MoU and Research Agreement between PRI and Central Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University

Today, Policy Research Institute (PRI) and Tribhuvan University Central Department of Economics (TU-CEDECON) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and an agreement for collaboration on a research project “Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Nepal”. The MOU and the agreement were signed by Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti, Executive Chairman of PRI, and Prof. Dr. Kushum Shakya, Head of TU-CEDECON. The project will be led by Dr. Resham Thapa, who is the Principal Investigator of the project and Assistant-Professor at TU-CEDECON, and supervised by a committee consisting of Prof. Dr. Kushum Shakya, Head of Department of TU-CEDECON, Dr. Uma Shankar Prasad, Associate-Professor of TU-CEDEON and Dr. Deepak Kumar Khadka, Head of Research Department at PRI. Co-investigators of the research project are Assistant-Professors, Dr. Nirmal Kumar Raut, Mr. Naveen Adhikari, Mr Khagendra Katwal and Dr. Rashmi Rajkarnikar from TU-CEDECON. Two Masters students and a MPhil students will be involved as research-associate. The objectives of the research are to estimate the impact of COVID-19 in major macroeconomic sectors and review major policy interventions made in the Nepalese economy, to prepare a balanced disaggregate level Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Nepal and simulate some policy simulations, and to develop a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for Nepal and simulate the post-COVID-19 scenarios in various sectors. The project is expected to be completed within three and a half months.

Attendees:

Central Department of Economics team:

Prof. Dr. Kushum Shakya

Dr. Uma Shankar Prasad

Dr. Resham Thapa

PRI team:

Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti

Purushottam Tiwari

Dr. Deepak Kumar Khadka