Publications
If you want a copy of any of these papers and they are behind a paywall, please email me!
“Mobile Money”, with Jenny Aker, Catia Batista, Michael Callen, Tarek Ghani, William Jack, Leora Klapper, Emma Riley, Simone Schaner, and Sandip Sukhtankar, VoxDevLit, 2 (2), February 2023.
“Agricultural Technology in Africa”, with Chris Udry, Jenny C. Aker, Lauren Falcao Bergquist, Markus Goldstein, Thomas Jayne, Jeremy Magruder, Hope Michelson, Meredith Startz, and Emilia Tjernstrom, VoxDevLit, 5 (1), December 2022.
“Agricultural Technology in Africa”, with Christopher Udry, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2022.
"Borrowing Requirements, Credit Access, and Adverse Selection: Evidence from Kenya", with William Jack, Michael Kremer and Joost de Laat, Review of Economic Studies, 2023.
“Fintech and Household Resilience to Shocks: Evidence from Digital Loans in Kenya”, with Prashant Bharadwaj and William Jack, Journal of Development Economics, 2021, Vol. 153.
“Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization”, with Benjamin Marx and Vincent Pons, Journal of Public Economics, 2021, Vol. 197.
“Voter Mobilization and Trust in Electoral Institutions: Evidence from Kenya”, with Benjamin Marx and Vincent Pons, Economic Journal, 2021, Vol. 138, Issue 638: 2585-2612.
“Improving Financial Inclusion Through Digital Savings and Credit”, with Prashant Bharadwaj, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2020, Vol. 110: 584-588.
“Universal Basic Income in Developing Countries”, with Abhijit Banerjee and Paul Niehaus, Annual Review of Economics, 2019, Vol. 11: 959–983.
“There is No Free House: Ethnic Patronage in a Kenyan Slum”, with Benjamin Marx and Thomas Stoker, American Economic Journal Applied Economics, 2019, Vol. 11 (4): 26-30.
“Mobile Money”, Annual Review of Economics, 2017, Vol. 9.
“The Long-run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money”, with William Jack. Science, 2016, Vol. 354, No. 6317: 1288-1292.
Press: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MIT News, Vox, The Economist, Washington Post, NPR, Fortune, Popular Science, Reuters (syndicated to Voice of America, Relief Web, Daily Mail, All Africa), Wired, Financial Express, Press Trust of India, India Today, NDTV, iAfrikan, News BTC.
“Field Experiments in Developing Country Agriculture”, with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet, Handbook of Field Experiments, 2017, Vol. 1: 427-466.
“Making Microfinance More Effective”, with Dean Karlan, Rebecca Mann, Jake Kendall, Rohini Pande and Jonathan Zinman, Harvard Business Review, October 2016.
“Risk Sharing and Transaction Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution”, with William Jack. American Economic Review, 2014, Vol. 104 (1): 183-223.
Press: MIT News; Wired; Slate; Business Week; Voxeu; The World.
Blogs: Freakonomics; FTAlphaville.
Resources: Slide Deck (2010); “The Economics of M-PESA”; Latest Data; Web Appendix
Teaching slide deck for this paper
“The Economics of Slums in the Developing World", with Benjamin Marx and Thomas Stoker. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2013, Vol. 27 (4): 187-210.
Press: The Economist; The Atlantic Cities; Economist Blog; Bloomberg
“Endogenous Emergence of Credit Markets: Contracting in Response to a New Technology in Ghana”, with Rahul Deb. Journal of Development Economics, 2013, Vol. 101: 268-283.
"Transaction Networks: Evidence from Mobile Money in Kenya", with William Jack and Adam Ray. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2013, Vol. 103 (3): 356-361.
"Documenting the Birth of a Financial Economy", with William Jack, and Thomas Stoker. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012, June, Vol. 109 (26): 10257-10262.
“Selection and Comparative Advantage in Technology Adoption”, Econometrica, 2011, Vol. 79 (1): 159–209.
NBER Working Paper #15346; EGC working paper version; Web Appendix Tables
“Paths to Success: The Relationship Between Human Development and Economic Growth”, with Michael Boozer, Gustav Ranis and Frances Stewart, World Development, 2011, Vol. 39 (4): 506-522.
“Monetary Theory and Mobile Banking: Lessons from the Kenyan Experience”, with William Jack and Robert Townsend, Economic Quarterly, 2010, Vol. 96 (1): 83-122.