Special Issue on Field Experiments Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy 6, no. 2 (2006).
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Article
| Journal of Economic Perspectives
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Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist
Nava Ashraf, Colin Camerer and George Loewenstein
Keywords: Behavior;
Economics;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2012
Information and Subsidies: Complements or Substitutes?
Nava Ashraf, Kelsey Jack and Emir Kamenica
Does providing information about a product affect the impact of price subsidies on purchases of new or unfamiliar products? This question is particularly relevant for the introduction of health products in developing countries where consumers may be uncertain about product quality and price subsidies are common policy instruments. Through a field experiment selling an unfamiliar health product in Zambia, we find that providing precise information about product specifications significantly increases the impact of the price subsidy on take-up. Taken alone, the information manipulation has no significant impact on demand while the price subsidy substantially increases demand. However, evaluation of either intervention in isolation fails to capture the significant complementarity between the two.
Keywords: subsidies;
information;
health;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2010
Remittances and the Problem of Control: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador
Nava Ashraf, Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A. and Dean Yang
Keywords: Immigration;
Diasporas;
International Finance;
El Salvador;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2012
Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia
Nava Ashraf, Erica Field and Jean Lee
Keywords: Family and Family Relationships;
Negotiation;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Zambia;
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Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
| 2012
No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Pro-Social Tasks
Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera and Kelsey Jack
A substantial body of research investigates the effect of pay for performance in firms, yet less is known about the effect of non-financial rewards, especially in organizations that hire individuals to perform tasks with positive social spillovers. We conduct a field experiment in which agents recruited by a public health organization to sell condoms are randomly allocated to four groups. Agents in the control group are hired as volunteers, whereas agents in the three treatment groups receive a small monetary margin on each pack sold, a large margin, and a non-financial reward, respectively. The analysis yields three main findings. First, non-financial rewards are more effective at eliciting effort than either financial rewards or the volunteer contract, and are also the most cost-effective of the four schemes. Second, non-financial rewards leverage intrinsic motivation and, contrary to existing laboratory evidence, financial incentives do not appear to crowd it out. Third, the responses to both types of incentives are stronger when their relative value is higher. Indeed, financial rewards are effective at motivating the poorest agents, and non-financial rewards are more effective when the peer group is larger. Overall, the findings demonstrate the power of non-financial rewards to motivate agents in settings where there are limits to the use of financial incentives.
Keywords: incentives;
non-monetary rewards;
intrinsic motivation;
Mission and Purpose;
Research;
Social Enterprise;
Motivation and Incentives;
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Working Paper
| 2010
Evaluating the Effects of Large-Scale Health Interventions in Developing Countries: The Zambian Malaria Initiative
Nava Ashraf, Gunther Fink and David N. Weil
Since 2003, Zambia has been engaged in a large-scale, centrally coordinated national anti-malaria campaign which has become a model in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper aims at quantifying the individual and macro level benefits of this campaign, which involved mass distribution of insecticide treated mosquito nets, intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women, indoor residual spraying, rapid diagnostic tests, and artemisinin-based combination therapy. We discuss the timing and regional coverage of the program and critically review the available health and program rollout data. To estimate the health benefits associated with the program rollout, we use both population based morbidity measures from the Demographic and Health Surveys and health facility based mortality data as reported in the national Health Management Information System. While we find rather robust correlations between the rollout of bed nets and subsequent improvements in our health measures, the link between regional spraying and individual level health appears rather weak in the data.
Keywords: Cost vs Benefits;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Health Care and Treatment;
Health Disorders;
Performance Evaluation;
Programs;
Health Industry;
Zambia;
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Class Lecture
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2011
Impacting Global Health
Nava Ashraf
Keywords: Health;
Global Range;
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Teaching Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2010 version)
Deworming Kenya: Translating Research into Action (TN) (A) and (B)
Nava Ashraf, Neil Buddy Shah and Rachel Gordon
Teaching Note for 910001.
Keywords: Health Disorders;
Research and Development;
Health Care and Treatment;
Kenya;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2010 version)
Community Health Workers in Zambia: Incentive Design and Management
Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred
This case examines the various considerations relevant to selecting and compensating workers in a context where their work involves a pro-social component. This is relevant to not only health care in Zambia, but to NGO and public sector workers who are both motivated by the mission of their positions and the remuneration. Zambia was facing a healthcare human resource crisis with less than half of the healthcare workers needed to meet health needs. Yet, it was simultaneously burdened by high incidence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, malnutrition, and respiratory and diarrheal diseases. The Zambian Ministry of Health (MoH) realized that in the short term, it would be impossible to train the number of doctors and nurses needed to fill this gap. Thus, they were considering incorporating the primarily volunteer community health worker (CHW) force into salaried health workers of the MoH. Given the high level of personal commitment and dedication combined with the proper education and skill needed to be an effective community health worker, the MoH was struggling to identify the best strategy to recruit and retain motivated and capable CHWs.
Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies;
Training;
Health Care and Treatment;
Compensation and Benefits;
Recruitment;
Selection and Staffing;
Mission and Purpose;
Non-Governmental Organizations;
Motivation and Incentives;
Health Industry;
Zambia;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2013
(Revised from original 2011 version)
Uptake of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests
Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred
This case describes barriers to adoption of malaria rapid diagnostic tests in Zambia and highlights the importance of understanding end users in promoting product adoption. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are simple, easy-to-use tools that provide a relatively reliable, inexpensive way to confirm diagnoses of malaria. In addition to ensuring that patients' febrile illnesses are properly diagnosed and treated, confirming malaria diagnoses has broader public health benefits, including promoting the efficient use of limited malaria medications and preventing increased resistance to first-line malaria treatment. However, despite the evident potential benefits of RDTs, many clinicians in Zambia do not use them or simply ignore their results. Why don't they trust these tools, and what can be done to improve adoption? Various barriers to uptake and methods to overcome these challenges are explored, with broad implications for technology adoption and health policy. A particular emphasis is placed on the role of behavioral preferences.
Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies;
Health Pandemics;
Technology;
Health Care and Treatment;
Policy;
Behavior;
Prejudice and Bias;
Health Industry;
Zambia;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2010
Oral Rehydration Therapy
Nava Ashraf and Claire Qureshi
This case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy (ORT). ORT treated extreme dehydration caused by diarrhea, which was a leading cause of death among young children in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia. Heralded in the 1970s as one of the most Important medical advancements of the 20th century, ORT contributed to a reduction in diarrhea-related child deaths from roughly 4.5 million in 1980 to 1.5 million in 2000. Yet for reasons unclear to the global public health community, the mortality rate stalled at around 1.5 million, where it remained in 2010. In presenting the problem of diarrhea-related death, the solution represented by ORT, and the various factors potentially influencing ORT utilization, the case allows students to analyze the possible causes of low ORT utilization and potential measures to address them.
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2010
(Revised from original 2009 version)
Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (A)
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin and Marc Shotland
Green Bank of the Philippines was known for its product innovation and its ability to bring new products to market. In 2002, Green Bank designed an untested commitment savings product that both gave individuals access to formal savings and helped them commit to reaching their savings goals. Omar Andaya, the Green Bank president, must decide how to evaluate the success of this product. The management team at Green Bank discusses various evaluation methods, including a formal quantitative impact evaluation using a randomized control trial (RCT), and the value an impact assessment brings to the Bank. In particular, they grapple with the question of how success is measured for a product both for the bank and for its clients. The case highlights the issues an organization must consider before deciding to do an impact assessment as well as common design challenges.
Keywords: Saving;
Innovation and Invention;
Measurement and Metrics;
Product Design;
Success;
Performance Evaluation;
Banking Industry;
Philippines;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2010
(Revised from original 2010 version)
Deworming Kenya: Translating Research into Action (A)
Nava Ashraf, Neil Buddy Shah and Rachel Gordon
Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, have spent the last six months planning and preparing for a national Kenyan program to target school children most at risk for parasitic worm infection. One week after its launch, the program seemed to be going well but Ndanyi and Levy knew that it still needed to be administered in almost 40 districts at thousands of schools. They wondered: Would they meet their goal of deworming over three million school children before the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2009? Would they be able to do it for less than $0.50 per child?
Keywords: Planning;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Mission and Purpose;
Performance Efficiency;
Programs;
Problems and Challenges;
Research;
Policy;
Health Care and Treatment;
Management Practices and Processes;
Kenya;
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Supplement
| HBS Case Collection
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2010
Deworming Kenya: Translating Research into Action (B)
Nava Ashraf, Neil Buddy Shah and Rachel Gordon
Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, learn the results of their nation-wide effort to rid Kenyan school children of parasitic worm infection.
Keywords: Programs;
Health Care and Treatment;
Research;
Policy;
Outcome or Result;
Kenya;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2007
(Revised from original 2007 version)
PSI: Social Marketing Clean Water
V. Kasturi Rangan, Nava Ashraf and Marie Bell
Senior management at PSI, arguably the world's largest and most successful social marketer with impressive achievements in the field of family planning, HIV/AIDS, and malaria prevention must determine what to do about their slow-to-take-off clean water initiative. PSI's point-of-use products offered effective protection against water-borne diseases, especially diarrhea, yet the organization found it hard to attract donor funds to sustain the initiative. Its managers must determine how to alter their strategy going forward.
Keywords: Investment Funds;
Health Care and Treatment;
Social Marketing;
Natural Environment;
Social Enterprise;
Business Strategy;
Citation: Rangan, V. Kasturi, Nava Ashraf, and Marie Bell. " PSI: Social Marketing Clean Water." Harvard Business School Case 507-052, December 2007. (Revised from original January 2007 version.)
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Chapter
| Globalization and Poverty
| 2006
My Policies or Yours: Do OECD Agricultural Policies Affect Poverty in Developing Countries?
Nava Ashraf, Margaret McMillan and Alix Peterson-Zwane
Keywords: Agribusiness;
Policy;
Government and Politics;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Trade;
Poverty;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Citation: Ashraf, Nava, Margaret McMillan, and Alix Peterson-Zwane. "My Policies or Yours: Do OECD Agricultural Policies Affect Poverty in Developing Countries?" In Globalization and Poverty, edited by Ann Harrison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. ( Read the New York Times article citing this paper .)
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2004
SEED: A Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin
Keywords: Saving;
Financial Instruments;
Philippines;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2003
Testing Savings Product Innovations Using an Experimental Methodology
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin
Keywords: Saving;
Financial Instruments;
Innovation and Invention;
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Other Unpublished Work
| 2003
A Review of Commitment Savings Products in Developing Countries
Nava Ashraf, Nathalie Gons, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin
Keywords: Saving;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Financial Instruments;
Research Summary
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Research Summary
Overview
by
Nava Ashraf
Professor Ashraf's research applies insights from psychology, sociology, and economics to understand and affect behavior in development. Her current research interests fall into three broad categories: technology adoption, motivation and incentive design, and intra-household decision making.
Keywords: health;
Microfinance;
Agriculture;
Women's Empowerment;
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Research Summary
Technology Adoption
by
Nava Ashraf
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Research Summary
Motivation and Incentive Design
by
Nava Ashraf
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Research Summary
Intra-Household Decision Making
by
Nava Ashraf
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Research Summary
Health
by
Nava Ashraf
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Research Summary
Microfinance
by
Nava Ashraf
"Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines." (with Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin)Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, no. 2, 2006.
"Female Empowerment: Further Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines." (with Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin) April 2009, World Development. 38, Issue 3, March 2010
"Deposit Collectors." (with Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin) Advances in Economic Analysis &Policy, Vol. 6, No. 2, Article 5, March 2006.
"Remittances and the Problem of Control: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador." (with Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A., and Dean Yang).
"Spousal Control and Intra-Household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines." American Economic Review 99, no. 4, September 2009.
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Research Summary
Agriculture
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Nava Ashraf
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Research Summary
Women's Empowerment
by
Nava Ashraf
Related Link:
Girls Negotiation Project Video
Teaching
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Teaching Interest
Managing Global Health: Applying Behavioral Economics to Create Impact (MBA)
by
Nava Ashraf
Health, and development more broadly, is not something we give to people: it is something they produce themselves, interacting with supply-side and institutional factors. This course trains students to see through the lens of the end-user and to use the levers of behavior change to generate impact in health and social programs. Although most of the applications are in global health, it is appropriate for students who anticipate working in health, education, or international development sectors, as well as those with a general interest in learning how behavioral economics can be effectively applied.
In this course, students learn how to design products and services from the perspective of the patient/customer and the provider/supplier.
The course is organized around three core modules, each of which focus on one of the elements that comes together to jointly produce a health outcome: the customer, the provider, and the system:
- How do we understand the needs of the customer (patient)? How do we design and deliver products to meet those needs?
- How do we motivate the providers and ensure they are providing the best care possible?
- How can the larger health system, including private sector actors, enable the production of health? How do we change practices on a system-level?
Through exposure to major practitioner challenges and innovative solutions from HBS Case discussions, protagonists from the field, expert guest faculty from across Harvard, and engagement with cutting edge research in public health, public policy, psychology, and economics, students will learn to bridge the worlds of research and action to creatively, and skillfully, make an impact in global health. Related Links: Find out what alumni have said about the influence of "Managing Global Health: Applying Behavioral Economics to Create Impact" on their careers (VIDEO), Hear more from Professor Ashraf about the course (VIDEO)
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Teaching Interest
Field Experiments (PhD)
by
Nava Ashraf
This course is for doctoral students who want to learn how to design and run field experiments as a research methodology. The objective is for students to refine their own experimental designs and be able to run them by the end of the course, leading to an academic paper.
The course will be hands-on and oriented towards providing technical skills for the design and implementation of field experiments, including overcoming the many possible associated pitfalls. We will examine in-depth examples of how field experiments are designed, implemented and analyzed, including the “back story” of several published field experiments.
We will also discuss at length throughout the course how to use field experiments to test academic theory as opposed to only for policy/impact evaluation. The course also introduces particularly fruitful areas for research using field experiments and facilitates students’ presentations of their own research ideas.
Awards & Honors
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Nava Ashraf: Recipient of a 2012 Rising Star in Global Health Grant from Grand Challenges Canada.
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Nava Ashraf: Winner of the 2006 TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award Certificate of Excellence for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security for the article “Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines” (Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2006) with Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin.
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Nava Ashraf: Recipient of the 2003 Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal from the Chancellery of Honours, Canada.
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Nava Ashraf: Member of Phi Beta Kappa since 1996.
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Nava Ashraf: Inducted into the Order of British Columbia in 1995. Youngest Recipient Ever.
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