Working Papers
- “Measuring Religion from Behavior: Violence, Economic Shocks and Religious Adherence in Afghanistan” (with Joshua Blumenstock and Michael Callen) – Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Political Economy
- Read the VOXDEV article
- “Can Secular Media Create Religious Backlash: Evidence from Pakistan’s Media Liberalization” (with Joshua Blumenstock and Karrar Hussein)
- “Can Economic Opportunities Reshape Gender Norms among Religious Youth? Evidence from Northern Nigeria” (with Benjamin Crost, Marcus Holmlund, Eric Mvukiyehe and Emily Crawford)
Published Papers
- “A Cognitive View of Policing” (with Sandy Jo MacArthur and Anuj Shah) Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2025.
- “The Promise and Pitfalls of Conflict Prediction: Evidence from Indonesia and Colombia” (with Samuel Bazzi, Robert Blair, Christopher Blattman, Matthew Gudgeon, and Richard Peck) – Review of Economics and Statistics, 2022.
- “Building Resilient Health Systems: Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone and the 2014 Ebola Outbreak” (with Darin Christensen, Johannes Haushofer, Bilal Siddiqi and Maarten Voors) – Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2021.
- Online Appendix
- Read the JPAL Briefcase
- Listen to the VoxEU podcast
- Read the IPA Policy Brief and Blog Post
- Other press Coverage: NPR, CBS Chicago
- “Queens” (with S.P. Harish), Journal of Political Economy, 2020.
- Data Appendix
- Press coverage: The Times London, The Economist, The Atlantic, NY Times mention, NY Mag, Marginal Revolution, Chris Blattman’s blog, PS Mag, Vox, The Australian, Live Mint, GovExec.com, Ancient Origins, Semana, Nczas
- See the Econominate video; listen to the Roots of Conflict Podcast
- “Community-based Crisis Response: Evidence from Sierra Leone’s 2014 Ebola Outbreak“, (with Darin Christensen, Johannes Haushofer, Bilal Siddiqi and Maarten Voors), American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, 2020.
- “Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response,” (with Van Bavel, Jan, Katherine Baicker et al.) Nature Human Behavior, 2020.
- “Do Natural Resources Influence Who Comes to Power, and How?” (with Maria Carreri) – 2017. Journal of Politics
- “Reconciling after civil conflict increases social capital but decreases individual wellbeing” (with Jacobus Cilliers and Bilal Siddiqi) – 2016. Science
- Replication Data
- NPR Hidden Brain Podcast and Washington Post-Monkey Cage article by Rachel Glennerster
- Also featured in: Voice of America, Le Monde, Science Daily, The Daily Mail, Pacific Standard, El Espectador, Público, Ecodiario, Diariomedico, EDA, Sinc, Infosalus
- See the IPA policy brief
- “From Maize to Haze: Agricultural Shocks and the Growth of the Mexican Drug Sector” (with Omar Garcia-Ponce and Kevin Thom) – 2016. Journal of the European Economic Association
- “The White-Man Effect: How Foreigner Presence Affects Behavior in Experiments” (with Jacobus Cilliers and Bilal Siddiqi). 2015. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
- Online Appendix
- Press coverage: NY Mag, Quartz, Debraj Ray’s blog post
- “Bases, Bullets and Ballots: the Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Political Conflict in Colombia” (with Suresh Naidu). 2015. Journal of Politics
- Online Appendix
- Replication Package
- Press coverage: Slate article, El Espectador article, Center for Global Development podcast interview; an Exchange with Andrew Gelman is here
- “Commodity Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Colombia.” (with Juan Vargas). 2013. Review of Economic Studies
- “Cross-Border Spillover: U.S. Gun Laws and Violence in Mexico.” (with Arindrajit Dube and Omar Garcia Ponce). 2013. American Political Science Review (lead article)
- Online Appendix
- Replication Package
- Press coverage:
- TIME article, NPR interview, Slate post, The New Republic, The Washington Post
- Monkey Cage posts here and here
Selected Research in Progress
- “A Foundation Model for Student Learning: Experimental Evidence from India” (with Peter Bergman, Sendhil Mullainathan, Ashesh Rambachan and Charlotte Siegmann)
- “Does Knowledge Empower? Experimental Evidence from the Oppressed” (with Noam Angrist, Michael Callen, Claire Cullen and Anaya Dam)
- “Can Contact Reduce Conflict Between Farmers and Herders?” (with Soeren Henn and James Robinson)
- “Tools of Thought and Productivity among Frontline Workers” (with Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan, Anuj Shah and Rebecca Weeks)
- “Risk Sharing through Social Networks: Evidence from Mobile Phone Data” (with Emily Breza and Joshua Blumenstock)
Resting papers (for now)
- Reform Fatigue (with T. Renee Bowen, Jackie Chan and Nicolas Lambert)
Other Writing
“The Importance of Trust in Health Systems during Crises: Evidence from Sierra Leone” with Darin Christensen, Johannes Haushofer, Bilal Siddiqi and Maarten Voors). VOXDEV, January 9, 2023.
Response to NSER posting, February 2025
“Is It Safer to Visit a Coffee Shop or a Gym?” (with Katherine Baicker, Sendhil Mullainathan and Devin Pope). The New York Times – Opinion, May 6, 2020.
“How You Can Protect Your Community, Not Just Your Own Health” (with Katherine Baicker) The New York Times – Economic View, March 26, 2020.