Dr. Nga Leopold (maiden name: Nga Lê)  is an economist. She is presently working for the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland in the Programming Team where she contributes to creating programs for global high-level summits and conferences (including Davos).

She used to work as a Technical Officer on social health protection for the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva. She is presently an affiliated researcher at UNU-MERIT (School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University)

Her areas of interest include data analytics, labour economics, health economics, health policy, social protection, poverty reduction, and gender empowerment.  

She has also been involved in several projects commissioned and funded by UNICEF Vietnam on social assistance systems for Vietnamese children. Before joining UNU-MERIT, she used to work as a researcher/consultant at Indochina Research and Consulting in Vietnam where she engaged in a wide range of consulting projects commissioned by the World Bank, Oxfam, AusAid, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Global Development Solutions LLC, General Inspectorate of Vietnam, Ministry of Education and Training, Belgian Development Agency (BTC) and Action Aid. 

She holds a PhD Degree from UNU-MERIT (School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University) and an MSc in Public Policy and Human Development from UNU-MERIT with a specialisation in Social Protection Financing and Design. She was awarded a Maastricht University High Potential Scholarship for talented non-EU students for her Master's study, as well as a UNU-MERIT Fellowship for the Doctoral study at Maastricht University.
 

	Selected publications by Nga Leopold
Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2020, Health insurance and self-employment transitions in Vietnam, Journal of Small Business Management, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2020.1786335
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2019, Effects of health insurance on labour supply: Evidence from the Health Care Fund for the Poor in Vietnam, Applied Economics, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2019.1613509
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2019, Effects of health insurance on labour supply: A systematic review, International Journal of Manpower, DOI: 10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0038
Laar, Mindel van de & Nga Leopold, 2017, Global Employment and Health Insturance: Policy Beyond Borders, Blog Series APPAM conference Brussels 13-14 July 2017, blog 4, More information
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2019, Health insurance and self-employment transitions in Vietnam, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-008
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2018, Health insurance and patient satisfaction: Evidence from the poorest regions of Vietnam, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2018-040
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2018, Health insurance and self-employment transitions in Vietnam: A multinomial analysis, This paper has been republished as #2019-008, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2018-039
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2017, Effects of health insurance on labour supply: Evidence from the health care fund for the poor in Viet Nam, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2017-050
Leopold, Nga, Wim Groot, Sonila Tomini & Florian Tomini, 2017, Effects of health insurance on labour supply: A systematic review, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2017-017
Moldalieva, Janyl, Arip Muttaqien, Choolwe Muzyamba, Davina Osei, Eli Stoykova & Nga Leopold, 2016, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Did they change social reality?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2016-035
Research reports
Gassmann, Franziska, Nga Leopold & Eszter Timar, 2020, Technical Assistance to review Decree 136 with a focus on social assistance for children and propose policy options for the development of a new Decree in line with MPSARD targets and relevant to the context of a lower middle-income country, This assignment is to provide technical support to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA)in revising Decree 136 on social assistance policy in Vietnam
Vanore, Michaella, Franziska Gassmann, T Tran Nhu, T Pham Minh, Nga Leopold & Eszter Timar, 2017, Study on Improving the Effectiveness and Coverage of Social Assistance for Children with Focus on Consolidation Policy (Family/Child Benefit Package), Report commissioned by UNICEF Vietnam
Theses
Leopold, Nga, 2019, The implications of health insurance for the labour market and patient satisfaction with medical care in Vietnam, PhD Dissertation Maastricht University / United Nations University