Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre at LUMS

As discussions and developmental work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) pick up pace across the world, watchers of Pakistan’s economic...

Vaccine hesitancy is a global phenomenon and one of particular concern at the present moment with the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and their reception around the world. An extensive literature studies...

Inequality has emerged as a major global challenge around the world, and reducing inequalities within and amongst countries has been recognized as a UN SDG goal (no. 10). Growing levels of inequality tend to create poverty because money continues to move from those who must spend...

Rapid urbanization in low and middle-income countries is contributing to the ‘urbanization of poverty’. Yet the true scale and nature of this challenge are unknown. Census data are infrequent and household surveys...

What does the politics of energy tell us about the relationship of the Pakistani state with its citizens? With loadshedding in the news again, it is worth looking at the preceding two decades to assess whether any substantive change in this relationship has taken place...

In 2015, local elections were held in Pakistan, ten years after the previous ones in 2005 during General Pervez Musharraf’s military rule. Local government elections...

On 11 November 2021, Zakia Bibi, a resident of the Gujjar Nala community in Karachi, passed away from a heart attack after her home was demolished by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on the Supreme Court’s directives. Just a week before...

What does governance look like from the perspectives of chronically poor and marginalised households?...

While positive swings most certainly indicate improving trends in women’s political inclusion, should we see the lack of a gender gap in turnout as indicative of women’s political agency? My recent research in rural India suggests maybe not...

Despite the huge amounts of funds dedicated to the program and the repeated applause of the precision and efficacy of drone strikes from policy circles, evidence on the effectiveness of drone strikes as a counter-terrorism strategy is...

What happens when property rights are not secure? In a recent paper, I delve into the role of property rights in explaining the misallocation of land and labor...

The regulation of electronic media happens through PEMRA, which is authorized in its watchdog capacity to send notices and directives to channels. But where does PEMRA dedicate most of its time?

How does bureaucracy matter for state capacity and development? Over the last years, enormous interest in this question has created a large body of research, mostly focused around...

What precipitated the political crisis in Pakistan that brought about a change in the government? Will the nation move beyond the crisis any time soon? How can the implicit clash of institutions be avoided?

Feminist activism has faced new and diverse challenges over the past decade. These have led to an increased dismantling of civil liberties, freedom of speech, expression, and...

Management reform strategies are often steeped in a top-down, command-and-control, incentive-laden theory of change. In my work, I explore when these approaches are useful, and...

The ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence vote in April 2022 divided an already polarized nation. Since then...

Chances are that the fruits and vegetables you ate today have been routed through one of the government-regulated wholesale markets after following a complex supply chain. This may lead us to think...

Considering recent events within the Pakistani and Sri Lankan economies, this blog piece assesses the following question: should Pakistan consider the Sri Lankan default a warning sign for its own economy?

Post the 1960s, Pakistan’s economic history has not been especially renowned for innovation or excellence. But in 2022...

On Pakistan’s 76th anniversary, MHRC Pakistan Dialogues wishes its readers a wholesome and reflective Independence Day. We reproduce the Quaid’s first speech...

The head of the UN mission to Sudan, Volker Perthes, announced to the Security Council on March 27, 2023 that he...