Curriculum Vitae

Appointments

• Associate Professor, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley2023–present
• Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley2016–2023
• Assistant Professor, Department of Economics & School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University2012–2016

Affiliations

• Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)2014–present
• Fellow, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD)2014–present
• Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)2014–present
• Research Affiliate, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)2014–present
• Research Affiliate, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)2015–present
• Affiliate, Poverty Action Lab (JPAL)2015–present
• Affiliate, CESifo2016–present
• Affiliate, Center for Effective Global Action2017–present
• Member, European Society of Labor Economists (EALE)2021–present

Education

• Ph.D., Political Economy and Government (Economics), Harvard University2007–2012
• M.P.A. in International Development (MPA/ID), Harvard University2007
• B.S., Operations Research: Engineering Management Systems, Columbia University2004

Fellowships and awards

• National Science Foundation CAREER Award2019–2024
• Sloan Research Fellowship2018–2020
• Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award in Behavioural Economics2015
• David A. Wells Prize for “outstanding original research in a dissertation,” Harvard Economics Department2012
• Giorgio Ruffolo Doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science, Harvard University2010–2011
• Dissertation Fellow, Project on Justice, Welfare, and Economics, Harvard University2009–2010
• Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School2005–2007

Professional activities

Leadership

• Scientific Co-Director, Psychology and Economics of Poverty Initiative, UC Berkeley and CEGA
• Faculty Advisory Committee, Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA)
• Executive Committee, Institute for South Asia Studies (ISAS), UC Berkeley

Refereeing

• Excellence in Refereeing Award, American Economic Review: Insights2022
• Economics journals: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Review, Econometrica, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of African Economies, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations, Journal of the European Economic Association, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Management Science, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Economic Studies
• General interest journals: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, Science

Published and accepted papers

• “Retrieval Failures and Consumption Smoothing: A Field Experiment on Seasonal Poverty” (with Ned Augenblick, Kelsey Jack, Felix Masiye, and Nicholas Swanson), Forthcoming, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2026
• “Social Norms as a Determinant of Aggregate Labor Supply” (with Emily Breza and Nandita Krishnaswamy), Accepted, Journal of Political Economy, 2026
• “The Social Tax: Redistributive Pressure and Labor Supply” (with Eliana Carranza, Aletheia Donald, and Florian Grosset), Econometrica, 2025
• “Cognitive Endurance as Human Capital” (with Christina Brown, Geeta Kingdon, and Heather Schofield), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2025. 140(2), 943-1002
• “Do Financial Concerns Make Workers Less Productive?” (with Sendhil Mullainathan, Suanna Oh, and Frank Schilbach), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2025. 140(1): 635-689
• “Labor Rationing” (with Emily Breza and Yogita Shamdasani), American Economic Review, 2021. 111(10): 3184-3224
• “Nominal Wage Rigidity in Village Labor Markets”, American Economic Review, 2019. 109(10): 3585-3616
• “The Morale Effects of Pay Inequality” (with Emily Breza and Yogita Shamdasani), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2018. 133(2): 611-663
• “Self-Control at Work” (with Michael Kremer and Sendhil Mullainathan), Journal of Political Economy, 2015. 123(6): 1227-1277 [lead article]
• “Self-Control and the Development of Work Arrangements” (with Michael Kremer and Sendhil Mullainathan), American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2010. 100(2): pp. 624-628

Review articles and chapters

• “Psychology and Development” (with Emily Breza), Handbook of Development Economics, 2026 (forthcoming)
• “Labor Markets in Developing Countries” (with Emily Breza), The Annual Review of Economics, 2025. Vol. 17: 747-776
• “The Psychology of Poverty: Current and Future Directions” (with Ye Rang Park, Yuen Ho, Kristina Hallez, Mahesh Srinivasan, and Jiaying Zhao), Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2025. 34(1): 21-28

Working papers

• “Habit Formation in Labor Supply” (with Luisa Cefala, Yogita Shamdasani, and Heather Schofield)
• “The Limits of Neighborly Exchange” (with Ryan Bubb and Sendhil Mullainathan)

Research in progress

• “When One Market Fails, Another Adjusts: Land Reallocation under Labor Market Frictions” (with Grady Killeen)
• “The Persistent Impacts of Savings Accumulation” (with Grady Killeen and Jeremey Magruder)
• “Savings Constraints and the Value of Illiquidity” (with Leonor Castro Stanley, Gautam Rao, and Nick Swanson)
• “Biased Beliefs and Substance Abuse” (with Aprajit Mahajan and Shreya Sarkar)
• “Wealth Effects in Female Labor Force Participation” (with Emily Breza, Madeline Duhon, and Yogita Shamdasani)

Selected grants

• CEGA Psychology and Economics of Poverty Initiative research grant2023
• Agency Fund research grant2022
• Structural Transformation and Economic Growth small research grant2021
• USAID Development Innovation Ventures grant2020
• Weiss Fund research grants2019, 2020
• JPAL Jobs and Opportunity Initiative2020
• Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk, and Resilience2019
• National Science Foundation CAREER award SES 18484522019
• National Science Foundation research grant SES 16589372017
• National Science Foundation research grant SES 16589312017
• National Science Foundation research grant SES 16589242017
• Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative pilot grant2016
• National Science Foundation research grant SES 14599282015
• Spencer Foundation small research grant2015
• Columbia President’s Global Innovation Fund research grant2015
• Research grant, Growth and Labour Markets in Low Income Countries Programme2014
• Research grant, International Growth Centre2014
• Exploratory grant, Private Enterprise Development for Low-Income Countries (PEDL)2014
• Junior faculty grant, Office of the Provost, Columbia University2013
• USAID Development Innovation Ventures grant2012
• National Science Foundation research grant SES 09618572009
• Warburg Funds research grant, Department of Economics, Harvard University2009