Emily Pakhtigian’s research examines the causes and consequences of human interactions with the natural environment. Her research interests include environmental health, water and sanitation, air pollution, human capital accumulation, and water resource management. Pakhtigian’s recent research includes work to understand the processes by which households adopt and utilize environmental health technologies, the health and educational consequences of ambient air pollution exposure, and the economic implications of water resource management. She has a variety of primary data collection projects related to environmental resource management, water and sanitation, and environmental health information provision. Pakhtigian’s work focuses primarily on contexts in low- and middle-income countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Indonesia. She also studies applications of domestic environmental policy.

Pakhtigian holds a Ph.D. in public policy, with a concentration in economics, from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She has an M.A. in economics from Duke University and B.A.’s in economics and political science from Moravian College.