Publications
Nutritional Inequality and Policy Targeting in South Asia. With Caitlin Brown, Eeshani Kandpal and Anaise Williams. Center for Global Development Working Paper 659. May 2025. Conditionally accepted, Population and Development Review.
How Selling Online is Affecting Informal Firms in South Asia. With Maurizio Bussolo, Akshay Dixit, Anne Golla, Ananya Kotia, Prema Narasimhan and Siddharth Sharma. January 2025. Asian Development Review. [World Bank Let's Talk Development Blog.]
Evaluating the Impacts of Access to a Digital Jobs Platform and Skills Training on Female Domestic Workers. With S Anukriti, Maurizio Bussolo, Siddharth Sharma and Anaise Williams. Endline completed. Accepted, pre-results review, Journal of Development Economics.
The Social Meaning of Mobile Money: Earmarking Reduces the Willingness to Spend in Migrant Households. With Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran and Abu Shonchoy. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2024.
Cross-Industry Interlinkages in Employment Growth: Evidence from Brazil. With Daniel Carvalho. Review of Development Economics, 2022.
Narrowing the Gender Gap in Mobile Banking [Online Appendix]. With Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran and Abu Shonchoy. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2022. [Financial Access Initiative Blog.]
Preparing for a Pandemic: Accelerating Vaccine Availability [Online Appendix]. Joint with Susan Athey, Arthur Baker, Eric Budish, Juan Camilo Castillo, Rachel Glennerster, Scott Kominers, Michael Kremer, Canice Prendergast, Christopher Snyder, Alex Tabarrok, Brandon Joel Tan and Witold Wiecek. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2021.
Market Design to Accelerate COVID-19 Vaccine Supply. Joint with Amrita Ahuja, Susan Athey, Arthur Baker, Eric Budish, Juan Camilo Castillo, Tasneem Chipty, Rachel Glennerster, Scott Kominers, Michael Kremer, Greg Larson, Canice Prendergast, Christopher Snyder, Alex Tabarrok, Brandon Joel Tan and Witold Wiecek. Science, 2021. [Cited in the Economist 1; 2]
Migration, Externalities and the Diffusion of COVID-19 in South Asia. With Mahreen Mahmud, Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran and Abu Shonchoy. Journal of Public Economics, 2021. [Cited in World Bank South Asia Economic Focus; Financial Access Initiative blog; World Bank blog.]
Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh [Web Appendix]. With Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran, Abu Shonchoy and Hassan Zaman. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2021. [VoxDev column; Financial Access Initiative Blog.]
Tariff Evasion in Global Trade Data. With Austin Drenski and Ross Hallren. Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, 2019.
The Process is the Punishment: Juror Demographics and Case Administration in State Courts [Web Appendix]. American Law and Economics Review, 2017. [National Affairs Blog.]
Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia. With Nava Ashraf and Erica Field. American Economic Review, 2014. [News article in Science; World Bank Development Impact Blog.]
Behavioral Biases and Firm Behavior: Evidence from Kenyan Retail Shops. With Michael Kremer, Jonathan Robinson and Olga Rostapshova. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2013. [Financial Access Initiative Blog.]
Advance Market Commitments for Vaccines Against Neglected Diseases: Estimating Costs and Effectiveness. With Ernst R. Berndt, Rachel Glennerster, Michael Kremer, Ruth Levine and Heidi Williams. Health Economics, 2007. [Cited in Center for Global Development report, Making Markets for Vaccines.]
Small-Scale Variations in Seismic Anisotropy Near Kimberley, South Africa. With Matthew J. Fouch, Paul Silver and David R. Bell. Geophysical Journal International, 2004.
Working Papers
Wage Subsidies to Promote Female Hiring: Evidence from Pakistan. With Maurizio Bussolo, Mahreen Mahmud, Nayantara Sarma and Anaise Williams. September 2025.
Remitting Against Poverty: Eight Year Evidence on Migrants and Mobile Money Adoption in Bangladesh. With Mahreen Mahmud, Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran, Abu Shonchoy and Shashank Sreedharan. August 2025.
Selecting Experimental Sites for External Validity. With Michael Gechter, Kei Hirano, Mahreen Mahmud, Orville Mondal, Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran and Abu Shonchoy. September 2024.
Courts and Informality Across Countries. With Daniel Li Chen and Peter Neis. April 2024.
Explaining the Gender Gap in Profits Among Entrepreneurs in Malawi. With Dominique Duval-Diop, Jessica Heckert, Greg Seymour and Kathy Vaughn. April 2021. International Food Policy Research Institute Discussion Paper 02014.
Poverty and the Marginal Propensity to Spend: Experimental Evidence from the U.S. Financial Diaries. With Jonathan Morduch. March 2017.
The Role of Sectoral Growth Patterns in Labor Market Development. With F. Javier Arias Vazquez and David Newhouse. Background paper, World Bank World Development Report on Jobs and World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6250, October 2012.
Cognitive Skills and Youth Labor Market Outcomes. With David Newhouse. Background paper, World Bank World Development Report on Jobs, September 2012.
Selected Work in Progress
The Effects of Transportation Infrastructure on Firms, Workers and Firm-Worker Matching: Evidence from Cape Town. With Andrew Kerr and Alejandro Molnar.
Labor Market Transitions Over the Lifecycle. With Preksha Jain and Heidi Kaila.
Skill Matching and Skill Diversification in the Labor Market in Africa. With Preksha Jain, Heidi Kaila, Justice Mensah and Marina Ngoma.
High Growth Firms in Africa. With Hassan Zaman, Douglas Kazibwe and Justice Mensah.
Trade Preferences for Africa. With Woubet Kassa and Ayan Qu.
Human Capital Accumulation Within Firms: Evidence from South Africa. With Preksha Jain, Heidi Kaila and Justice Mensah.
Multi-Country Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking and Migration in South Asia. With Mahreen Mahmud, Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran and Abu Shonchoy.
Predicting the Impact of Mobile Money: Evidence from a Multi-Site Experiment. With Alejandro Sanchez Becerra, Rajeev Dehejia, Christian Pop-Eleches, Michael Gechter, Mahreen Mahmud, Jonathan Morduch, Saravana Ravindran, Cyrus Samii and Abu Shonchoy.
World Bank and Other Policy Writing
Incentivizing Reliability: A Framework for Performance-Linked Electricity Improvements in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Draft, June 2025. With Megan Lang and Ruozi Song and colleagues from the World Bank and Duke University.
HIV/AIDS and Preliminary Estimates of Financing Gaps for Continued ART Coverage. March 2025. With Sarah Alkenbrack and David Wilson (Global Director, Health Nutrition and Population and former Global AIDS Director), World Bank.
Innovations for Grid Reliability in Africa. February 2025. Office of the Chief Economist for the Africa Region, World Bank.
South Asia Economic Focus Fall 2022: Coping With Shocks. Office of the Chief Economist for the South Asia Region, World Bank.
South Asia Economic Focus Spring 2021: South Asia Vaccinates. Office of the Chief Economist for the South Asia Region, World Bank.
Potential World Bank Group Strategies for Financing a COVID Vaccine. June 2020. With Muhammad Ali Pate (former Global Director, Health Nutrition and Population) and Michael Kent Ranson, World Bank.
Malawi Constraints Analysis Report. 2020. Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Burkina Faso Constraints Analysis Report. 2020. Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Sri Lanka Constraints Analysis Report. 2017. Millennium Challenge Corporation.