Peer-Reviewed Publications
2021.““If we move, it moves with us:” Physical Distancing in Africa during COVID-19” (with Melina Platas and Leah Rosenzweig) World Development 142 (2021) 105379.
[article]
[appendix]
[replication files]
[pre-analysis plan]
[The Washington Post]
2019. “Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials.” (with Thad Dunning et al.) Science Advances 5.7 (2019): eaaw2612.
[article]
[replication files]
[pre-analysis plan]
2019. “Meta-Analysis” (with Thad Dunning, Anirvan Chowdhury, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, Craig Mcintosh, and Gareth Nellis) in Information, Accountability, and Cumulative Learning: Lessons from Metaketa I. Thad Dunning, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, and Craig Mcintosh (Eds.). Cambridge University Press.
[book chapter]
[replication files]
[pre-analysis plan]
Working Papers
“Disentitled: Subnational Politics of Communal Land Titling”
Abstract
Despite recent land reform policies targeting the demarcation and protection of indigenous and afrodescendent communities' collective land rights in Latin America, enormous gaps persist in formalizing these rights. In this paper, I examine the political dynamics between the state, landed elites, and communal land claimants to explain why some communities are more successful than others in obtaining formalization. I focus on claims to collective land made by 1,881 afrodescendent communities in Brazil known as quilombos across 752 municipalities. I compile municipal-level panel data to investigate determinants of two separate titling outcomes: whether claims are analyzed by the state and whether titles are granted. The findings reveal that municipalities with higher capture by local landed elites experience higher rates of national government’s response to communal claims. However, successful titling is significantly greater in municipalities where claimants make up a higher proportion of voters. I employ observational and interview data to explore the mechanisms that lead to these separate outcomes. This paper underscores the importance of subnational politics and of unpacking titling stages as a means of understanding when and why formalization of collective land rights is successful.
“Conditional Balance Tests: Increasing Sensitivity and Specificity with Prognostic Covariates” (with Thad Dunning and Adam Bouyamourn)
[working paper]
“Ethnic Identification and Ethnic Deception: Experimental Evidence from Uganda, South Africa, and the United States” (with Adam Harris, Daniel Nielson, Lily Medina, Michael Findley, Jeremy Weinstein, James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys, Daniel Posner).
