Akylai Muktarbek kyzy is a PhD Candidate at the School of Economics and Business at Norwegian University of Life Sciences. She is an Assistant Professor at the Economics Department and researcher at the Center for Environment and Development of the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She received her M.A. in Economics from Central European University, Hungary. She taught courses including Labor Economics, Mathematics for Economists, Research Methods for undergraduate and graduate students at AUCA.

Her research areas are gender economics, migration and remittances, and development projects. Her latest project is related to impact evaluation of electricity tariff system in Kyrgyzstan using household level data.