The economic development of Africa; the causes of state fragility and implications for public policy; the management of natural resources; the management of urbanization
Elected 2017
The economic lives of households in poor countries: how they make decisions, what constraints they face, and how this should influence the design of policy; and the at-scale evaluation of such policies, mainly using randomized field experiments
The economics of taxation and government spending, with a particular focus on policies that affect retirement security and capital formation
Financial economics; bond and stock prices, portfolio choice for long-term investors, and the financial decisions of households