My early work focused primarily on the first line of
research, and employed laboratory experiments to investigate individuals’
decision to engage in corruption. In the field, much of my past work focused on
subpar behavior of health and education service providers in low-income
countries, and on service recipients’ willingness and ability to hold
them accountable. I currently have three completed papers and one ongoing project
within this line of research. One paper (“Activating Change: The Role of Information
and Beliefs in Social Activism” with F. Afridi, A. Basistha
and A. Dhillon) employs an online survey experiment
in India to examine the drivers of remote
social activism, i.e., activism that does not require in-person engagement,
such petition signing, donations to NGOs and engagement with video campaigns. A
second related paper (“Can Crises Affect Citizen Activism? Evidence
from a Pandemic” with the same coauthors)
uses quasi-experimental methods to test the impact of the (largely unexpected)
second wave of the pandemic in India on social activism aimed at reducing fraud
and corruption in the health sector. A third paper (“Proud to belong: The impact of ethics training on police officers in
Ghana” with Donna
Harris, Oana Borcan, Hanry Telli, Bruno Schettini and Stefan Dercon) employs an RCT in Ghana to test the impact of an ethics
training program for traffic police officers on unethical behavior. The primary
outcomes are measured through a survey and an incentivized cheating game. In
the past year, we were able to obtain partial administrative data from the
Ghana Police to complement our impact evaluation. Another ongoing project within this line of
research (“Who self-select into committees: The pro-social
or the corrupt?” with
former student Andy Cao and Dmitry Ryvkin), employs a
laboratory experiment to investigate self-selection into committees managing
public funds. We ask theoretically and experimentally whether and when the most
pro-socially motivated or the most corrupt self-select into committees.
My second line of research focuses primarily on gender
inequalities in education and labor market participation in low-income
countries. An ongoing project in Somalia
(joint with Elijah Kipchumba, Catherine Porter and Munshi Sulaiman) employs an RCT
to examine whether exposure to male or female role models (college students)
affects gender attitudes and education aspirations of primary school students.
The intervention was conducted in Spring 2018; we recently collected a third
wave of follow-up data, which will allow us to also assess the impact of role
models on student performance in grade 8 standardized exit exams. An ongoing project in
Uganda (joint with Kjetil Bjorvatn,
Shymal Chowdhury, Catalina Franco and Munshi Sulaiman) evaluates the
impact of female leadership in Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs).
Specifically, in collaboration with BRAC Uganda, we implemented a field
experiment consisting in nudging VSLAs to appoint a new Chairperson. In
randomly selected VSLAs, the nudge was to appoint a woman; in other randomly
selected VSLAs the nudge was to appoint a new male Chairperson; in a third
randomly selected group of VSLAs, we implemented the female leadership nudge
together with a mentoring intervention that put new female leaders in contact
by phone with successful female leaders of other VSLAs. We are currently collecting
the endline data. Another current project in
Northern Uganda
(joint with Alessandra Cassar, Eeshani
Kandpal, Miranda Lambert and Christine Mbabazi) employs lab-in-the-field experiments and surveys
to examine the long-term impact of extreme war victimization (i.e., childhood abduction) on women's mental
health, preferences, and socio-economic outcomes. We are currently writing the
paper. A follow-up study (about to be
fielded) will assess through an RCT the effects of unconditional cash
transfers versus coaching versus mental health counseling on the well-being of
a larger sample of victimized women.
In the past year, I have expanded my work in development
economics (which so far primarily focused on countries in Sub-Saharan Africa)
to South Asia. Together with Raymond Robertson (Bush School, TAMU), Farzana Afridi and Hamna Ahmed, I was awarded an IZA|G2LM large grant to
investigate (through surveys and RCTs) barriers to women’s career
advancement in the apparel sector in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. This work
will take place in collaboration with the H&M Group. Also with Raymond
Robertson and Hamna Ahmed, I received funding from
the US State Department – through a collaborative agreement – to
design and implement research aimed at facilitating women’s active
participation in the Green Transition in Pakistan’s apparel industry.
My third line of research focuses on the economics of
education, asking primarily what interventions could succeed in diversifying
male-dominated fields of study. In my previous work (“Gender differences in the choice of major:
The importance of female role models”), Catherine Porter and I found that in-person exposure to
female role models could attract more women into economics. An ongoing project (with
Jonathan Meer) employs an RCT targeting high school counselors in Texas with
the aim of increasing awareness about the economics major. We have recently
received funding from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and CSWEP to
evaluate our intervention using the Texas Education Research Center data.
Another ongoing
project, joint with Daniel Gomez-Vasquez,
employs an RCT aimed at increasing retention among under-represented economics
majors at TAMU through encouragement emails sent on behalf of the economics
department. I also have an ongoing project in
Peru (joint with Marcos Agurto and Sudipta Sarangi) involving high school students and
employing an RCT conducted through Instagram to attract more women towards the
engineering major. New work (joint with Celeste Carruthers, Kalena
Cortes and Ishara Casellas
Connors) will examine the impact of coaching on student transfers from
community colleges to 4-year colleges.
Finally, I have ongoing
experimental/behavioral projects aimed at identifying or correcting biases in
hiring or career advancement. One
project (joint with Elira Kuka)
uses an RCT to evaluate the impact of a streamlined mentoring program (the Adopt a Paper program) on the academic
success of junior faculty in economics. Another project
(joint with Tim Salmon, Daniel Gomez-Vasquez and Miranda Lambert) employs a
laboratory experiment to assess the impact of different modes of communication
– in-person, video call, audio-only call and instant messaging – on
the dynamics of work relationships between team members of different
genders. A final project
is joint with Daniel Gomez-Vasquez and extends his dissertation work on the
drivers of hiring biases against Black and Hispanic workers.