Publications
- Teacher Content Knowledge in Indian Secondary Schools and Its Relationship with Student Learning (with Anne Fitzpatrick, Jason Kerwin, Adrienne Lucas, and Wahed Rahman). AEA Papers and Proceedings, 116, May 2026. Journal
- Information and Behavior: Evidence from Fertilizer Quantity Recommendations in Bangladesh (with Mahnaz Islam and Wahed Rahman). Journal of Development Economics, 166, January 2024. Journal · PDF
- Engaging Teachers with Technology Increased Achievement, Bypassing Teachers Did Not (with Adrienne Lucas, Waqas Halim, and Umar Saif). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 14(2), May 2022. Journal · PDF
- Digitization and Development: Property Rights Security, and Land and Labor Markets. Journal of the European Economic Association, 20(1), February 2022. Journal · PDF
- Facilitating Real-Time Cost Collection and Evaluating Cost-Effectiveness in a Multi-Armed Study with Government Partners in Ghana (with Shahana Hijri, Bethany Park, Edward Tsinigo, Adrienne Lucas, and Anne Fitzpatrick). Journal of Development Effectiveness, January 2022. Journal
- Health Knowledge and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa (with Anne Fitzpatrick, Laura Derksen, Anne Karing, Jason Kerwin, Adrienne Lucas, Natalia Ordaz Reynoso, and Munir Squires). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 190, October 2021. NBER working paper
- Gender Bias in Performance Assessments: Evidence from Teachers (with Anne Fitzpatrick and Adrienne Lucas). AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111, May 2021. PDF
- ‘Rule-of-Thumb’ Instructions to Improve Fertilizer Management? Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh (with Mahnaz Islam). Economic Development and Cultural Change, 70(1), October 2021. Journal
- Tenancy and Clientelism. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 186, June 2021. Journal
- Favoritism and Flooding: Political Alignment and Allocation of Irrigation Water. World Development, 114, February 2019. PDF
Working papers
Managing to Learn (with Anne Fitzpatrick and Adrienne Lucas). June 2026. PDF
Abstract
To improve public services at scale, public sector managers must encourage reticent civil servants to enact effective reforms. We show, through a randomized controlled trial, that equipping existing school managers with specific tools that reinforce effective teacher training improves school management and student learning and decreases teacher turnover. Additional general management training differentially improves management but not student test scores. Management and test score improvements persisted. We resolve conflicting results regarding the role of management in public sector productivity and demonstrate how public sector managers are a pathway to scale by enhancing reform effectiveness through personal effort.
Catching Students Up Without Holding Anyone Back: The Effects of In-Class Secondary School Remediation in India (with Anne Fitzpatrick, Jason Kerwin, Adrienne Lucas, and Wahed Rahman). October 2026. PDF
Abstract
Remedial education can be effective in primary schools, but can it benefit students in higher grade levels? Secondary school may be too late to change learning trajectories, and displacing the curriculum with remedial education may harm or discourage students who are at grade level. We randomized secondary schools in Odisha, India into a remedial education program during school hours. The program increased learning by 0.11 SD (55 percent), with gains throughout the distribution: it neither displaced grade-level mastery nor reduced progression to upper secondary. A version that allowed teachers additional discretion was equally effective.
Scaling Down Costs to Scale Up Effective Programs: Evidence from Two Randomized Interventions (with Stephanie Bonds, Anne Fitzpatrick, and Adrienne Lucas). December 2025. PDF
Abstract
To scale education programs governments confront a critical trade-off between mitigating costs while preserving high-fidelity implementation. Partnering with the Ghanaian Ministry of Education, we analyze this trade-off through two randomized controlled trials following the nationwide roll-out of Differentiated Learning (DL) in 10,000 government primary schools. An in-person teacher refresher training significantly improved teacher implementation of DL and increased student test scores by 0.07 standard deviations. In contrast, neither a digital refresher nor an information session impacted teaching practices. These findings highlight that light-touch digital interventions may be inexpensive at scale, but their effectiveness depends on whether they satisfy the binding implementation constraints.
Work in progress
- Long-Term Effects of Remediation in Secondary Schools (with Anne Fitzpatrick, Jason Kerwin, and Adrienne Lucas)
- Marriage Market Effects of Strengthening Female Inheritance Rights in Pakistan (with Erica Field, Jeremy Lebow, and Kate Vyborny)
- Learning Beyond School: Another Chance for Out-of-School Adolescent Girls in Pakistan (with Anne Fitzpatrick and Adrienne Lucas)
- The Curse of Good Soil? Land Fertility, Roads, and Rural Poverty in Africa (with Leonard Wantchekon, Mesay Gebresilasse, and Piero Stanig)
- Evaluation of the TEACH Tool in India (with James Berry, Christina Brown, Anne Fitzpatrick, and Adrienne Lucas)
- Digital Marketplace Access for Women in Pakistan (with Adrienne Lucas and Attique Ur-Rehman)
- Improving Fertilizer Management Can Lead to Medium-Term Increases in Complementary Inputs (with Mahnaz Islam)