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)

Development economics

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.

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.

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.

Empowering Refugees through Cash and Agriculture: A Regression Discontinuity Design
With Claire MacPherson
Journal of Development Economics (2021), 102614.

Fighting for Votes: Theory and Evidence on the Causes of Electoral Violence.
Economica (2020), 87(347), 844-883.

Who Benefited from Burundi’s Demobilization Program?
With Olivia D’Aoust and Philip Verwimp
The World Bank Economic Review (2018), 32(2), 357-382.

From Civil War to Electoral Violence. Evidence from Burundi.
With Andrea Colombo and Olivia D’Aoust
Economic Development and Cultural Change (2019), 67(2), 333-368.

Interest Rate in Savings Groups: Thrift or Threat?
With Maité le Polain, and Marthe Nyssens
World Development (2018), 101, 162-172.

Who Benefits from Customary Justice? Rent seeking, Bribery and Criminality in sub-Saharan Africa.
With Olivia D’Aoust
Journal of African Economies (2016), 25(3), 439-467.

Econometrics

Is Chinese aid different?
With Anke Hoeffler
World Development (2022) (replication files are here)

Beyond the Stars.
Journal of Economic Surveys (2019). 33(5), 1409-1436.
Associated replication files

Political science & refugee studies

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

Refugees welcome? Inter-group interaction and host community attitude formation
With Alexander Betts, Maria Flinder Stierna, and Naohiko Omata
World Development (2023) 16.

Transnational blindness: International institutions and refugees’ cross-border activities.
With Alexander Betts and Naohiko Omata
Review of International Studies (2021): 1-29.

The Kalobeyei Settlement: A Self-Reliance Model for Refugees?
With Alexander Betts and Naohiko Omata
Journal of Refugee Studies (2020), 33(1), 189–223.

Self-Reliance and Social Networks: Explaining Refugees’ Reluctance to Relocate from Kakuma to Kalobeyei.
With Alexander Betts and Naohiko Omata
Journal of Refugee Studies (2020), 33(1), 62-85.

What Does the “Terrorist” Label Really Do? Measuring and Explaining the Effects of the “Terrorist” and “Islamist” Categories.
With Stéphane Baele, Thibaut Slingeneyer, and Grégoire Lits
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2019), 42(5), 520-540.

The Ethics of Security Research: An Ethics Framework for Contemporary Security Studies.
With Stéphane Baele, David Lewis, Anke Hoeffler, Sterck, and Thibaut Slingeneyer
International Studies Perspectives (2017), 19(2), 105-127.

Theorizing and Measuring Emotions in Conflict.
With Stéphane Baele and Elisabeth Meur
Journal of Conflict Resolution (2016), 60(4), 718-747.

Diagnosing the Securitisation of Immigration at the EU Level: A New Method for Stronger Empirical Claims.
With Stéphane Baele
Political Studies (2015), 63(5), 1120-1139.

Health economics

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.

Lives and livelihoods: estimates of the global mortality and poverty effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With Benoit Decerf, Fransisco Ferreira, and Daniel Mahler
World Development (2021), 146, 105561.

The Moral and Fiscal Implications of Antiretroviral Therapies for HIV in Africa.
With Sir Paul Collier
Oxford Economic Papers (2018), 70(2), 353-374.

Allocation of development assistance for health: is the predominance of national income justified?
With Max Roser, Mthuli Ncube, and Stefan Thewissen
Health Policy and Planning (2018), 33(suppl 1), i14-i23.

What Goes Wrong with the Allocation of Domestic and International Resources for HIV?
Health Economics (2018), 27(2), 320-332.

Rethinking international and domestic financing for HIV in low and middle income countries.
With Richard Manning
Development Policy Review (2018),  36(4), 433-444.

Financing the HIV response in sub-Saharan Africa from domestic sources: moving beyond a normative approach.
With Michelle Remme, Mariana Siapka, Mthuli Ncube, Charlotte Watts, and Anna Vassall
Social Science & Medicine (2016), 169, 66-76.

Natural Resources and the Spread of HIV/AIDS: Curse or Blessing?
Social Science & Medicine (2016), 150(2), 271-278.

From Death Sentence to Debt Sentence.
With Sir Paul Collier and Richard Manning
Finance & Development (IMF) (2015), 52(4), 28-31.

HIV/AIDS and Fatalism: Should Prevention Campaigns Disclose the Transmission Rate of HIV?
Journal of African Economies (2014), 23 (1), 53-104.

Why are Testing Rates so Low in Sub-Saharan Africa? Misconceptions and Strategic Behaviors.
Forum for Health Economics and Policy (2013), 16(1), 1-39.