Welcome!

I am an economist at the Development Impact Department (DIME) at the World Bank in Washington, DC.

I study agriculture, education, and social protection in low- and middle-income countries using experiments and quasi-experiments.

My e-mail address is blerva [at] worldbank [dot] org. Follow me on Twitter for updates on DIME recruitment drives and other opportunities. 

Publications

Journal of Development Economics 152, 2021, with K. Burchardi, J. de Quidt, S. Gulesci, and S. Tripodi

The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134(1):281-347, 2019, with K. Burchardi, S. Gulesci, and M. SulaimanMedia coverage: VoxDev

Assets or Education? A Multifaceted Education Intervention That Fights Poverty 

with D. Ferris and M. Fornasari

Rewriting, new draft coming soon!

Work in Progress

Liquidity Constraints and Capital Allocation: Evidence from a Selective Trial with Ugandan Farmers

with K. Burchardi, J. de Quidt and S. Tripodi [analysis in progress]

Fostering human capital development through school feeding and teacher incentives: evidence from The Gambia

with Paul Christian, Jonas Heirman, Erin Kelley, Florence Kondylis, Gregory Lane, Simone Lombardini, Astrid Zwager[analysis in progress]

More vegetables, healthier lifestyle? School meals improve children's behavior in Jordan

with Florence Kondylis and Hannah Uckat[analysis in progress]

Livelihood packages and poverty graduation programs: evidence from Malawi

with Emily Beam[baseline completed]