Samin Yasar Anabil is a Research Associate at the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), where his work focuses on financial exclusion, spatial development, and resilience. His research is motivated by a broader question: how can financial systems and public policy better protect vulnerable households from health, climate and economic shocks?
At PRI, Anabil has collaborated with the International Growth Centre (IGC) and Bangladesh Bank on research using granular sub-district-level financial data to study banking and agent banking activity, contributing to research outputs and policy dissemination. His work on climate and finance includes constructing a 50-year sub-district-level climate dataset and serving as Principal Investigator on a RIDGE grant funded by UK International Development, which examines the relationship between climate shocks and financial exclusion in Bangladesh. He has further contributed to research on Bangladesh’s Inclusive Instant Payment System, supported by the Gates Foundation.
Anabil’s current research explores questions including whether nightlight data can capture local financial development in developing countries, how climate shocks affect catastrophic health expenditure and household financial exclusion, and what drives differences in banking, agent banking, and microfinance activity and usage across sub-districts. His work also examines how market structure, competition, and the availability of financial service providers shape access to and use of financial services.
Anabil’s broader research goal is to develop financial instruments and inform policies that can provide meaningful financial protection to vulnerable households, particularly those facing health and climate shocks. He is proficient in Stata and Python and studied Economics at the University of Dhaka.
