Sam Asher

Sam Asher is Assistant Professor of International Economics at Johns Hopkins SAIS and cofounder of Development Data Lab. Development Data Lab works with governments, firms, and civil society organizations to generate policy-relevant knowledge from their underused data. Asher's research seeks to understand the microeconomic determinants of economic growth, urbanization, and economic opportunity for the poor. Together with Paul Novosad, he has built a high spatial resolution data platform and new analytic tools to analyze economic development at the local level in India. Current projects are examining the causes and consequences of educational mobility, segregation, and frictions preventing workers from moving to greater opportunities across India's 600,000 towns and villages.