Saad Gulzar is an Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Before joining Princeton he was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He uses field experiments and data from government programs to study the determinants of politician and bureaucratic effort toward citizen welfare. His research interests lie in the political economy of development and comparative politics, with a regional focus on South Asia. His work has been supported by grants from the International Growth Center, the Jameel Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab's Governance Initiative, the World Bank, and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies.

Gulzar earned his Ph.D. from New York University and has previously studied at Columbia University, the National University of Singapore, and the Lahore University of Management Sciences.