Research Director - Macro/Modeling Group, PEP Research Fellow
Team Lead Oxford Policy Management Pakistan
Dr. Vaqar Ahmed is a Pakistani macroeconomist with over 23 years of experience in public finance, tax and trade policy, and economy-wide modelling in developing countries. He holds a PhD in Economics from the National University of Ireland, Galway, with academic and policy specialization in the evaluation of tax and trade reforms, macro-fiscal frameworks, and distributional impacts of economic policy.
Dr. Ahmed is currently Team Lead at Oxford Policy Management (Pakistan), where he directs large-scale monitoring, evaluation, and policy advisory portfolios for major international donors including the UK FCDO and the European Union. His work focuses on macro-fiscal analysis, governance and public financial management, political economy analysis, and evidence-based policy design in complex environments.
He previously served as Joint Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), one of South Asia’s leading think tanks, where he led research and policy engagement on fiscal reforms, trade competitiveness, private sector development, and macroeconomic stabilization. Over his career, he has advised ministries of finance, planning, and commerce, as well as institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and UN agencies.
A specialist in computable general equilibrium (CGE) and microsimulation modelling, Dr. Ahmed has led the development of macro-econometric and economy-wide models to assess taxation, tariff reforms, public expenditure, and external shocks. His analytical work has supported national planning processes, IMF programme analysis, tariff policy reviews, and medium-term macro-fiscal frameworks.
His research spans tax policy, trade integration, fiscal sustainability, social protection financing, and the macroeconomic impacts of crises, with publications in international peer-reviewed journals and policy outlets. He is widely recognized for bridging rigorous quantitative modelling with real-world policy design, particularly in fragile and reforming economies.
Dr. Ahmed is an active member of several professional bodies including the Pakistan Society of Development Economists and The Indus Entrepreneurs, and regularly contributes to international policy dialogues on fiscal reform, trade policy, and development strategy.
In addition to South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal), he has worked in, Africa (Kenya, South Africa) on evaluation of improved food technology, United States (International Monetary Fund Fellowship Programme), European Union (Ireland, France, Germany and Italy) on welfare impact of trade reforms, and Far East (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) on assignments related to South-South exchange and learning.
Dr. Ahmed has been involved with PEP since 2005. First as a researcher and then as a mentor and policy engagement expert. He was among the first cohort inducted as PEP Research Fellows in 2017.
Dr. Ahmed is the Research Director for the Macro-Micro Policy Modeling Group at the Partnership for Economic Policy.
Fields of specialization
Poverty and inequality
Education and training
Impacts of government programs
Fiscal policy
Labour markets and employment
Globalization and trade
PROGRAM COMMITTEE MACRO/MODELING GROUP - SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT TEAM
