Research
I study development economics, which I interpret to be the study of economic and social problems in disadvantaged populations whether they be in developing countries or not. I work to design programs that help those struggling populations with their real-world problems, and uncover mechanisms working against their success. I do this in a rigorous way using both randomized control trials and advanced statistical methods using observational data.
I am primarily interested in the Economics of Education, and understanding when and why people hold biased beliefs about education’s value and helping to correct those so people make more informed decisions. I am also interested in studying how these decisions are adversely affected by changing environmental factors.
Working Papers
No Longer Business as Usual: Evidence from Two Literacy Interventions in Ghana (Job Market Paper)
Almost all evidence on education programs comes from settings where the counterfactual is business-as-usual schooling. As effective instruction scales, the policy question becomes what a program adds on top of it. I run a randomized trial in 103 Ghanaian schools already implementing an effective structured pedagogy program, testing two additional sources of learning: parents and principals. Schools received (i) restructured parent meetings plus take-home copies of the literacy workbook used in class, (ii) instructional leadership training for principals, (iii) both, or (iv) neither. The parent program raises reading fluency by 0.33 standard deviations, while the principal training lowers reading comprehension by 0.26 standard deviations. Combined, the parent program offsets part of the comprehension loss caused by the principal program. I show this is consistent with concave literacy production: the marginal return for parent engagement increases when instruction quality drops, so families invest more time in at-home learning. [Ungated Preprint]
How to Build a Reader: Evidence from a Scalable Literacy Intervention in Ghana with Simon Graffy, Jason Kerwin, and Monica Lambon-Quayefio. February 2026 [World Bank WPS11433] [Ungated Preprint]
Work in Progress
Is Awareness Always Good? An Accidental Information Intervention in Nigeria
Cocoa no More: Evidence from Illegal Small-holder Gold Mining in Ghana
Why Cluster at all? Randomization Inference Correction to Incorrect Rejection Rates with Small Clusters