Research

PUBLICATIONS

The Management of Aid and Conflict in Africa
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Forthcoming. Publisher's Version.
 

Age Set vs. Kin: Culture and Financial Ties in East Africa 
(with Awa Ambra Seck)
American Economic Review, 114(9): 2748–2791. Publisher's Version. 
Coverage and summaries: MIT News, AEA Podcast, VoxDev Summary, Econimate Video Summary 
 

Does Directed Innovation Mitigate Climate Damage? Evidence from US Agriculture
(with Karthik Sastry)
Quarterly Journal of Economics 138(2): 637-701. Editor's Choice. Publisher's Version.
Coverage and summaries: Harvard Gazette, Nature Climate Change
 

Segmentary Lineage Organization and Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa
(with Nathan Nunn and James A. Robinson)
Econometrica 88(5): 1999-2036. Publisher's Version.
Additional material: Supplementary Materials, Online Appendix, Theoretical Note
Coverage and summaries: VoxDev Summary, VoxEU Summary
 

Keeping it in the Family: Lineage Organization and the Scope of Trust in Sub-Saharan Africa
(with Nathan Nunn and James A. Robinson)
American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 107(5): 565-571. Publisher's Version.
 

State Capacity and American Technology: Evidence from the 19th Century
(with Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson)
American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 106(5): 61-67. Publisher's Version.
Coverage and summaries: Harvard Business Review, VoxEU Summary
 

WORKING PAPERS 
 

Inappropriate Technology: Evidence from Global Agriculture 
(with Karthik Sastry)
Updated: February 2025
Revise and Resubmit requested, American Economic Review
Coverage and summaries: Project Syndicate, VoxDev Summary, Econimate Video Summary
 

Food Policy in a Warming World
(with Allan Hsiao and Karthik Sastry)
Updated: March 2025
Revise and Resubmit requested, Econometrica
Coverage and summaries: Diario Financiero (Chile), VoxDev Summary, CEPR Podcast
 

Appropriate Entrepreneurship: The Rise of China and the Developing World
(with Josh Lerner, Junxi Liu, and David Yang)
Updated: February 2025
Revise and Resubmit requested, Journal of Political Economy
Coverage and summaries: VoxDev Summary, VoxEU Summary, VoxChina Summary
 

Environmental Catastrophe and the Direction of Invention: Evidence from the American Dust Bowl
Updated: February 2024
Revise and Resubmit requested, Review of Economics and Statistics

 Foreign Political Risk and Technological Change
(with Joel Flynn, Antoine Levy, and Mai Wo)
Updated: March 2025
 

Flowers of Invention: Patent Protection and Productivity Growth in US Agriculture
Updated: October 2024
 

Agricultural Development and Structural Change, Within and Across Countries
Updated: May 2019
Coverage and summaries: VoxDev Summary
 

Specializing in Cities: Density and the Pattern of Trade
(with Antoine Levy)
Updated: October 2022