Ashley Pople
Hi there!
I am an economist working on climate, cash transfers and labour markets. I currently work in the World Bank's Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Unit for the South Asia Region as a Young Professional. I previously led a research agenda on anticipatory action for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York and consulted for the Centre for Disaster Protection.
I completed my PhD in Economics at the University of Oxford in 2022. I remain affiliated with the University of Oxford's Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) and the Mind & Behaviour Research Group.
Working papers
Anticipatory cash transfers in climate disaster response
(With Ruth Hill, Stefan Dercon and Ben Brunckhorst)
Paper | VoxDev podcast | Blog post | AEA trial registry
Learning to see the world's opportunities: The impact of imagery on entrepreneurial success
(With Nava Ashraf, Gharad Bryan, Alexia Delfino, Emily Holmes and Leonardo Iacovone)
Updated working paper coming soon! | AEA trial registry
Grants: J-PAL Post-Primary Education ($181,366); J-PAL Jobs and Opportunity ($47,811); IPA Peace and Recovery ($128,970); LSE IGA-Rockefeller Research and Impact Fund (£71,436)
AI and services-led growth: Evidence from Indian job adverts
(With Alex Copestake, Katherine Stapleton and Max Marczinek)
Work in progress
What is the value of early response? Multi-country RCT of shock-responsive cash transfers in the Sahel
(With Thomas Bossuroy, Stéphanie Brunelin, Stefan Dercon, Patrick Premand, Margaux Vinez)
AEA trial registry | World Bank blog post
From farms to jobs: Creating jobs to preserve natural ecosystems in eastern DRC
(With Stefan Dercon, Sébastien Desbureaux and Gracieux Mutaka Shashi)
About this project | AEA trial registry
Grants: John Fell Fund (£38,000)
Memory, trauma and economic behaviour among refugees: Experimental evidence from teaching "postive imagery" in Ethiopia
(With Gharad Bryan, Alexia Delfino, Christian Meyer and Benyam Worku)
The paradox of search frictions in online job matching
Grants: J-PAL Jobs and Opportunity Initiative ($48,589); IPA Women’s Work, Entrepreneurship and Skilling (WWES) ($52,370); PEDL Exploratory Research Grant (£28,440)
Policy pieces
"Anticipatory Action: Lessons for the Future" - Frontiers in Climate, December 2022
Teaching
2016-2021: Microeconomics, MSc in Economics for Development, Oxford
2017: Development Economics Seminar Leader; Exeter Summer School, Oxford
2016: English teacher, TEACH Caribbean NGO, Jamaica
2014: Head Tutor, Advanced Micro & Macro, University of Cape Town
2012 & 2014: Tutor, Micro & Macro, University of Cape Town