Ashley Pople

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Hi there!

I am an economist working on climate adaptation, 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

  1. Anticipatory cash transfers in climate disaster response

(With Ruth Hill, Stefan Dercon and Ben Brunckhorst)

Paper | VoxDev podcast | Blog post | AEA trial registry


  1. 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)

Paper | 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)


  1. AI and services-led growth: Evidence from Indian job adverts

(With Alex Copestake, Katherine Stapleton and Max Marczinek)

Paper | Slides


Work in progress

  1. 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


  1. 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)


  1. 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)


  1. The paradox of search frictions in online job matching

About this project

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