Maiwand Nangyal
DPhil Candidate in Economics at the University of Oxford
Director of Research at Data for Afghanistan
Welcome! I'm Maiwand Nangyal, a DPhil Candidate in Economics at the University of Oxford, funded by the ESRC, grateful to be studying at the joint-best university in the world (tied with Cambridge in my unbiased opinion 😊).
I study how colonial institutions shaped South Asia's development, blending development economics, economic history and political economy with modern econometrics and machine learning. My current focus is the long-run legacy of British policy in western British India.
I'm supervised by Professor Stephen Broadberry and Dr Eric Chaney, and am a member of Wolfson College. Alongside this, I am the Director of Research at Data for Afghanistan a platform which compartmentalises high-quality data for empirical research on Afghanistan.
Views expressed here are solely my own and do not represent any institution I'm currently affiliated with or have been affiliated with in the past.
Research
Working Papers
The Game of Thorns: Empirically Analysing the Impact of Opium Cultivation on Terrorism within Afghanistan 1994–2017
Co-authored with Dr Ahmad Zia Wahdat
Status: Under Development
DPhil Research Chapters
Chapter 1: The Fate of Koh-i-Noor: Analysing the Economic Impact of British Colonial Policies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, 1891–2021
Examines the long-term effects of direct rule, semi-autonomous administration, and princely states on two historically and contemporarily volatile regions.
Status: In Progress
Chapter 2: To be confirmed
Chapter 3: To be confirmed
Current Data Projects
Data for Afghanistan
Director of Research (Feb 2025 – Present): Collaborating with Dr Ahmad Zia Wahdat to compile datasets and visualisations on Afghanistan for empirical research.
Website:
dataforafghanistan.org
Presentations
32nd Annual Graduate Workshop (April 2024)
Presented MSc dissertation research to the Economic & Social History research group at Nuffield College, Oxford. Audience included Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie, Chichele Professor of Economic History, and Professor Joel Mokyr, 2025 Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences.
Publications
- [Publications will be added when available]
Curriculum Vitae
Please click here for a heavily redacted version of my CV.
My full academic CV will be posted publicly when I'm a Job Market Candidate.
If you need the full version, please email me at
mn529@cantab.ac.uk.
Blogs
Blog posts and research thoughts will be added here.
Recent Posts
Coming Soon: Research Updates
I'll be sharing insights from my DPhil research, reflections on conference experiences, and perspectives on various economic theories and their related research.
Topics I Write About
- Economic History and Colonial Institutions
- Development Economics in South Asia
- Applied Econometrics and Machine Learning
- PhD Life at Oxford
- Research Methods and Data Analysis