The Chaudhary Nazar Muhammad Department of Economics at Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Science (MGSHSS) at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), has recognised and awarded Dr Ali Cheema, Co-founder and Board Member CERP, its prestigious Research Awards 2020.

This award was given to Dr Ali Cheema for his extensive work in the area of research and published department’s highest ranked publication in the esteemed Journal of Political Economy. This is the third top five publication by a Pakistan’s academic in the past two decades. He was also noted for having published a chapteron “Who do Politicians Talk To? Political Contact in Urban Punjab, co-authored by Dr Asad Liaqatand Dr Shandana Khan Mohammed in the book Pakistan’s Political Parties by Georgetown University Press along with numerous other valuable research contributions in the field of Economics.
Dr Ali Cheema’s Professional journey
Dr Ali Cheema is one of the founding members and a current board member at the Center of Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP). He is also an Associate Professor of Economics (currently on leave) and a former head of the Economics Department (2004-2007) at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at IDEAS. Dr Cheema has extensive experience in research and policy work in the areas of political economy, governance, the applied economics of crime and social protection, skills and the labour market. He was a member of the Initiative of Policy Dialogue (IPD), Columbia University, Task force on Decentralization and was one of the founding members of the Stockholm Challenge Award winning portal, Relief Information System for Earthquakes, Pakistan (RISEPAK). His recent work includes large-scale impact evaluations of vocational training for poverty reduction programs in Punjab and the relationship between criminal incidence and labour market outcomes in Pakistan.
A Rhodes Scholar, Dr Cheema holds a BA (Honors) degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford, and a BA in Mathematics and Statistics from Government College, Lahore. He received his MPhil in Economics and Politics of Development, and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Learn more about his research projects at CERP here.