Published Papers

  1. “Addressing Weak Links in Government Implementation at Scale: Experimental Evidence from a School Governance Reform in Tanzania”. Journal of Development Economics. 2026. With James Habyarimana.
    Paper

  2. “Persistence and Emergence of Literacy Skills: Long-Term Impacts of an Effective Early Grade Reading Intervention in South Africa”. Journal of Research on Education Effectiveness. 2024. With Jonathan Stern, Matthew Jukes, Brahm Fleisch, Stephen Taylor and Nompumelelo Mohohlwane.
    Paper | Blog | Replication files

  3. “Reading Skills Transfer Best from Home Language to a Second Language: Policy Lessons from Two Field Experiments in South Africa”. Journal of Research on Education Effectiveness. 2023. With Fleisch, Mohohlwane, and Taylor.
    Working paper | Blog | Replication data and code (CGD working paper)

  4. “What do education local bureaucrats do to boost learning?” World Bank Economic Review. 2022. With Eric Dunford and James Habyarimana.
    Working paper | Policy brief | Paper

  5. “Heterogenous teacher effects of two incentive schemes: Experimental evidence from a low-income country” Journal of Development Economics. 2022. With Felipe Barrera-Osorio, Marie-Helene Cloutier, and Deon Filmer.
    VoxDev blog | Replication files | Working paper | Paper

  6. “Can Virtual Replace In-person Coaching? Experimental Evidence on Teacher Professional Development and Student Learning in South Africa”. Journal of Development Economics 2022. With Fleisch, Kotze, Mohohlwane, Taylor, and Thulare.
    Working paper | Video presentation | VoxDev blog | Paper

  7. “The Challenge of Sustaining Effective Teaching: Spillovers, Fade-out, and the Cost-effectiveness of Teacher Development Programs” Economics of Education Review. 2022. With Fleisch, Kotze, Mohohlwane, and Taylor.
    Working paper | Replication files | Paper

  8. “Can public rankings improve school performance? Evidence from a nationwide reform in Tanzania” Journal of Human Resources. 2020. With Isaac Mbiti, and Andrew Zeitlin.
    Working paper | Blog | Replication files | Paper

  9. “How to improve teaching practice? Experimental comparison of centralized training and in-classroom coaching.” Journal of Human Resources 2020. With Brahm Fleisch, Cas Prinsloo, and Stephen Taylor.
    Working paper | Policy brief | Replication files | Video | Write-up by CfEE | Paper

  10. “Pay for locally monitored performance? A welfare analysis for attendance in Ugandan primary schools”. Journal of Public Economics. 2018. With Ibrahim Kasirye, Clare Leaver, Pieter Serneels, and Andrew Zeitlin.
    Working paper | Policy brief | Blog post | Replication files | Paper

  11. “Private School Vouchers for Expanding Secondary School Access? The Case of Tanzania.” International Journal of Educational Management. 32(7) (2018): 1307-1318. With Donald Baum.

  12. “Reconciling after Civil Conflict Increases Social Capital but Decreases Individual Wellbeing” Science. 352.6287 (2016): 787-794. With Oeindrila Dube, and Bilal Siddiqi.
    Blog in the Monkey Cage (Washington Post) | Replication files | Paper

  13. “The White-Man Effect: How Foreigner Presence Affects Behavior in Experiments.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 118 (2015): 397-414. With Oeindrila Dube, and Bilal Siddiqi.

Working Papers

  1. “Using Post-Double Selection Lasso in Field Experiments”. With David McKenzie and Nour Elashmawy.
    Status: Conditionally accepted at AEJ: Applied.
    Working paper

  2. “Ask What the Teacher Does: Student Reports Predict Learning Better than Classroom Observations in Tanzania”.
    Status: Revise and resubmit at Economics of Education Review.

  3. “Scaling Teacher Training: Experimental Evidence from a Digital Program in El Salvador”. With Magdalena Bendini, Eleno Castro, Lelys Dinarte-Diaz, David Evans, and Carolina Rovira.

  4. “When Governments Take Over: Challenges Scaling Structured Pedagogy in South Africa and Mozambique”. With Sylvia Cesar, Lelys Dinarte-Diaz, David Evans, Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, Koloso Nonkenge, and Stephen Taylor.

  5. “The Ten-Year Impacts of an Early-Grade Reading Intervention: Experimental Evidence from South Africa”. With Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, Koloso Nonkenge, Stephen Taylor, Sharon Wolf, and Zamangwe Zane.

Policy Papers and Reports

  1. “Principles to Improve School Management in Tanzania: Drawing from Evidence Around the World” World Bank Policy Note. 2024.

  2. “Improving Teachers and School Leadership in Indonesia: Impact Evaluation of Guru Penggerak Program at the Primary Level” World Bank report. 2023.

  3. “How can Education Systems Structure Virtual Communities of Practice for Teachers Most Effectively? A Rapid Review” Center for Global Development Note. March 2023.

  4. “The Digital Future of Teacher Training in Indonesia: What’s Next?” World Bank report. 2022.
    See also: Blog post

  5. “What Did Children Do During School Closures? Insights from a Parent Survey in Tanzania.” RISE Insight Series. 2021/027.

  6. “The Motivations, Constraints, and Behaviour of Tanzania’s Frontline Education Providers” RISE Insight Series. 2020/023. With Shardul Oza.

  7. “Preparing for Post-Covid Recovery: How to Support Students When Schools Reopen?” RISE Insight Series. 2020/018.

  8. “Improving Teacher Attendance using a Locally Managed Monitoring Scheme: Evidence from Uganda Primary Schools” IGC Policy Note. 2014.
    Policy note