Research

Working Papers

Does anti-discrimination legislation matter in low-income countries? The impact of disability legislation on the educational attainment of children with disability (submitted).

with Kenneth Harttgen (ETH Zurich) and Isabel Günther (ETH Zurich)

We investigate the efficacy of disability laws in improving educational attainment for children with functional difficulties in sub-Saharan Africa. We identify five sub-Saharan countries that have enacted disability laws, and use the difference-in-differences method—children without disabilities in these countries serve as our counterfactual group. We find that disability legislation increased enrollment by between 5-21 percentage points, attendance by 3-20 percentage points, and years of schooling improvements of 8-20 percent. We also observe disability-type heterogeneity in treatment effects: children with auditory disabilities generally exhibited stronger responses to the intervention compared to those with visual impairments, though with country-specific variations. Furthermore, we also observe some differences in age-cohort treatment effects: in some contexts, the law was more impactful for cohorts entering school immediately post-legislation, while in others, we observed stronger effects among later cohorts, suggesting either signaling or enforcement effects. Link to paper here.

Applying to International Opportunity: Financial Assistance and Mentorship for Graduate School Applicants from Africa (submitted).

with Konstantin Poensgen (Harvard University)  & Samira Adhar (Boston University)

Access to higher education is crucial for promoting opportunity and diversity. While extensive research has examined college access in high income countries, much less is known about access to graduate education and the underrepresentation of students from lower-income countries (LICs). This paper addresses that gap.  First, we document the barriers faced by students from Africa in the graduate application processes. Next, we evaluate the impact of a comprehensive mentoring program, GAIN Network, designed to support these students' admission into Graduate Economics programs abroad. Link to paper here.

Role of EdTech on numeracy and literacy for children with functional difficulties: Experimental evidence from Kenya

with Isabel Günther (ETH Zurich)

We provide experimental evidence on the impact of a universal-design EdTech intervention on foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills among children with functional difficulties in Kenya. The intervention, a self-paced learning via a mobile device, yielded significant gains of 0.13 SD in numeracy and 0.15 SD in literacy, exceeding the median effect of comparable global education programs. Effects were primarily driven by actual device usage rather than shifts in study effort, attitudes, or mental health. Literacy gains were mostly driven by changes in lower-order skills (e.g., phrase reading, basic comprehension), while numeracy improvements were largely driven by higher-order skills (e.g., addition, multiplication, division). Girls benefited less, especially in higher-order domains. Treatment effects varied by disability type, with the largest gains among children with physical or behavioral difficulties and the smallest among those with auditory or learning disabilities. Link to paper here.

Short-Run Incentives and Labor Supply in Informal Markets

Sole authored

I introduce a novel method to measure informal labor supply (artisanal fishing) at high temporal resolution in data-scarce environments using nighttime satellite light emissions. Next, I exploit the variation in lunar illumination as a predictable exogenous productivity shifter that alters incentives for nighttime labor. Because fishers rely on artificial lighting to attract catch, darker nights correspond to higher expected returns. I find that fishing activity responds strongly to these short-run productivity fluctuations. I further show that this responsiveness varies systematically with economic conditions: higher output demand amplifies the concentration of labor on high-productivity nights, while higher input costs dampen fishers’ ability to reallocate effort intertemporally. My results highlight how both demand and input constraints shape labor supply responses in informal settings. Link to draft here

Work in progress

Do Policies Shift Bureaucrat Beliefs? Evidence from Education Reforms and a Teacher Experiment.

Sole authored

Bureaucrats are more likely to implement policies effectively when those policies align with their pre-existing beliefs. However, little is known about whether and how those beliefs respond to policy changes. This paper examines the extent and mechanisms of belief updating among teachers in response to government educational policy changes.