Naila Maya Shofia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the National
University of Singapore. She previously held a joint appointment at Yale-NUS College (Division
of Social Sciences) prior to its closure. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for International
Development at Harvard Kennedy School.
She holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and
completed her doctoral training at Bocconi University. Her research lies at the intersection of
political economy, development economics, and behavioral economics, with a focus on voting
behavior, democratic accountability, identity politics, and social norms. Much of her work examines how narratives, religious and gender norms, and economic change shape political behavior and labor-market outcomes in developing democracies, particularly in Indonesia.
Methodologically, she conducts large-scale field and survey experiments, often in collaboration with local institutions and policy partners. Her ongoing projects study how voters interpret democratic representation, how beliefs and narratives affect accountability, and how economic opportunities interact with cultural and religious practices. Through this work, she aims to better understand how institutional and social contexts mediate individual decision-making and democratic performance.
At CID, she looks forward to engaging with scholars and practitioners working on governance,
political behavior, and inclusive development, and to exploring how insights from political
economy and behavioral research can inform policy design in emerging economies.