Saugato Datta

Saugato Datta is a Managing Director at ideas42, where he oversees the bulk of the organisation's work in low- and middle-income countries in South and South-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. He works with partners in government, NGOs and firms focused on low-income populations to design, test and scale applications of behavioral economics to benefit poor people in developing countries. His current work spans public health, violence reduction, financial inclusion, resource conservation, agriculture, and the design of transfer programs. Before joining ideas42, Saugato spent three years writing about economics at The Economist in London. He edited the third edition of Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy, an edited selection of Economist articles about economics. Prior to this, he was a researcher at the World Bank in Washington, DC. Dr. Datta has published papers on discrimination in Indian labor and housing markets, the effects of infrastructure development in developing countries, HIV risk and learning, behavioral economics and development, and nudges for water conservation. His work has been written about in the Guardian, New York Times, and the Washington Post, among other outlets. He has a PhD in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Delhi.