American Institutes for Research

Thomas de Hoop serves as a principal economist for AIR in Washington D.C. He has 12 years of experience designing, implementing, and leading mixed-methods impact evaluations and systematic reviews with a focus on South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Latin-America. Currently, he oversees a research and evaluation portfolio with a focus on the impact, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of innovations in education and women’s collectives.

Dr. de Hoop is the principal investigator on a three-year research project supported by UNICEF, UNHCR, and DFID that aims to generate rigorous evidence on how to facilitate the effective scaling of innovations in education in protracted humanitarian crisis settings. For this project, he leads a meta-evaluation that synthesizes the lessons learned from process and impact evaluations of five innovations in education. He also leads four mixed-methods studies that examine the impact and scaling models of multifaceted education programs in Jordan and Rwanda and a remedial education program in Kenya.

In addition, Dr. de Hoop is the co-principal investigator for a four-year research project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that focuses on synthesizing, strengthening, and disseminating research on the impact and cost-effectiveness of women’s collectives in India and East-Africa. Dr. de Hoop co-leads a research consortium that aims to identify the pathways through which women’s collectives influence women’s empowerment and well-being. Furthermore, he serves as an evaluation anchor for the gender equality team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. de Hoop is also the principal investigator for a cluster-randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of a multifaceted education program on learning outcomes among students in community schools in Zambia. Previously, he led a cluster-randomized controlled trial of an early childhood development program in Bangladesh and a strategy for future impact evaluation work in UNICEF’s education office. He also co-authored Campbell systematic reviews on the effects of economic self-help group programs on women’s empowerment and the effects of vocational and business training programs on women’s labor market outcomes.

Before joining AIR, Dr. de Hoop was an evaluation specialist at The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) in New Delhi, India. During his time at 3ie, he coordinated the review and quality assurance of 10 impact evaluation grants awarded under the DFID-funded Social Protection Thematic Window and the reference group of the DFID-funded impact evaluation of the Millennium Villages Project in Northern Ghana.