The following is a selection of eleven publications released in peer-reviewed journals ranked in the top two quartiles by the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), which assesses journal quality based on both citation frequency and the influence of the citing journals.
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Disease and Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from the Roll Back Malaria Partnership in Africa, 2021, with Maria Kuecken and Josselin Thuilliez, The Economic Journal 131(637): 2171-2202. Annex: here. Online access: here.
Abstract: We estimate the effects of a large-scale antimalaria campaign on a rich set of human capital outcomes in 27 sub-Saharan African countries. Using pre-campaign malaria risk as treatment probability, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in period and cohort exposure to antimalaria campaigns. A conservative interpretation of our results shows a globally positive impact of antimalaria campaigns: they reduced the probability of infant mortality (1 p.p.) and birth (0.4 p.p.) and increased educational attainment (0.4 years) and the likelihood of adult paid employment (6 p.p.). These findings demonstrate how the effects of sweeping disease reduction efforts extend beyond health outcomes.
SELECTED MENTIONS & REVIEWS
In Sub-Saharan African, as malaria rolls back, human capital moves forward, December 12, 2016, Maria Kuecken, World Bank Development Impact blog.
Healthy lives mean smarter kids, period, May 6, 2016, Hervé Verhoosel, Huffington Post.
Anti-Muslim discrimination in France: Evidence from a field experiment, 2020, World Development 135. Annex: here. Online access: here.
Abstract: Are Muslims qua Muslims discriminated against in the French labour market? Identifying anti-Muslim hiring discrimination is challenging because it requires neutralising two confounding factors: geographic origin (the bulk of Muslim-majority countries are located outside of Europe and its offshoots) and religiosity (survey-based evidence reveals greater importance attached to God among Muslims than Christians). To address these challenges, this paper compares the callback rates of fictitious job applicants of Muslim and Christian affiliation who originate from the same country, Lebanon, and are identical in every respect save the religion they inherited. This paper also varies whether the job applicants are “religious”, i.e. whether they practise their religion in adulthood, through their membership in Scouting associations. The results reveal no discrimination against Muslims when they are not religious. However, Muslims lose ground when they are religious, unless they are outstanding. The gap further widens when religious Muslims are compared to religious Christians. While religiosity constitutes a penalty for Muslims, it works as a premium for Christians: their callback rate is boosted when they are religious. Consequently, religious Muslims must submit twice as many applications as religious Christians before being called back by the recruiters. A closer look at the data reveals that the “religiosity penalty” affects ordinary Muslim men and accounts for the full gap in callback rate between religious ordinary Muslim men (4.2%) and their Christian counterparts (10.9%). This finding is compatible with employers incurring a disutility when they interact with religious Muslim men, that wanes as the latter become outstanding and, hence, more likely to behave in a way that pleases employers. It is also compatible with religious ordinary Muslim men being linked to a risk of religious radicalism. A follow-up survey confirms that the signal used to convey religiosity is deemed relevant and correctly interpreted by employers.
SELECTED MENTIONS & REVIEWS
Information Reduces Corruption and Improves Enrolment (But Not Schooling): A Replication Study of a Newspaper Campaign in Uganda, 2019, with Maria Kuecken, Journal of Development Studies 55(5): 1007-1029. Online access: here.
Abstract: In the mid-1990s, Ugandan primary schools received only one-fifth of intended government capitation grants. A seminal study shows that a grassroots newspaper campaign substantially reduced grant capture and improved educational outcomes. We replicate these results, confirming that the campaign reduced corruption and increased enrolment. The latter outcome is only robust with an improved enrolment measure introduced in later work by the authors of the original study. We cannot, however, support the authors’ conclusion that lower capture enhanced learning. Finally, we show that the newspaper campaign allowed for a fairer allocation of teachers across schools, a result absent in the original papers.
“One Muslim is enough!” Evidence from a field experiment in France, 2016, with Claire L. Adida and David D. Laitin, Annals of Economics and Statistics 121-122: 121-160. Online access: here.
Abstract: Anti-Muslim prejudice is widespread in Western countries. Yet, Muslims are expected to constitute a growing share of the total population in these countries over the next decades. This paper suggests that this demographic trend, other factors held constant, will increase anti- Muslim prejudice. Relying on experimental games and a formal model, we find that French players with no recent immigrant background discriminate against Muslims when the proportion of Muslims in their midst increases. Further analysis provides tentative evidence that this discrimination is taste-based
SELECTED MENTIONS & REVIEWS
Fear factor : Why is distrust of immigrants so universal?, March/April 2012, Joshua E. Keating, Foreign Policy.
Why do the French discriminate against Muslims?, April 11, 2011, Arthur Goldhammer, Tocqueville 21.
The sources of French discrimination against Muslims, April 11, 2011, Henry Farrell, Washington Post (Monkey Cage).
The effect of weather-induced internal migration on local labor markets. Evidence from Uganda, 2015, with Eric Strobl, World Bank Economic Review 29(2): 385-412. Online access: here.
Abstract: Relying on census data collected in 2002 and historical weather data for Uganda, we estimate the impact of weather-induced internal migration on the probability for non-migrants living in the destination regions to be employed. Consistent with the prediction of a simple theoretical model, our results reveal a larger negative impact than the one documented for developed countries. They further show that this negative impact is significantly stronger in Ugandan regions with lower road density and therefore less conducive to capital mobility: a 10 percentage points increase in the net in-migration rate in these areas decreases the probability of being employed of non-migrants by more than 10 percentage points.
Religious homophily in a secular country: evidence from a voting game in France, 2015, with Claire L. Adida and David D. Laitin, Economic Inquiry 53(2): 1187-1206. Online access: here.
Abstract: Homophily—the tendency individuals have to associate with similar-others—is a powerful determinant of social networks. Yet research to date does not allow us to determine which dimension, e.g., ethnic, religious, gender, age, or class similarity, drives association. Tests demonstrating homophily are flawed by restricting the range of dimensions in the choice set. We introduce an experimental game in which we exogenously expose subjects to diverse partners to determine which dimension dominates. We find that in a socio-demographically diverse district of Paris, despite expectations of secularization, religious similarity significantly predicts homophily. Moreover, we provide tentative evidence that religious homophily is taste-based.
Muslims in France: Identifying a discriminatory equilibrium, 2014, with Claire L. Adida and David D. Laitin, Journal of Population Economics 27(4): 1039-1086. Online access: here.
Abstract: We analyze the assimilation patterns of Muslim immigrants in Western countries with a unique identification strategy. Survey and experimental data collected in France in 2009 suggest that Muslims and rooted French are locked in a suboptimal equilibrium whereby (i) rooted French exhibit taste-based discrimination against those they are able to identify as Muslims and (ii) Muslims perceive French institutions as systematically discriminatory against them. This equilibrium is sustained because Muslims, perceiving discrimination as institutionalized, are reluctant to assimilate and rooted French, who are able to identify Muslims as such due to their lower assimilation, reveal their distaste for Muslims.
Women, Muslim immigrants, and economic integration in France, 2014, with with Claire L. Adida and David D. Laitin, Economics and Politics 26(1): 79-95. Online access: here.
Abstract: Muslim immigrants to Europe display distinctive attitudes toward women in a wide range of survey data. This study investigates whether this translates into distinctive behavior. Relying on a dictator game in France and an identification strategy that isolates the effect of religion from typical confounds such as race, we compare the donations of matched Christian and Muslim immigrants and rooted French to in-group and out-group men vs. women. Our results indicate that Muslim immigrant participants deviate from Christian immigrant and rooted French participants in their behavior toward women: while the latter favor women over men, Muslim immigrants favor men over women.
SELECTED MENTIONS & REVIEWS
Do the French discriminate against Muslims because of gender norms?, May 1, 2012, with Claire L. Adida and David D. Laitin, Good Authority, a non-partisan platform that brings political science insights to a broader audience.
When do textbooks matter for achievement? Evidence from African primary schools, 2013, with Maria Kuecken, Economics Letters 119(3): 311-314. Online access: here.
Abstract: Using a within-student analysis, we find no average impact of textbook access (ownership or sharing) on primary school achievement. Instead, it is only for students with high socioeconomic status that one form of textbook access–sharing–has a positive impact.
Voting for redistribution under desert-sensitive altruism, 2012, with Roland I. Luttens, Scandinavian Journal of Economics 114(3): 881-907. Online access: here.
Abstract: We endow individuals who differ in skills and tastes for working, with altruistic preferences for redistribution in a voting model where a unidimensional redistributive parameter is chosen by majority voting in a direct democracy. When altruistic preferences are desert-sensitive (i.e., when there is a reluctance to redistribute from the hard-working to the lazy), we show that lower levels of redistribution emerge in political equilibrium. We provide empirical evidence that preferences for redistribution are not purely selfish, and that desert-sensitive motivations play a significant role. We estimate that preferences for redistribution are significantly more desert-sensitive in the US than in Europe.
Identifying barriers to Muslim integration in France, 2010, with Claire L. Adida and David D. Laitin, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) 107(52): 384-390. Online access: here.
Abstract: Is there a Muslim disadvantage in economic integration for second-generation immigrants to Europe? Previous research has failed to isolate the effect that religion may have on an immigrant family's labor market opportunities because other factors, such as country of origin or race, confound the result. This paper uses a correspondence test in the French labor market to identify and measure this religious effect. The results confirm that in the French labor market, anti-Muslim discrimination exists: a Muslim candidate is 2.5 times less likely to receive a job interview callback than is his or her Christian counterpart. A high-n survey reveals, consistent with expectations from the correspondence test, that second-generation Muslim households in France have lower income compared with matched Christian households. The paper thereby contributes to both substantive debates on the Muslim experience in Europe and methodological debates on how to measure discrimination. Following the National Academy of Sciences’ 2001 recommendations on combining a variety of methodologies and applying them to real-world situations, this research identifies, measures, and infers consequences of discrimination based on religious affiliation, controlling for potentially confounding factors, such as race and country of origin.
SELECTED MENTIONS & REVIEWS
French employers biased against Muslim applicants, research says, November 26, 2010, Claire Churchard, People Management, UK’s largest human resources magazine
“L’effet musulman”, facteur de discrimination pour les immigrés, November 24, 2010, Ngagne Fall, Jeune Afrique.
La religion musulmane, facteur discriminant à l’embauche, November 23, 2010, Cécile Dumas, Sciences et Avenir.
Fake CVs reveal discrimination against Muslims in French job market, November 22, 2010, Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, an American general‑audience science publication.
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