I am a development economist, studying issues related to poverty and social protection, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the department of Economics at Istanbul Technical University. Previously, I had been working as a post-doctoral scholar in the department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis- after finishing my PhD at Virginia Tech in 2014. I also collaborate with the World Bank as a consultant since 2011, conducting analyses and providing policy and technical support in Cameroon, Niger and Burkina Faso.
My research focuses on the design and evaluation of poverty alleviation projects through empirical micro-economic studies. I am particularly interested in household's productive activities in rural areas, as well as in poverty definition, perception and dynamics. My work has been influenced by my involvement in development projects, which pushed me to study issues related to targeting, cash transfers and index-based insurance. I care deeply about quantitative and qualitative data collection, and greatly enjoy conducting fieldwork.
I am currently teaching Development Economics at the undergraduate and graduate levels at ITU.