NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Elliott serves as the Director for IPA’s Poverty Measurement program, which develops rigorous methods like the Poverty Probability Index (PPI^®) to help researchers and partner organizations understand and serve those living in poverty. Before joining IPA in this role, Elliott worked for Kiva.org as the Senior Research & Evaluation manager, building and maintaining their M&E system and integrating academic research into their investment strategies. His research has focused on credible and cost-effective approaches to measuring poverty and financial access at the individual and community levels, and understanding how that informs survey design and impact evaluation.

Elliott has a PhD in Agriculture & Resource Economics from UC Berkeley, where he studied various low-cost approaches to measuring the welfare effects of asset transfers and managed an experiment comparing BRAC’s graduation program to cash transfers in South Sudan. He has previously worked at IPA Kenya, managing survey projects in Bungoma.