Obeid Ur Rehman
Assistant Professor, Economics, Toronto Metropolitan University
Welcome - خوش آمدید
I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly known as Ryerson University).
My research interests are development economics, public finance, and their intersection. I study international migration, household decision-making, and tax systems and compliance. I am particularly interested in the role of information sharing and disclosure as an impactful policy tool and scalable intervention.
I received my Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan and my Masters in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University as a Fulbright scholar. Prior to enrolling in the Ph.D. program I worked as a Research Associate at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan
Research
Publications
Spousal Communication & Information Sharing: Evidence from Migrants and their Spouses
Journal of Development Economics, 2023, 165 | pdf | published
Spouses staying behind underreport their income when it is observable to migrants. These reporting patterns are consistent with a theory of strategic misreporting to influence migrant remittances.
How Do Taxpayers Respond to Public Disclosure and Social Recognition Programs? Evidence from Pakistan
(with Joel Slemrod and Mazhar Waseem)
The Review of Economics & Statistics, 2022, 104 (1) | NBER | pdf | published
media: vox -eu, live mint, vox-dev, bloomberg opinion
The public disclosure of tax information increases the tax paid by individuals exposed to the program. The increase is even larger for the social recognition program.
Working Papers
The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics
(with Nick Huntingon-Klien, Claus Pörtner and others) | 2025 | SSRN
Policy Papers
Understanding Federal Sales Tax Expenditures in Pakistan
(with Sher Afghan Asad, and Manaal Mohsin Khwaja)
IGC Report, September 2023 | pdf
Analysis of federal sales tax expenditures in Pakistan, exploring historical trends in statutory changes and offering insights about their rationalization.
Improving Progressivity and Efficiency: A Review of the Personal Income Tax and other Taxes on Labor in Kazakhstan
(with Wei Shei)
IMF Country Report, Republic of Kazakhstan - Selected Issues, December 2019 | pdf
A review of taxes on labor in Kazakhstan, which, despite the current relatively-low level of collections, have the potential to become an important source of non-oil fiscal revenue.
In Progress
Tax Burden Across the Income Distribution - Evidence from Pakistan
Incidence of Tax Expenditures - Evidence from the Agriculture Sector in Pakistan
Online vs. In-person Learning: Canadian Evidence
International Student Demand for Higher Education in the U.S.
Teaching
Instructor:
Toronto Metropolitan University
University of Michigan
Student Instructor Mentor | Graduate | Fall 2018, Winter 2019
Graduate Student Instructor:
University of Michigan
Econ 101: Principles of Microeconomics | Fall 2015, 2016; Winter 2016, 2017
Econ 102: Introduction to Macroeconomics | Winter 2020, 2021; Fall 2020
Johns Hopkins University
PUBP 605: Stat & Data Analysis I | Fall 2011
PUBP 606: Stat & Data Analysis II | Spring 2012