I am researcher in social sciences at the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) and work at DIAL, a research unit of the LEDa.
My research interests are in development and environmental economics.
DIAL-LEDa
4, rue d’Enghien
75010 Paris
kenneth.houngbedji[at]ird.fr
Right to stay? Long-Run Experimental Evidence on Land Formalization and Widows' Tenure Security in Benin, with Ioana Botea, Markus Goldstein, Florence Kondylis, Michael O'Sullivan and Harris Selod, 2026, Journal of Development Economics, 179, 103675 [pdf]
Formalizing land rights can reduce forest loss: Experimental evidence from Benin, with Luis Becerra-Valbuena and Liam Wren-Lewis, 2020. Science Advances, 6 (26), eabb6914 [pdf]
Do forest management plans and FSC certification help avoid deforestation in the Congo Basin? with Isabelle Tritsch, Gwenolé Le Velly, Benoit Mertens, Patrick Meyfroidt, Christophe Sannier, and Jean-Sylvestre Makak, 2020. Ecological Economics, 175, 106660 [pdf]
Land certification and schooling in Rural Ethiopia, with Heather Congdon Fors and Annika Lindskog, 2019, World Development, 115, 190-208 [pdf]
Formalization without certification? Experimental evidence on property rights and investment, with Markus Goldstein, Florence Kondylis, Michael O'Sullivan, and Harris Selod, 2018, Journal of Development Economics, 132, 57-74 [datasets], [pdf], [working paper]
Property rights and labour supply in Ethiopia, 2018, Annals of Economics and Statistics, 131, 137-179 [pdf], [working paper]
The triumphant elephant’s return? Growth and income inequality in Côte d’Ivoire (1988-2015), with Denis Cogneau and Léo Czajka, 2017, Afrique contemporaine, 263-264 (3), 221-225 [pdf]
Abadie's semiparametric difference-in-differences estimator, 2016. Stata Journal, 16(2), 482-490 [pdf]
Effect of typhoons on economic activities in Vietnam: Evidence using satellite imagery, with Etienne Espagne, Yen Ha, and Thanh Ngo-Duc [pdf]
Land Restitution and Deforestation in Colombia, with Marie Boltz, Philippe Delacote, Julien Jacob, and Laura Peralta [pdf]
Rainy days and learning outcomes: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa, with Yasmine Bekkouche and Oswald Koussihouèdé, [pdf]
Long-Term Impact of Forest Management Plans on Forest Disturbances in the Congo Basin, with Marc Bouvier, Antoine Leblois, Jean-Sylvestre Makak, and Benoit Mertens
Deforestation and Structural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Clément Imbert, Samuel Marshall, Julien Wolfersberger, and Liam Wren-Lewis
What are the limits to voluntary certification? Evidence from an attempt to protect forests, with Johanna Isman, Maria Plakhtieva, and Liam Wren-Lewis
Land Registration and Gender Concerns in Rural Benin, with Vibuthi Mendiratta
Deforestation and Development: How Do Forests and Population Living Standards Coevolve? with Marie Boltz and Philippe Delacote, 2023, Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, Klaus F. Zimmermann, Springer International Publishing [pdf]
Discussion of ‘The Political Economy of Land Reform’, 2023, State Capture and Rent-Seeking in Benin: The Institutional Diagnostic Project, François Bourguignon, Romain Houssa, Jean-Philippe Platteau, Paul Reding, Cambridge University Press [pdf]
The fall of the elephant: Two decades of poverty increase in Cote d’Ivoire (1988-2008), with Denis Cogneau and Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, 2016, Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, Arndt, Channing and McKay, Andy and Tarp, Finn , Oxford University Press [pdf], [working paper]