Harvard Graduate Student

I am a fifth year doctoral student (2011-2012 academic year). During the 2011-2012 academic year, I am conducting experimental fieldwork in Tanzania and Kenya.

My research combines psychology and economics, using both lab and field experiments, to test insights from behavioral economics in the context of development projects in Africa and Asia. My particular interest is in understanding why people or institutions in developing contexts don't adopt technologies and behaviors that is in their economic interest to adopt. My field experiments address incentives for public good contribution, technology adoption, boosting educational attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa, and behavior change in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Between 2008-2010, I taught Economics 970 for undergraduate economics concentrators at Harvard College. One course section was on Microeconomics of Health and Development, and another section on Labor Markets in Developing Countries. I have also taught Causal Inference Workshops with the World Bank's SIEF initiative dedicated to the use of randomized trials as a tool for learning what works in international development.

As part of an ongoing large randomized housing mobility experiment Moving-to-Opportunity (MTO) in the U.S., I am involved in the Lawrence Katz Research NBER team, on quantifying the effect of neighborhoods on economic, crimimal and health outcomes. I am also a graduate student affiliate of The Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Harvard Kennedy School Center for International Development.

I received an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in 2007.

Mailing Address
National Bureau of Economic Research
Third Floor
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138

Contact Information
US Cell: +1-202-3689668
US GoogleVoice: +1-617-8559668 (anytime)
Tanzania Cell: +255-689378902 (Oct 10-onwards)
Belgium: +32081724830 (Sept 11 - Dec 11)
Email

Research Interests
Primary: Development economics, Labor economics
Secondary: Experimental economics, Social Economics, Health economics