New & Ongoing Work
Randomized Entry: The Equilibrium Effects of Entry in Digital Financial Markets [October 2025 (PDF)] [NBER Working Paper (PDF)], AEA RCT REGISTRY (with MTN MobileMoney Ltd and Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd) [SUBMITTED]
[enlisting non-financial firms to provide retail financial services is a widespread and scalable practice globally. yet, little is known about the equilibrium effects of such market entry approach on firms and consumers, and on markets. we created randomized variation across and within markets to estimate the direct, indirect, and multiplier effects of small microenterprises’ entry into a new market: the market for mobile money services.]
Beliefs Over Contracts, AEA RCT REGISTRY (with MTN MobileMoney Ltd and Collin Raymond) [PRESENTING]
[we study how firms choose among incentive contracts and how accurately managers predict their effects. using a survey of managerial beliefs and a large-scale field experiment in partnership with Ghana’s dominant mobile-money provider, we randomly assign agents at the market level to several widely used, expenditure-equivalent incentive schemes. in the field, the best-performing contract increases agent output and firm revenue by over 20% relative to the status quo, despite being ranked lower by managers, whereas the worst-performing contract performs as predicted. managers correctly identify underperforming contracts but systematically underestimate top-performing ones. we analyze the drivers of performance differences and the factors that improve managerial prediction. our results highlight the importance of contract design for firm performance and reveal systematic limits to managerial sophistication in shaping incentives.]
Designing Insurance for Climate Change: The Case of The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program (with Shresth Garg, Sagar Saxena and Shuo Yu) [SLIDES AVAILABLE]
Redistribution Through Firms: The Case of Ghana's Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (with National Petroleum Authority and Abdoulaye Ndiaye) [SLIDES AVAILABLE]
Publications
Misconduct and Reputation Under Imperfect Information [JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, 2025, Vol. 133, No. 5, pp. 1460-1496] [Working Paper (PDF)]
The Value of Communication for Mental Health (with Belinda Archibong) [Working Paper (PDF)] (v: 2023), Conditionally Accepted, THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL
Moral Hazard in Insurance: Theory and Evidence from a Credit Reform in Ghana [JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS, 2022, Vol. 209 (104633)]
Risk, Informal Institutions, and Index Insurance (with Bikramaditya Datta) [JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT, 2022, Vol. 113 (102635)]
Does Bundling Induce Adverse Selection in Insurance? [ECONOMICS LETTERS, 2020, Vol. 196 (109588)]
Disease and Gender Gaps in Human Capital Investment: Evidence from Niger’s 1986 Meningitis Epidemic (with Belinda Archibong) [AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW: PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS, 2017, Vol. 107, No. 5: 530-535]
Federal Crop Insurance and The Disincentive to Adapt to Extreme Heat (with Wolfram Schlenker) [AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW: PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS, 2015, Vol. 105, No. 5: 262-266]
Spatial Pattern of Yield Distributions: Implications for Crop Insurance (with Jesse Tack, Ardian Harri, Keith Coble) [AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, 2014, Vol. 96, No. 1: 253-268]
The Epidemic Effect: Epidemics, Institutions and Human Capital Development [Working Paper (PDF)] (with Belinda Archibong, Uche Ekhator-Mobayode) [JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR AND ORGANIZATION, 2023, Vol. 96, No. 1: 549-566]
Other Publications
Digital Public Services Delivery in Ghana - A Viewpoint (PDF) [BROOKINGS AGI, 2024]
Adapting the U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program for Climate Change: Critical Lessons for Policy Design (PDF) [ARE UPDATE, 2024]
Digital Payments, [Working Paper (PDF)] (with Xavier Giné, Chi Man Cheung) [OXFORD REVIEW OF ECONOMIC POLICY, 2024, Vol. 40, No. 1: 118-128]
Transaction Cost Index, [Report: Transaction Cost Index (PDF)] (with X. Giné, W. Blackmon, B. Mwesigwa, A. Zapanta) [INNOVATIONS FOR POVERTY ACTION, 2023]
Climate Change, Epidemics and Inequality, [Working Paper (PDF)] (with Belinda Archibong) [REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICY, 2023, Vol. 17, No. 2: 1]