Profile

I am an applied microeconomist, with primary research interests in Development Economics and Labor Economics. In my current work, I focus on the role of information and training in labor markets in low income countries.

In my job market paper, I study how lack of information on the skills of workers affects both employers and job seekers. I do so by designing and implementing a field experiment in the Ugandan labor market: through the provision of certifications, I vary whether new information on the soft skills of workers is disclosed to both managers and workers during job interviews. I examine the reaction of both firms and workers to the information, and show how this affects the propensity of firms to hire, the allocation of jobs to workers with different skills, and overall welfare in the labor market.

In other research, I combine the use of field experiments and structural econometric models to evaluate the effectiveness of three active labor market policies – formal vocational training, informal on-the-job training, and firm-worker matching – in improving the labor market outcomes of disadvantaged youth, and in reducing the constraints to expansion for small firms in Uganda.