Sobia Shadbar

Sobia is a Research Associate at J-PAL South Asia. She is currently engaged in supporting an experimental study evaluating the effectiveness of incentivizing mental health care take-up among youth in Chennai, India. Prior to her association with J-PAL, Sobia worked as a Research and Evaluation Analyst at a Boston-based nonprofit engaged in poverty alleviation by fostering economic mobility and stability through multilateral programs and services. 

Sobia holds a bachelor's degree with honors, majoring in economics and minoring in psychology and political science from India, and a master’s degree in international affairs with a specialization in global economic affairs and development economics from Boston University. She has five years of diverse research experience across various academic, non-profit, and corporate institutions. Her areas of research interest include understanding barriers to human capital formation for intersectionality marginalized communities and barriers to scaling up evidence-based policy intervention design in developing and developed economies. 

With a commitment to furthering her research in subjects in development economics, Sobia aspires to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics. She is deeply committed to promoting inclusive and egalitarian development for all through her work. She aspires to leverage her research to derive evidence-based, policy-oriented solutions that address inequity and foster socioeconomic mobility and empowerment.