Asankha Pallegedara is a lecturer attached to the department of industrial management of the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka. He has completed his bachelor’s degree in Engineering from University of Electro-Communications (UEC), Japan and MA & PhD degrees in Development Economics from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan. He was a Japanese government monbukagakusho (MEXT) scholar for his undergraduate and post-graduate studies. His main research interests include development economics, economics of education, health economics, industrial and financial economics.

He joined our chair with a Georg Forster-stipend from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation from March 2016 until February 2018.

Asankha Pallegedara at the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

Edward is a Development Economist at the University of Ghana. He teaches courses in development finance, public sector finance and economics, and labor economics.

In his research, Edward seeks to understand challenges facing developing countries, particularly Sub-Saharan African countries, with the aim to help design and evaluate interventions.
Prior to his appointment in Ghana, Edward Asiedu was a postdoctoral teaching and research fellow at the Chair of Development Economics University of Passau. Edward continues to collaborate with the team in Passau.

Edward holds a Bachelor’s degree with first class honors from the University of Ghana, Legon and a M.A in Economics and M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph in Canada. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Göttingen in September 2014.

Edwards research and interest lies in the application of field experiments (both lab-in-the field experiments and randomized controlled trials (RCTs)  and empirical economics to address issues critical for developing countries including the provision and monitoring of public goods in developing countries, designing of strong institutions (using experimental methods), addressing micro-enterprises challenges, increasing investments into agriculture and agricultural research, targeting corruption, economics of poverty and inequality, and evaluating anti-poverty policies.

During his time in Passau, Edward was in particular involved in a project jointly undertaken with DIE (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik) that examined the impact of interventions aimed at improving the effectiveness of the decentralization programme in Togo. Edward was responsible for the baseline implementation of the project. Edward was also the international consultant for the BMZ -supported ‘Green Innovation Center’ One World - No Hunger Initiative implemented by the GIZ. Edward served as the project lead for Ghana.

Currently Edward is involved in the World Bank’s Ghana Poverty (ASA) project and the FAO’s Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) evaluation.
Edward is a member of the Economic Science Association and the Canadian Economics Association.

Edward Asiedu at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS)

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Publications