He is on-leave during the 2016-17 academic year as a W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at the Hoover Institute. His research focuses on political economy and international economics, in particular international finance, law, and political violence. Ahmed holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and a BA in Math and in Economics from Northwestern University. Before transitioning to academia, he worked as an international and macroeconomist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.