Dr. Emily Gustafsson-Wright

Dr. Gustafsson-Wright is a fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. Her current focus on effective delivery of social services including education and health interventions in developing countries has consolidated her role as a global expert on innovative financing mechanisms including payment by results, public-private partnerships and impact investing. She is the premier thought-leader and convener in the emerging field of social and development impact bonds and has written an unprecedented five publications on this cutting-edge topic including her most recent study, which examines early learnings from impact bonds in low and middle-income countries. She is regularly invited to contribute to high-level global conversations on impact bonds and outcome-based financing and has convened the largest global gatherings on these mechanisms to date. With nearly 20 years of experience in development, her career has primarily focused on applied microeconomic research in human development with regional foci in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean including conducting numerous impact evaluations.  Her previous professional experience includes working at the World Bank, the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center, and as Senior Researcher with the Amsterdam Institute for International Development (AIID). Dr. Gustafsson-Wright holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Tinbergen Institute at the University of Amsterdam, as well as Masters of Science in Applied Economics and Finance and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as contributed to several books in her field.