Ambar Narayan, a Lead Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank, focuses on policy analysis and research on micro development issues, on topics such as inequality of opportunity, poverty reduction, policy and program evaluation, and the impact of economic shocks. He leads the central support team for the World Bank’s Systematic Country Diagnostics, and in the past has worked in the South Asia region of the World Bank on knowledge and lending programs in multiple countries. Among the studies for which he has been a lead author, some notable ones are "Do African Children Have an Equal Chance? A Human Opportunity Report for Sub-Saharan Africa"; Poverty Assessment reports for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; South Africa Economic Update, Focus on Inequality of Opportunity; and the edited volumes “Breaking Down Poverty in Bangladesh” and “Knowing, When You Do Not Know: Simulating the Poverty and Distributional Impacts of an Economic Crisis”. He has also authored a number of scholarly articles and working papers, which reflect the eclectic mix of topics he has worked on over the years. He holds Masters degrees in Economics from Delhi School of Economics and Brown University, and a PhD in Economics from Brown University.