Research

Research Agenda

I study automation, social security, labour economics, and applied Bayesian statistics. My work focuses mainly on low- and middle-income contexts, where structural transformation, technological change, and social protection reshape labour markets and workers’ welfare.

Latest Paper

Global Automation Atlas

with Prashant Garg and Jasmin Baier | Working paper | May 2026

We develop a global, task-based and country-specific measure of automation exposure across 124 countries. The project separates labour-substituting from labour-augmenting automation, identifies the dominant technology channel and AI involvement, and provides country-, occupation-, industry-, and task-level exposure measures through the online atlas.

Atlas website Paper

Working Papers

Unconditional Cash Transfers: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis of 50 Randomized Evaluations in 26 Low- and Middle-Income Countries

with Dean Karlan, Finley Ong, Julius Ruschenpohler, and Christopher Udry | Working paper

Using Bayesian meta-analysis, this project aggregates evidence from 115 studies of 72 unconditional cash transfer programs and evaluates how impacts vary across policy-relevant mechanisms and contexts.

Paper Ideas for India VoxDev

Work in Progress

Automation displacement in the agricultural supply chain

with Srishti Gupta and Iris Steenkamp | Work in progress

Technology adoption, task reallocation, and upgrading in agricultural production networks.

Automation and firm-level task measurement in Zambia

with Prashant Garg and Jasmin Baier | Work in progress

Interviews, transcripts, and task-skill-machine mappings inside firms.

Reskilling Pathways with Automation: an Application to Zambian Manufacturing and Service Sector in Zambia

with Prashant Garg and Jasmin Baier | Work in progress

Reskilling pathways and automation in Zambia’s manufacturing and service sectors.

Unequal exposure to automation

with Prashant Garg and Jasmin Baier | Work in progress

Differences in automation exposure across workers and labour markets.

A tale of an African Union: Recognition and Bargaining in Practices in the Zambia labour market

with Prashant Garg | Work in progress

Recognition and bargaining practices in the Zambian labour market.

Gold markets for artisanal small-scale miners

with Danielle Handel, Francisco Ahumada-Lobos, Jann Lay, and Kacana Sipangule Khadjavi | Work in progress

Bargaining power, cooperative governance, and market design in artisanal small-scale mining.

Digital labour-market interventions

with Raphaelle Aulagnon and Luca Privinzano | Work in progress

Bayesian meta-analysis of matching, training, and search technologies.

Grants

STEG 9th Call PhD Grant

GBP 15,000 | 2026

STEG 11th Call Small Grant

GBP 22,500 | 2026 | with Jasmin Baier and Prashant Garg

STEG 11th Call Small Grant

GBP 22,000 | 2026 | with Srishti Gupta and Iris Steenkamp

J-PAL Jobs and Opportunity Initiative

USD 30,000 | 2026 | with Srishti Gupta and Iris Steenkamp

International Growth Center

GBP 15,000 | 2025

International Growth Center

GBP 15,000 | 2025 | with Danielle Handel

Academic Service

Refereeing for Labour Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Development Studies, and the ILR Review.

Talks / Press

Selected external coverage of the cash transfer meta-analysis includes Ideas for India and VoxDev.