WORKING PAPERS
Revisiting the Last Mile: The Development Effects of a Mass Electrification Program in Kenya (with D. Kassem, and E. Uzor), Feb 2025. (Submitted)
3IE RIDIE Registration ID 1025
Access to electricity remains a central priority in development policy, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which accounts for over half of the global population without reliable power. This study examines the socio-economic impacts of Kenya’s Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMCP), a large-scale electrification initiative aimed at expanding grid access by connecting households and businesses within 600 meters of distribution transformers. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, we evaluate the program’s effectiveness in increasing electricity access and its broader development outcomes. Our findings show that the LMCP significantly improved household connectivity, leading to a substantial shift from off-grid energy sources to grid electricity. While this transition resulted in modest yet positive economic effects—most notably, increased household consumption—there was no significant impact on employment, income, or women's empowerment. These limited economic gains appear to stem from persistent challenges such as unreliable power supply and financial constraints that hinder productive electricity use. While our results highlight the role of electrification in improving living conditions, they also suggest that access alone may not be sufficient to drive broader economic transformation.
Socio-Economic Valuation of Water Reallocation: Framework Development and Application in South Africa (with M. Buisson, B. van Koppen, P. Sithole, E. Mapedza, and J. Dini), July 2025 (Submitted)
This paper introduces a socio-economic valuation framework for water reallocation that integrates considerations of equity, efficiency, and sustainability into decision-making. Designed to inform the development and implementation of policy in contexts of water scarcity and historical inequality, the framework systematically incorporates both direct economic benefits and externalities, such as poverty alleviation, food security, and inequality reduction, across different user groups. Applying the framework to South Africa’s Inkomati-Usuthu Water Management Area (IUWMA), we demonstrate how it aligns with the country’s third National Water Resource Strategy (NWRS-3) and compulsory licensing processes under the National Water Act. The framework supports transparent scenario analysis and enables the valuation of trade-offs in reallocating water among users prioritized under the NWRS-3. Despite data limitations, empirical findings from the IUWMA case study reveal that reallocating water from large-scale commercial agriculture to historically disadvantaged smallholder farmers could yield welfare gains. The proposed framework offers a practical tool to support inclusive and evidence-based water governance by moving beyond conventional equity-efficiency trade-offs and incorporating non-market benefits.
Exploring the Prevalence, Causes, and Solutions To Discrimination Against Workers from Slums (with W. Zanoni, P. Acevedo and H. Hernandez), May 2024. (Submitted)
This research examines discrimination in the labor market faced by urban slum dwellers in Latin America, focusing on a case study in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Using an artifactual field experiment that simulates being an actual job, we hired human resource recruiters to evaluate job applicants online and found that slum dwellers were selected at a significantly lower rate than non-slum dwellers, and received lower wages. Specifically, slum dwellers were selected only 4.2 times out of every 10 applicants, received wages that were 1.3% lower than non-slum dwellers, and were consistently rated poorer in assessments of job fitness. Our study also tested an intervention to increase awareness of discrimination rates, which resulted in recruiters changing their behavior in favor of the slum dwellers. These findings shed light on the challenges faced by slum dwellers in the labor market and provide insights into potential interventions to address labor market discrimination in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Group-based Reminders and Loan Repayment: Evidence from Maize Farmers in Kenya (with T. Harigaya, M. Kremer, and M. Thomas), June 2024. (draft available upon request)
There are several studies on the effect of individually targeted nudges on loan repayment, but none have analyzed the effect of group-based nudges, which have a theoretically ambiguous effect on repayment in a group liability setting. Group reminders can generate positive peer pressure or discouragement depending on their content and how message recipients use the information. Using a randomized controlled trial with over 360,000 smallholder farmers, we study the impact of individual and group text message reminders on on-time agricultural loan repayment. We find that individual reminders are cost-effective and increase the probability of on-time repayment by 2%. In contrast, group reminders have a small but significant adverse effect. Consistent with a discouragement effect, heterogeneity analysis shows that this effect was driven by farmers with low outstanding balances in underperforming groups at the time that group reminders were sent.
Sharing a Workforce: The Effect of Agricultural Productivity Shocks on Industrial Performance, May 2018
Seasonal Absences and Labor Productivity: Evidence from the Indian Jute Industry, December 2016.
PUBLICATIONS
In peer-reviewed journals
Digital Information Provision and Behavior Change: Lessons from Six Experiments in East Africa, (with R. Fabregas, M. Kremer, M. Lowes, and R. On), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2025.
The contribution of livestock to household livelihoods in Tanzania and Uganda. Measuring tradable and non-tradable livestock outputs, (with U. Pica-Ciamarra), Tropical Animal Health and Production, 2021.
Other
Poverty and Vulnerability in Urban Angola. (with L. Sousa ), Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Note. World Bank. 2024.
Fish cage culture in small water bodies in North East Region of Ghana: technical and institutional guiding principles for sustainable and inclusive uptake. (with M. Buisson, S. Appiah, E. Mapedza, R. Asmah, L. Ahiah, and E. Mensah) , Technical Brief, International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 2023. (Blog)
Enumerator bias in yield measurement: A comparison of harvest versus allometric measurement of coffee yields (with V. Hoffmann, M. Murphy, E. Rwakazooba, C. Angebault, and G. Kagezi), IFPRI Discussion Paper, February 2022.
Impact Evaluation of the Chimborazo Rural Development Program – Rural Roads Component (with L. Corral), Technical note, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), January 2021.
Impact Evaluation of SU-L1009: Support to Improve the Sustainability of the Electrical Service (with L. Corral), Technical note, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), November 2020. (Blog)
Chimborazo Rural Development Program: Irrigation Component Impact Evaluation (with L. Corral), Technical note, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), June 2020.
Measuring coffee yields: a comparison of one-time harvest and allometric methods (with V. Hoffman, G. Kagezi, and E. Rwakazooba), Project note, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), December 2019.
Firm Capabilities and Economic Growth (with N. Bloom, G. Fischer, I. Rasul, A. Rodriguez-Clare, T. Suri, C. Udry, E. Verhoogen, and C. Woodruff), Evidence paper, International Growth Centre (IGC), December 2013.
Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) Evaluation of Implementation in Uganda, Evaluation report, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), December 2017.