This week, the EDI Team were informed that one of our researchers under the RA4 Case Studies work, Professor Stephan Klasen, sadly passed away on Wednesday. Professor Klasen was a highly respected and well-liked Professor of Development Economics at the University of Göttingen. He had been leading EDI-funded research on ‘Asset ownership and female empowerment: Evidence from a natural experiment in Pakistan’. His working paper, co-authored by Dr. Sarah Khan and Dr. Atika Pasha, was published this week on the EDI website.

EDI Programme Director, Professor Jean-Philippe Platteau, released the following statement:

On behalf of EDI Research Director François Bourguignon, Scientific Committee member, Thierry Verdier, and the EDI Team at OPM, I am sorry to convey the tragic news of the passing away of Stephan Klasen, who was a member of EDI as a project leader under RA4 and member of our thematic commission on gender. It is an amazing feat that he could survive a painstaking illness for many more years than initially prognosed. This is no doubt due to the fantastic support he received from his family and his passion for research. Stephan was a fully dedicated person, driven by essential questions, totally reliable and equipped with remarkable human qualities. It was a great chance to be able to work with him. He was a man with only one word and he always stuck to the promises he made.

We will greatly miss him and pass our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.