Phal is Senior Research Fellow at CDRI. Before joining CDRI, he worked as consultant for the World Bank, as research fellow at Kobe University, and as adjunct researcher at the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB), Japan. He also actively involved in joint projects between UNESCO Bangkok and Kobe University, conducting several educational research projects in Cambodia. His research interest includes economics of education, education finance, higher education, learning assessment, and field experiment.