Asep is the Director of The SMERU Research institute. He is also a leading poverty economist in Indonesia. He holds a doctorate in economics from the Australian National University (ANU) in Australia and a master's degree in economics from Pennsylvania State University in the USA. Currently he serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies (BIES) and also as a member of the Advisory Board of Indonesia Project, both at ANU. He was awarded the H.W. Arndt Prize for his article “Minimum Wage Policy and Its Impact on Employment in the Urban Formal Sector”, published in BIES Vol.39 (1).