Ian Heffernan

Working Papers

• Vocational Training as Violence Prevention: Evidence From a Job Training Program in Benin (Joint with Leonard Wantchekon) 

• Economic Shocks and Subjective Probabilities: Evidence From COVID-19 in Benin (Joint with Rodrigue Sossou)  

• Depression and Consumer Demand: Evidence from Food Consumption in the U.S.  (Joint with Karim Nchare),  Applied Economics, 2026

• Political institutions and cooperation: experimental evidence on the effects of voting  (Joint with Robert Oxoby), Constitutional Political Economy, 2026 

• Conflict, Redistribution and Repression 

  • Revision Requested: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 

Work in Progress

• Time and Risk Preferences and Consumption Smoothing: Evidence from COVID-19 in Benin (joint with Prakash Pathak, Leonard Wantchekon and Lucienne Talba)

• Fear of War, National Identity and State Capacity: Evidence from U.S. North Korean Tensions

Policy  Papers

• The Vulnerability to Institutional Change During Times of Crisis, Institute of Development Studies. Citation:

  • Bianchi, M.; Coda, F.; Cyr, J.; Heffernan, I. and Meeker, J. (2023) Effective Governance Responses to Crises: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic, Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Research for Policy and Practice Report, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/CORE.2023.011 

• Youth Employment and Non-cognitive Skills in Africa,  under review at Peace Research Institute of Oslo

• Macroeconomic Resilience in Benin and Togo,  South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Citation:

  • Heffernan, Ian, and Salavi Comlan Apollinaire-Fabrice. “Macroeconomic Resilience in Benin and Togo.” South African Institute of International Affairs, 2024. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep66989.

• COVID-19 Macroeconomic Policy Responses in Benin, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Citation:

  • Heffernan, Ian. “Benin’s Nationally Determined Contributions and Its Economy.” South African Institute of International Affairs, 2023. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep67099.

• The Macroeconomic Policy Response to COVID-19 in Benin, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Citation:

  • Heffernan, Ian. “The Macroeconomic Policy Response to COVID-19 in Benin.” South African Institute of International Affairs, 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep40043.

• Benin’s Nationally Determined Contributions and its Economy, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Citation:

  • Heffernan, Ian. “Benin’s Nationally Determined Contributions and Its Economy.” South African Institute of International Affairs, 2023. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep67099.