Our Research

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) is a premier policy driven research institution with a distinguished 69 years history of advancing academic discourse and providing strategic solutions to Pakistan’s socio-economic challenges. PIDE remains committed to a revitalized spirit of intellectual rigor and institutional innovation through evidence-based research and policy advisory services to government, leveraging both institutional research priorities and responsive engagement with government departments and ministries.

Over seven decades, PIDE’s research, spanning critical areas such as administrative “sludge,” government footprint, regulatory reform, and elite capture, has successfully translated into actionable policy implementations. Currently, the Institute operates through eight specialized Research Centers focused on high-impact domains, including export-led growth, digital transformation, mobilizing endogenous resources, human capital development, and structural reforms. The aim of PIDE’s current research centers is to build policy-praxis articulation, ministerial and sectoral research collaborations, policy dialogue, empirical footprint and informed discourse within the domains of economy, development, governance and policy.

Dean Research

Dr. Shujaat Farooq

Research Centers

Eight research centers focusing research on contemporary economic issues; export-led growth, institutional reforms, social development, infrastructure, market economy, deregulation & evidence-driven policy. PIDE research is synergetic, theoretical & applied that impacts policy outcomes & outputs.

Our Researchers

Our researchers are trained in Economics, Public Policy, Development Studies, Demography & Anthropology. This academic diversity reflects in topicality & criticality, wherein researchers not only conduct & publish research but also disseminate results in Op-eds, policy engagements & conferences. 

Research Products

You will find research on public policy, deregulation of markets, sludge, export-led economy, export diversification, sectoral growth &social development (education, health & gender). Our research and policy briefs map research on all the critical topics.

Global Connections

Over the last 69 years, PIDE has engaged with the government sector, private sector, local and international universities & think tanks marking a global footprint typified by concrete policy actions, research collaborations, and cross-fertilisation of knowledge. 

SPOTLIGHT

Latest from the PIDE

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Pakistan’s Groundwater Crisis: Policy Lessons and a Framework for Sustainable Resource Use
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Border Closures, Conflict, and the Trade of Perishable Goods
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Beyond Raw Exports: Capturing Value from Pakistan's Himalayan Pink Salt
Our Research
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The first Middle East alliance that doesn’t need Washington’s permission
Mansoor Qaisar
August 25, 2026
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Pakistan Is Sitting On A Trade Route Worth Billions And Blocking It
Mansoor Qaisar
August 25, 2026
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Gold rising, dollar wavering: inside the new economic ‘Cold War’ and its impact on Pakistan
Madiha Riaz
August 25, 2026
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Pakistan’s missing millions
Nabila Kunwal, Shujaat Farooq
August 24, 2026
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When demographics penalise progress
Mehwish Mumtaz
August 21, 2026
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Iran’s supreme leader is back in control. That may be why diplomacy with Washington just collapsed
Mansoor Qaisar
August 21, 2026
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The mineral corridor
Saqib Ur Rehman Mughal
August 21, 2026
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Saving less, growing less
Rafia Ali
August 21, 2026
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Pakistan’s Groundwater Crisis: Policy Lessons and a Framework for Sustainable Resource Use
Nazam Maqbool
August 21, 2026
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Border Closures, Conflict, and the Trade of Perishable Goods
Farah Naz, Anjeela Khurram
August 21, 2026
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The First Cargo
Nasir Iqbal, Shahzada M. Naeem Nawaz
August 20, 2026
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The numbers missing from India’s four-day-war documentary
Mansoor Qaisar
August 19, 2026
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From Makkah to Gwadar: How a Wartime Pact Could Redraw Eurasia
Mujtaba Arshad
August 19, 2026
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Pakistan has won the diplomacy, now comes the harder test
Mansoor Qaisar
August 18, 2026
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After Mecca: The rise of a new Middle East security order and Iran’s strategic dilemma
Mansoor Qaisar
August 18, 2026
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Turning WAICO into Pakistan’s AI advantage
Eeman Taimur, Uzair Khaleeq-uz-Zaman
August 18, 2026
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What China Understood About Ports That Pakistan Still Doesn't
Awais Ali
August 18, 2026
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Manufacturing batteries locally
Sapna V Khemani
August 17, 2026