Saumik Paul is an economist specialising in global development, structural transformation and inequality. He is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Manchester, Editor of the European Journal of Development Research (EJDR), and Senior Research Affiliate of the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN). Prior to joining Manchester, he held academic appointments at Newcastle University, the University of Nottingham (Malaysia campus), Hitotsubashi University, and Osaka University, and worked as an economist at the World Bank and Research Economist at the Asian Development Bank Institute. His research examines how economies transform over time and how this transformation shapes productivity, employment, income distribution, and living standards. Saumik has published in the Economic History Review, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of African Economies, among others. He is also the author and editor of several books on structural transformation, labour income share, and development policy.

Saumik joined IZA as a Research Fellow in February 2019.