Cash transfers and business survival during Covid: Evidence from Uganda,
Journal of Development Studies, forthcoming. with Kjetil Bjorvatn, Denise Ferris, Selim Gulesci, Arne Nasgowitz and Lore Vandewalle.
(the pandemic hardly hit small Ugandan businesses, cash transfers were very effective at protecting them).
Childcare, labor supply, and business development: Experimental evidence from Uganda,
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2025, 17 (2): 75–101. with Kjetil Bjorvatn, Denise Ferris, Selim Gulesci, Arne Nasgowitz and Lore Vandewalle.
(access to childcare has large income effects, for single mothers, fathers and households, as large as produced by an equivalent cash transfer).
Long-Term Effects of Preschool Subsidies and Cash Transfers on Child Development: Evidence from Uganda,
AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2024, 114: 459-62. with Kjetil Bjorvatn, Denise Ferris, Selim Gulesci, Arne Nasgowitz and Lore Vandewalle.
(a one year childcare subsidy has long-lasting effects on child development)
Wealth and charitable giving – Evidence from an Ethiopian lottery,
Journal of Development Economics, 2024, vol. 167, 103250, with Andreas Kotsadam.
(are the rich more selfish? No.)
Does Wealth Reduce Support for Redistribution? Evidence from an Ethiopian Housing Lottery,
Journal of Public Economics, 2023, vol. 224, 104939, with Asbjørn G. Andersen, Simon Franklin, Tigabu Getahun, Andreas Kotsadam, and Espen Villanger.
(when people become much richer (by chance) they are more likely to attibute poverty to a lack of effort and a poor character rather than bad luck but their support for redistribution remains stable)
Access to Banking, Savings and Consumption Smoothing in Rural India,
Journal of Public Economics, 2023, vol. 223, 104900, with Lore Vandewalle.
(random access to banking doesn't change mean consumption and savings, but it does increase consumption smoothing)
Material resources and well-being – Evidence from an Ethiopian housing lottery,
Journal of Health Economics, 2022, vol. 83, 102619, with Asbjørn G. Andersen and Andreas Kotsadam.
(when lottery winners become much wealthier, life satisfaction improves and financial distress diminishes, but mental health doesn't improve)
Long term effects of payment for performance on maternal and child health outcomes – evidence from Tanzania,
BMJ Global Health, 2021, vol. 6 (12), with Peter Binyaruka, Josephine Borghi, Siri Lange, Ottar Mæstad and Iddy Mayumana.
(documenting how impacts of large and complex programs evolve as they go to scale and are implemented over the years)
Pay-for-performance reduces bypassing of health facilities: evidence from Tanzania,
Social Science & Medicine, 2021, vol. 268, 113551, with Sosina Bezu, Peter Binyaruka and Ottar Mæstad.
(P4P's effects on institutional deliveries seem to be partly explained by a reduction in bypassing)
Increasing Trust in Bankers to Enhance Savings: Experimental Evidence from India.
Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2021, 69 (2), 623-644 , with Rahul Mehrotra and Lore Vandewalle. (ungated) (data)
(people don't save much when they don't trust their banker, and it is really hard to improve that trust)
The Customer is King: Evidence on VAT Compliance in Tanzania.
World Development, vol.128, 2020, with Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Cecilia Kagoma, Ephraim Mdee and Ingrid Sjursen. (data)
(Tanzanian businesses don't like printing VAT receipts, but they are very responsive to customers requests to do so)
Om foreldres investeringer i barns utvikling.
Magma - Tidsskrift for økonomi og ledelse 2019 (6) s. 33-39, with Ingvild Almås, Orazio Attanasio, Bet Caeyers, Pamela Jervis and Charlotte Ringdal.
(as Orazio said, we are very proud to have an article in Norwegian)
Fertility, household size and poverty in Nepal.
World Development 2018 ;Volume 103. s. 311-322, with Francois Libois.
(it is fascinating how households adapt their size (hosting or sending out relatives) to their fertility and maintain their income per capita)
Saving by Default: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural India.
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2018 ;Volume 10.(3) s. 39-66, with Lore Vandewalle. (ungated) (data)
(a very neat experiment showing how digital payments -instead of cash- boost savings)
Elite capture through information distortion: A theoretical essay.
Journal of Development Economics 2014 ;Volume 106. s. 250-263, with Jean-Philippe Platteau and Zaki Wahhaj.
(on the perils of community-driven development using complicated maths)
Facing Misfortune: Expenditures on Magico-Religious Powers for Cure and Protection in Benin.
Journal of African Economies 2013 ;Volume 22.(2) s. 300-322, with Philippe LeMay-Boucher and Joël Noret
(uncovering the importance of voodoo protection expenses and their role as a substitute to sharing)
Leçons de l'Expérience de Décentralisation en Inde, dans l'État du Kerala.
Mondes en Développements, de boeck, vol. 34 (133), p.83-99, 2006.
(Ghandi vs Ambedkar again, in French)
Natural resources, political discourse and citizen mobilization, in Governing Petroleum Resources: Prospects and Challenges for Tanzania, editors O.-H. Fjeldstad, D. Mmari and K. Dupuy, Jamana Printers Limited, Tanzania, with Lars Ivar Oppedal Berge and Kendra Dupuy.
Reducing Early Pregnancy in Low-Income Countries : a literature review and new evidence. I: Towards gender equity in development. Oxford University Press 2018. s. 141-166, with Lars Ivar Berge, Kjetil Bjorvatn, Amina Mohamed, and Tungodden, Bertil. (ungated), editors S. Anderson, L. Beaman and J.-P. Platteau (It looks like better economic opportunities for women will lead to lower fertility rates, but watch out for the income effects we find in a following paper)
Psychological Barriers to Participation in the Labor Market, with Leandro Carvalho, Damien de Walque, Crick Lund, Heather Schofield and Jingyao Wei. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11271. (In Ghana, depression and anxiety are strong predictors of refusal to engage in simple, high wage, work opportunities)
On the doorstep of adulthood: Empowerment, entrepreneurship and fertility of young women in Tanzania, with Lars Ivar Berge, Kjetil Bjorvatn, Fortunata Makene, Linda Helgesson Sekei and Bertil Tungodden. (Economic empowerment reduces poverty, but increases teenage pregnancy through a positive income effect.)
Reality bites: Experimental evidence on the transition from school in a low-income setting, with Ingvild Almås, Bet Caeyers, Adrien Dautheville, Vivian Kazi and Sonya Krutikova. (Helping over-optimistic students to develop B-plans improved their transition from school.)
Does having a daughter make men less violent against women? (investigating the daughter effect on violence in not-WEIRD populations).
The Effect of Gender-Targeted Transfers: Experimental Evidence From India, with Ingvild Almås and Lore Vandewalle. (giving cash transfers to women rather than men (randomly selected) doesn't change households' expenditures, savings or revenues).
Adverse selection into competition: Evidence from a large-scale experiment in Tanzania, with Ingvild Almås, Lars Ivar Berge, Kjetil Bjorvatn and Bertil Tungodden. (a woman empowerment program succesfully increased women's competitiveness (but they then failed when competing)).
Improving VAT compliance by incentivizing customers: Evidence from Tanzania, with Kanuda Buluba, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Osama Moeed Nawab and Ingrid Hoem Sjursen. (A VAT lottery increased reported sales and VAT liability among VAT registered firms but failed to increase the use of fiscal devices among non-registered firms).