Current research

For a complete list of past and current research, check out my profile on Google Scholar.

Job Market Paper

The Curse of Bad Geography: Stagnant Water, Diseases and Children's Human Capital, (with Linn Mattisson)

Upcoming presentations: NEUDC 2023, CESifo Workshop on the Economics of Children
Past presentations:  EEA 2023, CSAE 2023, Nordic Conference in Development Economics 2023, EALE 2023

Waterborne diseases lead to over 6 billion diarrheal episodes per year, with most of the burden on children in low-income countries. We employ hydrological engineering principles to construct a novel measure of stagnant water, crucial to the spread of these diseases. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we estimate the causal effect of stagnant water on the health and cognitive skills of Tanzanian children. A 10 percentage point increase in stagnant water increases local diarrhea incidence rates among children by 30%. Exposure to stagnant water also affects human capital accumulation. Our results show an immediate reduction in the cognitive abilities of affected children, measured by standardized test scores, and this negative effect appears to persist over the long term. The effects on health and cognition are exacerbated by high temperatures and population density, but are completely mitigated by access to safe water and sanitation. We find that projected climate change could triple the burden of waterborne diseases, but that disease awareness in high-risk locations remains low. By showing how stagnant water shocks affect health and cognitive skills of children, our results provide new evidence relevant to the global learning crisis, with millions of children failing to reach their cognitive potential.

Working Papers

Traditional Norms and Parental Investment in Human Capital, (with Gunes Gokmen)

This paper studies the cultural roots of parental behavior concerning children’s human capital. We examine the effect of traditional kinship norms on parental investment in human capital, with a focus on two predominant forms of kinship norms in developing countries –matrilineal and patrilineal systems. We use novel survey data from Tanzania to capture detailed parental investment behavior, including time and attention devoted to children’s learning. Using a fuzzy spatial regression discontinuity design, we find that matrilineal parents invest less in their children’s human capital. For instance, they are less likely to check their children’s homework or discuss their performance with teachers. In turn, matrilineal children have poorer cognitive skills, captured by standardized test scores on numeracy and literacy. Assessment of various mechanisms suggests that spousal conflict and cooperation, family instability, and labor market conditions play a part. Lastly, we evaluate the effect of a nation-building reform intended to undo ethnic norms. We show that this policy did not effectively counteract the influence of traditional norms.

Heterogeneous Effects of the Slave Trade on Mistrust in Africa, (with Gunes Gokmen)

 In an influential study, Nunn and Wantchekon (2011) show that the slave trade in Africa engendered a culture of mistrust. We revisit their study and extend it by shedding further light on three sources of heterogeneity. i) The slave trade led to mistrust only in societies with ancestral slavery. ii) The negative correlation between the slave trade and trust is driven by ethnic groups in the vicinity of the trans-Saharan trade route. iii) The negative effect of the slave trade on trust is mostly driven by areas with greater Tsetse disease suitability.

Climate Uncertainty and Financial Coping Strategies of Farmers

How does climate uncertainty affect consumption smoothing strategies among poor rural households? This paper investigates how recent exposure to climate uncertainty affects savings behavior as well as the demand, awareness, and uptake of insurance products. It introduces a novel measure of climate uncertainty more relevant for poor farming households relying on rainfed agriculture: climate unpredictability, which is the average year-to-year change between dry and wet conditions. Using household finance survey data from Tanzania and a difference-in-differences strategy, I find that households exposed to climate uncertainty in the recent past prepare for future shocks mainly by increasing their savings. I find that the effect is driven only by farming households, that it only affects savings for emergency reasons and not other types of savings, and is determined by exposure to climate unpredictability in the past five years. I find no effects on insurance uptake, demand, or awareness, despite the large welfare gains that would result from increased insurance coverage among this group of households. Instead, I find that households who have faced unexpected climate shocks in the recent past are more likely to partake in semi-formal cooperatives, which effectively substitute for formal insurance services.

Work In Progress

Urbanization and economic development: Evidence from the diffusion of dynamites (with Akib Khan)

Free Labor and Market Activity in Early Medieval Britain: Evidence from Viking invasions

Policy Papers

Traditionella Normer och Föräldrars Investering i Humankapital, Ekonomisk Debatt, 2023 (with Jan Bietenbeck and Gunes Gokmen)