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Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

  • Going the Last Mile (with Evidence)

    A study by Yale’s Mushfiq Mobarak and his colleagues found that nurses on motorbikes with vaccine-stocked coolers could help increase vaccination rates in rural Sierra Leone, showing that it is possible to get health interventions to the most remote and under-resourced areas cost-effectively, in ways that help ensure that the interventions are taken up and used.

    A motorcycle carrying vaccine supplies along a dirt road
  • Video: Dating, Marriage, Parenting, and the Gender Wage Gap

    Women earn 79 cents for every dollar that men make. But look beyond that widely cited statistic, and you’ll find a complex story of causes, effects, and correlations. Prof. Mushfiq Mobarak surveys the literature on the subject and argues that, to close the gap, we need to address society’s differing expectations around who bears the burden of family and parenting responsibilities.

    An illustration of a woman thinking about earnings and family
  • Uncovering the Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

    A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak investigated how mental health fared after the pandemic arrived in eight low- and middle-income countries, and found signs of a sharp, and lasting, deterioration.

    A COVID-19 patient is taken to a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in July 2021.
  • In a First, Randomized Study Shows That Masks Reduce COVID-19 Infections

    A large study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Jason Abaluck and Mushfiq Mobarak found that a mask-promotion program in Bangladesh significantly lowered symptomatic infections, especially among older people and when surgical masks are used.

    A staff member handing a mask to a vegetable seller in Bangladesh
  • Send Vaccines Where People Want Them: Developing Nations

    COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is significantly higher in low- and middle-income countries than wealthy ones. Prioritizing those countries for vaccine distribution could help save more lives and keep variants at bay.

    A COVID-19 vaccination site in Uganda, one of the countries surveyed in the study, in May 2021. Photo: Nicholas Kajoba/Xinhua via Getty Images.
  • Study in Bangladesh Identifies Keys to Encouraging Mask-Wearing

    A team of researchers, including Yale SOM’s Jason Abaluck and Mushfiq Mobarak, tested multiple methods for encouraging use of masks in Bangladesh and identified a group of simple interventions that tripled usage.

    A shopkeeper in Bangladesh wearing a mask provided as part of the study 
  • Skilled Workers Flee from Polluted Cities, Hampering Economic Growth

    In China, highly educated people are more likely to move away from areas with poor air quality. Reducing pollution could substantially increase GDP there and in other countries, according to a new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak.

    A cyclist in Beijing on a day of heavy pollution in December 2015.
  • How COVID-19 Is Making Gender Inequality Worse in Low-Income Countries—and What to Do About It

    Gender disparities in social and economic outcomes, already larger in the developing world than in rich countries, have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Policy action is badly needed to address the compounding of existing inequalities and protect the most vulnerable women.

    A Doctors Without Borders healthcare provider with a mother and her child at a mobile clinic in Sierra Leone in July 2020. Photo: Saidu Bah/AFP via Getty Images.
  • Seeking Scalable Solutions to Poverty

    Prof. Mushfiq Mobarak describes the arc of his research on scalable, evidence-based policy responses to poverty and how existing research tools have been applied to fight COVID.

    Garment workers demonstrating in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on September 20, 2020. Photo: Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
  • Study Examines Spread of COVID-19 among Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

    Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak and his co-authors investigated the prevalence of the disease in the crowded refugee camps and offered recommendations to slow its spread.

    Rohingya refugees at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh on May 15, 2020. Photo: Suzauddin Rubel/AFP Via Getty Images.