Working Papers

Persistent yet Ameliorable Shocks to Female Entrepreneurship: Experimental Evidence from Kenya  (with Francisco Campos,  Julian Jamison, Abla Safir, and Bilal Zia)  (Revise & Resubmit Journal of Development Economics)  Policy brief

While female entrepreneurs face multiple obstacles, it is unclear whether gender gaps worsen during economic crises: women may be more impacted than men due to those existing obstacles and restrictive social norms, but they may also be less exposed due to their specialized sectors of operation, or if a crisis flattens everyone together. In a large sample of partnered Kenyan youth microentrepreneurs, we document more severe consequences two years after the COVID-19 crisis for female entrepreneurs across various outcomes: business ownership; sales and profits; adaptability; time-use; and intra-household decision-making. However, the impact of randomized grants significantly offsets these declines, demonstrating a strong mitigating impact for both women and men. The grants increase women's labor supply, at the expense of domestic work, leisure time, and childcare hours, while they have no significant impacts on men's time allocation. 

Firstborn Daughters and Family Structure in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Garance Genicot)  Submitted. NBER Working Paper;  CEPR Working Paper

Does the absence of missing baby girls in sub-Saharan Africa imply a lack of son preference in the region? This paper uncovers systematic gendered effects on family structure and fer-tility in sub-Saharan Africa. Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys, we show that having a firstborn daughter, rather than a son, significantly influences women’s family dynamics. Women with a female firstborn experience higher long-term marriage rates but are less likely to marry the child’s father when the birth occurs prior to formal union. They also face higher divorce rates and greater likelihood of entering polygamous unions. Despite these marital transitions, they tend to have more children. Our analysis further reveals that having a firstborn daughter is associated with poorer living standards and adverse health outcomes for mothers. To examine the mechanisms driving these patterns, we employ a geographic regression discontinuity design along ancestral ethnic borders separating matrilineal and patrilineal traditions. This approach highlights patrilineality as a key driver, shaping both marriage dynamics and fertility.

This is a Man's World: Crime and Intra-Household Resource Allocation 

Exposure to community violence is a pervasive development challenge. Using a nationally representative longitudinal dataset, I study the effects of violent crime on intra-household resource allocation and bargaining power exploiting the onset of the Mexican drug war. I estimate a system of demand equations and find the escalation in violence reallocated expenditures toward male goods, at the expense of food and other necessities. These findings are consistent with a deterioration in women's bargaining power. To provide further evidence, I document declines in women’s intra-household decision-making power, structurally estimate women’s resource shares, and analyze single households' expenditures.    

HICN Working Paper. Blogs/Press: Development Impact Blog, Nada es Gratis, Policy Dialogue, Foco Economico. Awards:  III Premio Nada es Gratis to Job Market Papers in Economics , 2021 Georgetown Razin Prize

Measuring Agency Through Psychological Constructs in  Lower-Income Settings (with Clare Clingain and Aletheia Donald) Submitted.

Psychological constructs related to agency, like goal-setting and perceived control, are important components of mental health and influence socioeconomic outcomes. Yet measures of these constructs either don't exist or demonstrate reliability and validity only in higher-income contexts. This paper presents four new scales assessing goal-setting, locus of control, livelihoods self-efficacy, and agricultural self-efficacy, tested through representative and specialized surveys in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Benin, and Côte d'Ivoire. Reliability was measured using Cronbach's alpha, and validity through respondent understanding, expert input, demographic correlations and factor analysis. All scales show strong measurement properties, except locus of control. Five-point Likert scales outperform 3-point ones, and we find no item order effects. Our scales are strongly associated with other measures of mental wellbeing and socioeconomic outcomes, especially generalized self-efficacy. Having agency matters more for women’s life satisfaction, happiness, labor supply, decision-making, and freedom from violence but has stronger ties to men's food security.

Selected Work in Progress

Publications

Women's Land Rights and Village Institutions in Tanzania (with Garance Genicot) (World Development, 153, p.105811) Pre-print; Policy Brief ; VILART Survey

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards