Publications

Maternal Dengue and Birth Outcomes (with Martin F. Koppensteiner). Forthcoming in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023.

We study the effect of maternal dengue infections on birth outcomes using linked administrative records from Brazil estimating maternal fixed-effect specifications. In contrast to previous studies, we find robust evidence for the negative effect of dengue infections on birth weight (BW). The effect is particularly pronounced at lower parts of the BW distribution, with an increase of 15%, 67%, and 133% for low, very low, and extremely low BW, respectively. We also document large increases in children's hospitalizations and medical expenditures for up to three years after birth.

Violence and Human Capital Investments (with Martin F. Koppensteiner). Journal of Labor Economics, 39(3):787-823, 2021.

Media coverage: IZA Newsroom

In this paper, we investigate the effect of exposure to homicides on the educational performance and human capital investments of students in Brazil. We combine extremely granular information on the location and timing of homicides with a number of very large administrative educational datasets, to estimate the effect of exposure to homicides around schools, students' residence, and on their way to school on these outcomes. We show that violence has a detrimental effect on school attendance, on standardised test scores in math and Portuguese language and increases dropout rates of students substantially. The effects are particularly pronounced for boys, indicating important heterogeneous effects of violence. We use exceptionally rich information from student- and parent-background questionnaires to investigate the effect of violence on the aspirations and attitudes towards education. In line with the effects on dropout and the longer-term human capital accumulation of students, we find that boys systematically report lower educational aspiration towards education. Making use of the very rich information from the homicides and education data, we explore a number of underlying transmission channels, including mechanisms related to school supply, bereavement and incentives for human capital investments.

Work in Progress

Maternal Displacements during Pregnancy and the Health of Newborns  (with Stefano Cellini and Martin F. Koppensteiner). Submitted.

Criminal Victimisation and Birth Outcomes (with Martin F. Koppensteiner).

The Consequences of Parental Loss on Human Capital Accumulation  (with Martin F. Koppensteiner and Asako Ohinata).

The Short and Long-term Cost of Victimisation in Crime (with Martin F. Koppensteiner).

Juvenile Detention and Long-term Outcomes  (with Martin F. Koppensteiner).

Early Determinants of Youth Crime (with Martin F. Koppensteiner and Catherine Ojo).