Professor Niaz Asadullah received his Doctorate degree in Economics from Oxford University in 2005. Before coming to Malaysia, he taught economics at Reading University, UK, for seven years. He also held visiting positions at Harvard, Oxford, Manchester, Kent, Dhaka, BRAC, Chulalongkorn and Mindanao State Universities. At the University of Malaya, he additionally served as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies (CPDS) from 2014-2016. His research relates to poverty, inequality, well-being, education, labor market, skills formation and gender issues with a focus on South/East Asia and Islamic countries. His work has been supported by the Social Security Research Centre (SSRC) and HIR schemes of the University of Malaya as well as international grants such as the Australian Development Research Award Scheme, Leverhulme Trust (UK), International Growth Centre (IGC), the DFID (UK), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), South Asian Network of Economic Research Institutes, Global Education Commission, and the World Bank. He has also consulted for Asian Productivity Organization (APO), BRAC, Oxford Policy Management, BAPPENAS (Government of Indonesia), UN-ESCAP, the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO).

He has published in economics journals (Australian Economic Review, Asian Development Review, Bulletin of Economic Research, Cambridge Journal of Economics, China Economic Review, Economica, Economics of Education Review, Education Economics, Feminist Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Economic Studies, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Policy Modelling, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, and World Development) as well as non-economics journals (Journal of Biosocial Sciences, Comparative Education Review, Development Policy Review, Economic and Political Weekly, European Journal of Development Research, Food Policy, Oxford Development Studies, Social Indicators Research, Third World Quarterly, International Journal of Manpower, International Journal of Educational Development and PLoS One).



In addition to 50+ ISI/SCOPUS journal papers, Prof Asadullah has published 100+ media articles (opinion pieces) in newspapers/magazines including the Project Syndicate, the Conversation, World Economic Forum, D+C Development and Cooperation, the East Asia Forum, the Diplomat and World Education Forum (UNESCO). He has appeared on interviews with the Al-jazeera, ABC Australia, Astro Awani TV (Malaysia), BBC (Bengali), the Star (Malaysia), the Edge Financial Daily, Business FM Malaysia & Daily Sabah (Turkey). He has delivered 100+ lectures/keynotes at national/international seminars/symposiums/conferences and has edited/reviewed 300+ research manuscripts/proposals for 100+ peer-reviewed journals/publishers/funding agencies.

Professor Asadullah is an Academic Editor of PLOS One and Associate Editor of BMC Public Health (Springer), the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities (Taylor & Francis), Asia Pacific Education Review (Springer) and Singapore Economic Review (World Scientific) and Co-Editor of the Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics (Springer Nature). He is also on the editorial advisory board of COMPARE: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (Taylor & Francis), International Journal of Educational Development (Elsevier), Journal of Poverty and Public Policy (Willey), Journal of Public Affairs (Willey), and Malaysian Journal of Economics. Other active affiliations include: Visiting Professorial Fellow (University of Manchester); Fellow of the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Peer Review College; Research Fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Global Labor Organization (GLO) Lead for Malaysia & South-East Asia; Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA); Co-founder of the Initiative on Education, Gender and Growth in Asia.