Arman Rezaee

Arman Rezaee is an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. Much of Arman’s research focuses on the role that information communication technology (ICT) can play in improving public service delivery, and livelihoods more broadly, in developing contexts. Arman works with partners across the globe to develop, implement, and test new technologies leveraging ICT to these ends. Such technologies include a first-of-its-kind smartphone monitoring platform for health inspectors in Pakistan, a yelp.com-style information clearinghouse to rate government veterinarians in Pakistan, low-cost cellular towers bringing first time access to remote communities in the Philippines, SMS day-ahead air pollution forecasts in Lahore, and most recently a voice-based social network designed to provide maternal and child health information to rural, low-literate expectant fathers in Pakistan. All of these projects have been implemented with competitive grant funding from the Gates Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, the International Growth Centre, Private Enterprise for Development in Low-income Countries (PEDL), and more. And all of these projects have been conducted as large-scale randomized controlled trials, ensuring rigorous impact evaluations aimed at both academic and policy audiences. In 2023, Arman co-edited the master’s-level textbook Introduction to Development Engineering, contributing the chapter on Digital Governance. Prior to receiving his Ph.D. in economics from UC San Diego, Arman received a master’s in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Before that, he was a rhetoric major at UC Berkeley where he spent most of his time organizing within the UC to support the recruitment and retention of students of color.