Jinnat Ara who is an economist by training is leading the research of Universal Research Care (URC) Ltd., Bangladesh. Prior to joining URC in 2021, she served as a Research Fellow at BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division (RED) which has been integrated with BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) in January, 2019.

She holds a PhD in Economics from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her research focuses on Health Economics (e.g., Health Care Financing, Impact Evaluation of Health Care Programs, Health Systems, Health Insurance), Development Economics (e.g., Extreme Poverty, Microfinance, Adolescent Development), Labour Economics, Behavioural Economics.