Research
Research
Refugee Settlement and Social Integration: Evidence from Turkey (submitted)
This paper explores how refugee networks influence social integration in the host community. I study this question in the context of Turkey, a country that has been profoundly impacted by the arrival of more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees since 2011. Using a rich dataset on the mobile phone communications of Syrian refugees living in the country, I construct village-level measures of refugee presence and social integration. In villages with a larger refugee population, refugees make significantly more phone calls with locals and other refugees, and homophily decreases. Furthermore, refugee networks are more important for social integration when the refugee population is small relative to natives and when the cultural gap between refugees and locals is wider. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that refugee networks make it easier for their members to interact with locals by sharing information on local norms and creating new opportunities to meet locals.
Coverage: World Bank Development Impact Blog
Nation Building in Post-Conflict Settings: Evidence from South Africa (with Daniela Horta Sáenz and Gianluca Russo)
How do leaders rebuild states in the aftermath of major intergroup violence? We study the impact of one of the most iconic examples of transitional justice, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which attempted to address this challenge. Exploiting the media coverage devoted to the TRC hearings, we reconstruct quasi-exogenous variation in exposure to live broadcasting of the TRC across South African suburbs. We show that while the TRC fostered unity among Black South Africans, it weakened interracial relations. First, we demonstrate that the TRC created a trade-off between nation-building led by Blacks and a decline in trust in the judiciary among Whites. Next, we show that this decline in trust toward the judiciary fueled racial entrenchment, marked by increased segregation, lower interracial marriage rates, and reduced trust. Additionally, this entrenchment hindered the state’s ability to implement affirmative action policies aimed at workplace integration. Finally, we suggest that these effects stem from Whites adjusting their beliefs about judicial bias. To support this, our analysis of daily variations in hearing content highlights how racial salience consistently predicts the backlash among White South Africans.
From Missing Brothers to Educated Sisters: The Effects of Victimization During the Rwandan Genocide
World Development, July 2025.
"Social Networks and Women's Economic Empowerment" (with S. Anukriti and Eeshani Kandpal)
"Transportation Networks and Inter-Ethnic Contacts" (with Gedeon Lim and Alex Rothenberg)
"Can I get that in writing? Lessons from a Contracting Field Experiment in Urban Malawi (with Mahesh Karra)