I am Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp and the University of Oxford. I am the Lead Economist of the Refugee Economies Programme, and affiliated with Institute of Development Policy (IOB) at the University of Antwerp, and the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID), the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), and the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford. I am invited researcher at J-PAL Europe.

Recent publications:

Appointments: A More Effective Commitment Device for Health Behaviors,
With Laura Derksen, Jason Kerwin, and Natalia Ordaz Reynoso.
The Economic Journal (2025) 135 (665), 81-118. Also on VoxDev.

Cash Transfers and Micro-Enterprise Performance: Theory and Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Kenya, with Antonia Delius
Journal of Development Economics (2024) 167, 103232. Also on VoxDev.

The Economic Lives of Refugees
With Alexander Betts, Maria Flinder Stierna, Naohiko Omata
World Development (2024). 182, 106693.

With or Without Him? Experimental Evidence on Gender-Sensitive Cash Grants and Trainings in Tunisia
With Jules Gazeaud, Nausheen Khan, and Eric Mvukiyehe
Journal of Development Economics (2023). 165, 103169. Also on VoxDev.

Depression, violence and socioeconomic outcomes among refugees in East Africa: evidence from a multicountry representative survey.
With Julia Ruiz Pozuelo, Raphael Bradenbrink, and Maria Flinder Stierna
BMJ Mental Health (2023), 26(1). Data. Also in The Conversation.

Cash Transfers and Migration: Theory and Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial, With Jules Gazeaud and Eric Mvukiyehe
Review of Economics and Statistics (2023), 105(1), 143-157. Also on VoxDev.

The Freedom to Choose: Theory and Quasi-Experimental Evidence on Cash Transfer Restrictions.
With Jade Siu and Cory Rodgers
Journal of Development Economics (2023), 161, 103027. Also in The Conversation.

Recent working papers:

A Simple Decomposable Distribution Sensitive Welfare Index (previous titled A New Distribution Sensitive Index for Measuring Welfare, Poverty, and Inequality). With Aart Kraay ⓡ Christoph Lakner ⓡ Berk Ozler ⓡ Benoit Decerf ⓡ Dean Jolliffe ⓡ Nishant Yonzan (Blog on methodology, Blog on shared prosperity)
R&R American Economic Journal: Microeconomics

A New Class of Decomposable Inequality Measures. With Domenico Moramarco. SSRN working paper 5220560.
R&R Journal of Development Economics

How Many Days to Get a Dollar? A Robust and Inclusive Measure of Poverty (previous titled “Poverty without Poverty Line”). Summarized in in VoxDev, The Conversation, Luxembourg Times, EuroNews.

The Welfare and General-Equilibrium Impacts of Aid Cuts. With Vittorio Bruni. SSRN working paper. Summarized in VoxDev, The New Humanitarian, and The Conversation.

The Welfare and Market of Effects of Delays in Humanitarian Assistance. With Vittorio Bruni. SSRN working paper.

Striking the Right Balance: Why Standard Balance Tests Over-Reject the Null, and How to Fix It, with Jason Kerwin and Nada Rostom (2024). IZA working paper No. 17217. Summarized on the J-PAL blog, World Bank blog (by D. McKenzie)

Stars, wars, and development (associated replication files, ado files) (note: this paper is an extended version of the working paper On the economic importance of the causes of long-run growth)

Books