Dr. Ahsan Aslam Khan, PhD
Economist and research strategist working on how financial systems reach people — and what changes when governance, migration and climate finance enter the picture.
PhD in Economics, Universiti Utara Malaysia. MPhil in Business Economics and MSc in Economics, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan. Doctoral research: The Role of Remittance and Financial Inclusion in Economic Growth.
What I work on
My research sits between applied econometrics and policy design, and it keeps returning to one question: what actually determines whether a financial system reaches the people it is supposed to serve? That question runs through work on remittances and economic growth, on the way governance quality conditions the effect of financial inclusion, and on composite measurement — building indices that let countries be compared consistently rather than judged on a single indicator such as account ownership.
More recently the work has moved toward green finance and ESG integration, particularly what a workable disclosure and lending framework would require of banks in Pakistan. It is the least crowded part of the field and the one where the gap between published commitments and operating practice is widest.
Across 10 peer-reviewed articles, the venues include Discover Sustainability (Springer), Cogent Economics & Finance, Sage Open, the Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences and Kurdish Studies. The complete list, with DOIs where they exist, is on the publications section, and the authoritative version is on Google Scholar.
Books
Before the move into academic research, two books on market analysis: Insight into Forex Trading (2014 · Kindle edition) and Candlestick Analysis (Kindle edition). They came out of a period spent trading rather than modelling, and they are the reason the analytical work that followed stayed close to how markets actually behave.
Research projects
- Financial Inclusion Index for the MENA Region — A composite index measuring depth, accessibility, and usage of financial services, extended with digital payment, card, borrower, and saver indicators.
- Global Financial Inclusion Index Development — Cross-country measurement of financial reachability and its interaction with remittances, human capital, and governance quality.
- Green Banking and ESG Integration Framework — Building a framework for ESG integration and green finance instruments in Pakistan's banking sector, aimed at a more resilient and sustainable financial ecosystem.
Speaking
- 10th Doha Islamic Finance Conference (IFC Doha), Qatar — IFC Doha, Qatar
- 9th International Islamic Monetary Economics and Finance Conference — Bank Indonesia, Jakarta
- Financial Stability Conference, Bank Indonesia & BMEB — Bank Indonesia, Jakarta
Editorial and review work
- Editorial Board Member of the Indonesian Treasury Review (ITRev) — Issued by Directorate General of Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia
- SAGE Journal Reviewer
- Springer Nature Reviewer
- Springer Nature Reviewer
Why this site exists
Economic commentary on Pakistan tends to arrive either as a wire headline with no mechanism attached, or as a journal article eighteen months after the fact. This site is an attempt at the space between: explaining why a number moved, who it lands on, and what to watch next — written for people who need to act on it, including the Pakistanis abroad whose remittances are one of the few reliably positive lines in the external account.
Everything published here states its sources. Where a calculation is mine, the method is stated. Where the data does not support a claim, the claim does not get made.
Contact
For research collaboration, peer review, data requests or speaking: [email protected]. I read everything, and reply to most of it.