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My work lies at the intersection of development and labor economics, with particular focus on intra-household allocation and traditional social norms around gender and caretaking.
I use quasi-experimental and experimental techniques to study, for example, child marriage; female genital cutting; time use and the allocation of labor to employment and unpaid chores; and schooling and living arrangements.
I am passionate about using high-quality quantitative methods combined with insights from ethnography and other qualitative work, in addition to experimenting with survey methodologies (especially high-frequency phone surveys) for accurate measurement of time use, perceptions about social norms, diet diversity, and women's empowerment outcomes.
My work has been published by the Journal of Development Economics and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and I have been invited to present at numerous peer-reviewed conferences, R1 universities, and non-academic research institutions.
Publications
Who is Asking and How? The Effects of Enumerator Gender and Survey Method on Measuring Social Norms and Beliefs (with Aditi Kadam, Ellen McCullough, and Thomas Assefa). World Development, November 2025, 195, 107078. Pre-print version. Replication files. Policy summary on VoxDev (June 2025).
Now, Later, or Never? Evidence of the Effect of Weather Shocks on Female Genital Cutting in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Lindsey Novak). Journal of Development Economics, October 2023, 165, 103168. Pre-print version. Online-only Appendices. Replication files. Policy summary on VoxDev (November 2023). Summary thread on Twitter.
Here Waits the Bride? The Effect of Ethiopia's Child Marriage Law, Journal of Development Economics, March 2021, 149, 102580. (Working paper version) (Appendices).
When Competition Corrupts: A Theoretical Analysis of Market Structure and the Incidence of Corruption (with Kaushik Basu and Boyang Zhang), in Paths to Sustainable Development, 2017, ed. B.W. Lensink, Stefan Sjorgen, and Clas Wihlborg, L,S&W, Gothenburg, Sweden. (Previously World Bank Working Paper 6596).
Low-Income Housing Development, Poverty Concentration, and Neighborhood Inequality (with Matthew Freedman), Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2015, 34(4): 805-834.
Work Under Review
Sharing is Caring: Redistributing unpaid and care work improves mental well-being for both spouses (with Shivani Gupta, Ellen McCullough, Thomas Assefa, and Tigabu Getahun). Revisions requested at the Journal of Development Economics.
More than a Village: Why Endogenous Living Arrangements Affect 40% of Non-Orphaned Children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Under review. Slides available on request.
Working Papers
Calling for Time: Examining Bias in Time Use Measurement using High-frequency Phone Surveys (with Ellen McCullough and Thomas Woldu Assefa). Email for latest draft.
Presented at: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; University of Chicago, Center for the Economics of Human Development (March 2024); Structural Transformation and Economic Growth--Centre for Economic Policy Research (STEG-CEPR) Theme 0 Workshop, NYU Abu Dhabi (January 2024); World Vision Ethiopia, Addis Ababa (January 2024); IFPRI Food and Nutrition Policy Brown Bag Seminar Series, Washington, D.C. (June 2023); Time Use Conference at the University of Maryland (June 2023); International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (May 2023); American Economic Association meetings (AEA, January 2023); Cornell University Develpment Economics Seminar (November 2022); University of Iowa Economics Department (November 2022); University of Minnesota Applied Economics (October 2022); Methods & Measurement Conference at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and Northwestern University Global Poverty Research Lab (GRPL) (October 2021).
Measuring Dietary Diversity with High-Frequency Mobile Phone Interviews in Ethiopia (with Thomas Assefa and Ellen McCullough). Poster from American Economic Association meetings (January 2023). Email for latest draft.
Presented by coauthors at: American Agricultural Economics Association (2022), Methods & Measurement Conference at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and Northwestern University Global Poverty Research Lab (GRPL) (October 2022).
Stifled by Stigma? Experimental Effects of Updating Husbands' Beliefs on Participation in Women's Household Work (with Ellen McCullough, Nicholas Magnan, and Thomas Woldu Assefa). Email for latest draft.
Presented at: World Bank Gender Group (June 2023); AEA meetings Committee on the Status of Queer Individuals in the Economics Profession session (AEA CSQIEP, January 2022); by coauthor at American Agricultural Economic Association (July 2022). Slides with preliminary results available on request.
Work in Progress
Taking Micro Home: Assessing Students' Higher Order Thinking about Intermediate Microeconomics (with Nicole Chen '23, Aryaa Gunavante '25, Sean Richardson '24, Alexis Olmos '23, Grinnell College students). Poster from the Committee on Economic Education session at the AEA meetings (January 2023).
Washing our Hands of Survey Discrepancies: Reported Handwashing in High-Frequency vs. One-Time Interview Methodologies (with Mary Jane Uzzi '23, Grinnell College alumna, Ellen McCullough, and Thomas Assefa).
Permanent Working Papers and Other Writing
Her Time: Findings from a Time Use Study of Women Participating in Livelihoods Programs in Ethiopia, Report to CARE Ethiopia and World Vision Ethiopia (with Ellen McCullough, Thomas Assefa), 2021.
The Short End of the Deal? Crisis, Dropout, and Sibling Inequality, 2017.
Shared Prosperity and the Mitigation of Poverty (with David Rosenblatt), World Bank Research Digest, Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2014.
The Algebra of Shared Prosperity and Some Empirical Regularities (with David Rosenblatt). World Bank Working Paper 6645. World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013.
Economic Impact of the Clinical Benefits of Bariatric Surgery in Diabetes Patients With BMI ≥ 35kg/m2 (with Samuel Klein, Arindam Ghosh, Pierre Y. Cremieux, and Sara Eapen), Obesity, 19:581-587, 2011.
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