I am a PhD student in economics at Boston University. I will be on the academic job market in 2024-2025.
Main fields: Development, Macroeconomics, and Urban Economics.
Training microentrepreneurs over Zoom: Experimental evidence from Mexico (Journal link)
with David McKenzie, Elwyn Davies, and Leonardo Iacovone
Journal of Development Economics (2024)
Abstract
Standard in-person business training programs are costly and difficult to scale to the millions of microenterprises in the developing world. We conduct an experiment to test the feasibility, cost-savings, and impact of delivering live training sessions over Zoom to microentrepreneurs in Mexico and Guatemala. We demonstrate that it is now feasible to both recruit and train self-employed women online, covering a wide geographic area, with few technology issues. However, the cost-savings over in-person classes are less than expected. Training improved business practices and performance over 2 months, but impacts had dissipated within 6 months.
Quits in a Low-Income Urban Labor Market: Evidence from Ghana (Job market paper)
Economic Development and the Spatial Distribution of Income in Cities
with David Lagakos, Yuhei Miyauchi, and Eiji Yamada