He graduated with a MSc at LSE and a PhD from the University of Oxford and previously taught at Oxford and University of London. Dr Imai has worked as a consultant for the IFAD, the UN and DFID. He has published widely on risk, vulnerability and poverty dynamics of households in developing countries and on evaluations of anti-poverty programmes, such as the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India, in development and economics journals, including Journal of Development Studies, Review of Development Economics, Oxford Development Studies, Journal of Policy Modeling, Journal of African Economies, among others.