Professor Zaki Wahhaj

Zaki Wahhaj is a Professor of Economics. He obtained his BSc in Economics with Mathematics from Yale University, and a PhD in Economics from MIT. Following his PhD, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Research in Economic Development (CRED) at the University of Namur, Belgium, and three years as lecturer in development economics at the Department of International Development (ODID), University of Oxford. He joined the University of Kent in 2012 and became a Professor of Economics in 2022. He is Co-Director of the Development Economics Research Centre at Kent (DeReCK) and Associate Editor of the academic journal 'Economica'.

Zaki's main fields of research are in economic development and applied theory. His current research deals, broadly, with the themes of social norms and household decision-making in developing countries, including work on: 

• marriage markets in developing countries
  
• household decision-making in developing countries  
• access to finance for marginalised groups  
• evolution of social norms and informal institutions  

Zaki is Co-Director of the Development Economics Research Group at Kent (DeReCK).  

His RePEc page is http://econpapers.repec.org/RAS/pwa344.htm

• ECON8440: Development Economics

Zaki is presently looking to supervise PhD students in the following research areas:

• intra-household decision-making
• social and cultural norms
• financial access  
• informal and formal insurance
• social networks
• health and education in developing countries.

Current students

• Benjamin Loba (registered 2022)  
• Maliha Rahanaz (registered 2019)
  

Past students

• Aniema Atorudibo (registered 2017) 
• Guillermo Cabanillas Jimenez (registered 2017)
• Nudrat Shreya (registered 2015)
• Hamna Ahmed (registered 2014)
• Christian Crentsil (registered 2013)
• Mahreen Mahmud (registered 2012)
• Francis Darko (registered 2012)

Administrative roles

• HSS Divisional Impact and Engagement Lead