Research
My research studies the process of economic growth and the importance of social structure for international economic development. Currently I am working on projects which seek to understand, using a variety of approaches and techniques, the sources of resource misallocation and low aggregate productivity in developing countries.
Work in Progress
Immigration, Innovation, and Growth
with T. Chaney, T. Hassan, L. Tarquinio and S. Terry.
Revise and Resubmit at American Economic Review
Market Integration and Industrialization
with I. Almås, T. Boppart and H. Malmberg.
Credit Constraints and Capital Allocation in Agriculture: Theory and Evidence from Uganda
with J. de Quidt, B. Lerva, and S. Tripodi.
The Gains from Financial Inclusion: Theory and Quantitative Assessment
with T. Besley and M. Ghatak.
Language Heterogeneity and Structural Change
Accountability and Incentives: The Impacts of Different Regimes on Hospital Waiting Times in England and Wales
with T. Besley and G. Bevan. [working paper]
Publications
Borrowing Constraints and Demand for Remedial Education: Evidence from Tanzania
The Economic Journal, forthcoming,
with S. Gulesci, J. de Quidt, and M. Sulaiman.
Testing Willingness to Pay Elicitation Mechanisms in the Field: Evidence from Uganda
Journal of Development Economics 152:102701, 2021,
with J. de Quidt, S. Gulesci, B. Lerva and S. Tripodi.
[published version] [replication package]
Moral Hazard: Experimental Evidence from Tenancy Contracts
The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134(1):281-347, 2019,
with S. Gulesci, B. Lerva, and M. Sulaiman.
[published version] [online appendix] [VoxDev] [replication package]
Migrants, Ancestors, and Foreign Investments
The Review of Economic Studies 86(4): 1448-1486, 2019,
with T. Chaney and T. Hassan.
[published version] [video] [VoxEU] [World Economic Forum] [replication package]
Out of Your Mind: Eliciting Individual Reasoning in One Shot Games
Games and Economic Behavior 84: 39-57, 2014, with S. Penczynski.
The Economic Impact of Social Ties: Evidence from German Reunification
The Quarterly Journal of Economics 128(3):1219-1271, 2013, with T. A. Hassan.
[online appendix] [media coverage: Handelsblatt (14/07/2011)]
Incentives and the de Soto Effect
The Quarterly Journal of Economics 127(1):237-282, 2012, with T. Besley, M. Ghatak.