Working Papers and Current Research

Job Market Paper: The Hidden Costs of Recycling: Lead Exposure and Student Learning

This paper estimates the impact of lead exposure from newly launched lead-acid battery recycling plants in 2007 on student learning in Kenya. Using individual-level student standardized test scores from a national secondary school qualifying exam, I estimate matched two-way fixed effects regressions and matched event study that leverage this natural experiment. I find that lead exposure reduces student test scores by 5 percent of a standard deviation, an effect size comparable to the gains from school-based programs targeting learning improvement. I find evidence of heterogeneity by school location type but none by student gender. My findings suggest that student lead exposure in sub-Saharan Africa represents a serious threat to the next generation's human capital. Ending childhood lead exposure should be a development priority.

You can find the current version of my JMP here 

Working Paper: A Firm of One’s Own: Experimental Evidence on Credit Constraints and Occupational Choice (CGD WP 646), revise and resubmit at the Review of Economics and Statistics with A. Brudevold-Newman, M. Honorati, P. Jakiela, and O. Ozier 

We evaluate two labor market interventions targeting young women in Nairobi, Kenya. The first was a multifaceted program involving vocational training, in-kind transfers of physical capital, and ongoing mentoring. The second was an unrestricted cash grant. Both interventions shift women into self-employment, impacts which persist after six years. Both programs also increase income in the short-term, but those effects disappear over time. Though the two treatments have similar impacts on labor market outcomes, women in the multifaceted program report significantly higher well-being six years after treatment relative to both women in the control group and those who received the grants.

You can find the working paper here

Work in Progress: Student Achievement in a Changing Climate: New Evidence from Kenya

Research Question(s): This study estimates the impact of rising lake water levels on education outcomes, migration, and land use in Kenya. More specifically, the paper seeks to answer the following questions: First, what are the direct impacts of climate change on education outcomes for students attending schools directly impacted by rising water levels? Second, what are the indirect impacts of climate change on students attending schools receiving displaced students from schools directly impacted? Third, what are the impacts of climate change on out- and in-migration? Fourth, what are the impacts of climate change on land use pre- and post-rising water levels? Is there a shift in economic activity following an increase in water but reduced land supply? Fifth, what tools do households use to minimize risk, insurance/social networks?