Ashani is an Economist with research interests in labour economics, economics of education, development economics, and microeconometrics. She holds a BA in Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Peradeniya and a Masters in International and Development Economics from the Australian National University.
Abayasekara, A. (2020). ‘Building a Crisis-Resilient Education System in Sri Lanka’, in Sri Lanka State of the Economy 2020, Colombo: Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.
Arunatilake, N., Abayasekara, A., Kaunanayake, C., & Fernando, D. (2020). ‘Facilitating Night Work for Women in Sri Lanka’. Colombo: Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.
Abayasekara, A. and Gunasekara, N. (2019). ‘Determinants of youth not in education, employment or training: Evidence from Sri Lanka.’ Review of Development Economics, 23(4), 1840–1862.
Abayasekara, A. (2019). ‘Sri Lanka’s Education Sector: Reskilling in the 4IR’, in Sri Lanka State of the Economy 2019, Colombo: Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.
Abayasekara, Ashani and Arunatilake, Nisha. 2018. “School-level resource allocation and education outcomes in Sri Lanka.” International Journal of Educational Development, 61, 127—141.
Burke, Paul J. and Abayasekara, Ashani. 2018. “The price elasticity of electricity demand in the United States: A three-dimensional analysis.” The Energy Journal, 39(2), 123–145.
Are there Good Quality Teachers for All Classrooms in Sri Lanka?, by Nisha Arunatilake and Ashani Abayasekara, December 2017
Better Schools for Better O-Level Results in Sri Lanka, by Ashani Abayasekara and Nisha Arunatilake, November 2017
“Shadow Education”, Policy Brief, in ‘Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2017’ report
School Funding Formulas in Sri Lanka
4th South Asia Economic Network Conference
South Asia Network for Economic Modelling (SANEM)
7-8 September 2019
BRAC Centre Inn, Dhaka
Pension Coverage in Sri Lanka
OECD Korea Policy Centre
13-14 June 2019
Seoul Garden Hotel, South Korea
Presentation on ‘Sri Lanka’s NEETs: An Analysis of Youth not In Education, Employment or Training’
Fifth International Conference on Economic Development in South Asia
Organized by South Asian University
21 February 2019
South Asian University, New Delhi’
Presentation on ‘Sri Lanka’s NEETs: An Analysis of Youth not in Education, Employment or Training’
Conference on Economic Development in South Asia
Organized by IPS and Monash University
08 January 2019
Hotel Avani, Kalutara
Presentation on ‘School Resources and Education Outcomes: Evidence from Sri Lanka’
Australasian Development Economics Workshop 2018
Organized by the Australian National University (ANU)
06 June 2018
ANU, Australia
Presentation on ‘Shadow Education in Sri Lanka’
IPS In-house seminar
24 April 2018
Presentation on ‘Better Schools and Teachers for Better Education Outcomes in Sri Lanka’
Organized by the Ministry of Education
11 April 2018
MOE
Presentation on ‘Education in Sri Lanka’
At the New Thinkers’ Symposium
Organized by IPS
27 February 2018
IPS
Presentation on “School-Level Bottlenecks in Improving O-Level Performance in Sri Lanka”
IPS In House Seminar
10 July 2017
Protecting Jobs and Enterprises during Crises: How can Sri Lanka Respond Better?, Talking Economics, December 2020.
Lowering the Rates of NEETs in Sri Lanka, Development Asia: Asian Development Bank, August 2020.
Distance Education during and after COVID-19: Long Road Ahead for Sri Lanka, Talking Economics, July 2020.
Girls in STEM: How is Sri Lanka Faring?, Talking Economics, February 2020.
Meeting Challenges in a New World of Work: How Prepared is South Asia for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?, Talking Economics, October 2019.
In the 4IR, are Smart Classrooms the Future of Sri Lanka’s Education?, Talking Economics, September 2019.
Succeeding in the 4IR Era: Opportunities and Challenges for Sri Lanka, Talking Economics, March 2019.
“Lowering Sri Lanka’s NEETs: Need for Smoother School-to-Work Transitions”, Talking Economics, January 2019
“How Disability-Inclusive is Education in Sri Lanka? A Preliminary Look”, Talking Economics, December 2018
“Is Sri Lanka’s Grade Five Scholarship Exam an Accurate Predictor of Intellectual Ability?”, Talking Economics, October 2018
“Improving Sri Lanka’s Learning Outcomes: Get the ABCs Right before Following Others!”, Talking Economics, August 2018
“Building a more English-Literate Sri Lanka: The need to combat inequities” , Talking Economics, April 2018.
“Improving the quality of Education in Sri Lanka” (with Nisha Arunatilake), GlobalDev, March 2018.
“Towards a knowledge based economy: Start with quality STEM teachers for every child!” (with Nisha Arunatilake), Talking Economics, February 2018.
“Improving education in Sri Lanka: Priority Areas for Action” (with Harini Weerasekera), Talking Economics, February 2018.
“Is Sri Lanka’s grade five scholarship exam akin to a fool’s errand?”, Talking Economics, October 2017.
“Ending the test score horse race: Transforming Sri Lanka’s education”, Talking Economics, August 2017.
(With Nisha Arunatilake) “Path to skills development: Helping Sri Lankan youth navigate the hurdle of O-Level”, Talking Economics, July 2017.
Should we scrap Grade 5 Scholarship exam? – The Island, 24 February 2019
Budget 2019 Should Not Fall Into The Pitfall Of being An Election Budget – Colombo Telegraph, 4 March 2019
‘Better Schools for Better O-Level Results in Sri Lanka’ Report Launch, on State of Business by Art TV
Shortage of qualified teachers in math and science linked to poor O/L results: IPS – Daily FT, 29 Nov. 2017
Poor teacher recruitment policies hamper academic performance of govt. schools: IPS – Daily Mirror, 29 Nov. 2017
Sri Lanka experiencing shortage of teachers, despite surplus – IPS – News First, 29 Nov. 2017
Teach the teachers – Daily FT, 30 Nov. 2017
‘Better Schools for Better O-Level Results in Sri Lanka’ draws attention to the shortage of qualified and experienced teachers – The Island, 30 Nov. 2017
Lack of education faculties means poor quality teachers – Sunday Times, 03 Dec. 2017