Research interests: development, behavioural, political economy

Working papers

Customized cash transfers: financial lives and cash-flow preferences in rural Kenya (with Anandi Mani and Paul Niehaus)

Working paperLink opens in a new window

• We examine the preferences of low-income households in Kenya over the structure of unconditional cash transfers. We find, first, that most preferred lumpy transfers, and some preferred deferred receipt -- unlike the structures typical of safety-net programs, but consistent with evidence on the financial challenges of poverty. Second, modest deferral of transfers increased income 1.5 years later. Finally, small changes in cash flow around the time of decision-making about transfer structure affected demand for deferral, with large downstream consequences. Taken together, these results illustrate how adapting cash transfer design to the decision-making environment of those in poverty could improve financial choices and outcomes.

Gender equality through turnover: Quasi-experimental evidence from term limit reforms in Italy (with Manuel Bagues)

Working paper

Lavoce.info summary (italian)

• We study whether term limits can accelerate women's access to top political positions by analyzing two reforms in Italian local elections that extended mayoral term limits from two to three five-year terms. The first reform affected municipalities with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants in 2014, and the second those below 5,000 in 2022 -- a period marked by rapid growth in women's political participation. Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, we find that longer term limits restrict opportunities for early-career politicians, with substantial effects for female representation: the share of female mayors would be 8 percentage points higher without the term limit extensions. The impact is larger in municipalities with more women in lower political positions and where gender quotas for council members are present, suggesting that entry-level quotas can be more effective when paired with policies promoting turnover in top positions.

Work in progress

Missing secondary markets and technology adoption (with H. Alperen Tosun) - PI, STEG PhD Grant n.2635

Teaching - fall 2024

EC910 Quantitative methods: Econometrics B

EC203 Applied econometrics

Teaching - spring 2025

EC310 Topics in development economics

EC902 Quantitative methods: Econometrics A

Office hours

By appointment (via e-mail)