I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Sherbrooke.

Formerly, I worked for Mathematica (formerly Mathematica Policy Research), where I continue to be involved in evaluations of large-scale development interventions in the agriculture and energy sector in Africa. I directed Mathematica's evaluation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC) Agriculture Development Program in Burkina Faso, which invested in irrigation infrastructure, farmer training, value chain development, and integrated water resource management. In addition, I am the principal investigator on Mathematica's evaluation of MCC's Irrigation and Market Access Project in Niger and the evaluation of MCC's Energy Generation and Distribution Project in Benin.

Prior to joining Mathematica, I was an Assistant Professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa and an Associate Member of the Centre for the Study of African Economies and of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. I was also a visiting professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department at the University of California at Berkeley. I pursued graduate studies in Economics at the University of Mannheim, the University of California at Berkeley and Yale University, and received my Ph.D. degree from Yale University.

My research interests cover topics in the micro-economics of development, with a special focus on information technology to address the developing world's challenges in agriculture, labor markets and education. I've also researched the impacts of conflict on export-oriented firms in the high-tech agriculture sector in Africa; the impact of mobile phones on agricultural prices, migration and rural labor markets in Africa; the empowerment impacts of education, the impact of orphan-hood and HIV/AIDS on educational outcomes of orphans; the impacts of using information technology for adult education among Spanish language learners in the US; as well as the investment choices of households and individuals with respect to education.

My research has been published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, World Development, the Economics of Education Review as well as in academic working papers and policy research papers.

(NEW) My paper on post-election violence and flower exports in Kenya was just accepted at the Review of Economics and Statistics. The most recent version of this paper is available as NBER working paper No. 29297 here.

In February 2019 - November 2022, my paper on Village Savings and Loan Associations was on the list of most downloaded Journal of Development Economics articles in the last 90 days. (It also appeared on that list in April 2017).

My paper with Jenny Aker on was cited in a special report on technology in Africa in The Economist.

My google scholar page is here. My CV is here.