Research

Working Papers and Work in Progress

• Can Vouchers Reduce Elite Capture of Local Development Projects? Experimental Evidence from the Solomon Islands, with Andrew Beath, Ariel BenYishay, Giovanna d'Adda and Roberto Weber. R&R at Journal of Public Economics. Link to paper
  

      EGAP Policy Brief (19/5/2015)

• Render Unto Caesar: Taxes, Charity, and Political Islam, with Gabriele Gratton and Maleke Fourati. Under review. Link to paper

• Reproductive Opportunity Not Patriarchal Pressure Correlates with Female Sexualization, with Khandis Blake, Brock Bastian, Thomas F. Denson, and Robert C. Brooks. R&R at Nature (Human Behaviour).
  

• Queens of the Desert: Sex Ratios and Attitudes to Gay Marriage, with Victoria Baranov, Ralph de Haas, and Clifton van der Linden
  
  
• Corporate Gender Culture and Firm Performance, with Renee Adams and Ali Akyol.

Articles 

• It's Raining Men! Hallelujah? The Long-Run Consequences of Male-Biased Sex Ratios, with Rose Khattar. Accepted at the Review of Economic Studies.  Link to paper    Link to Appendix

  •       Press coverage: Sydney Morning Herald (29/6/2015) The Age (29/6/2015)

• The Persistent Effect of Sex Ratios on the Quality of Relationships”, with Rob Brooks. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, September 2017, Vol. 372 (1729)

• The Fish is the Friend of Matriliny: Reef Density and Matrilineal inheritance, with Ariel BenYishay and Joseph Vecci. Journal of Development Economics. July 2017. Vol. 127: 234-249.  Link to paper
  

• The Wild West is Wild: The Homicide Resource Curse, with Mathieu Couttenier and Marc Sangnier. Journal of the European Economic Association. June 2017, Vol 15(3). Link to paper
  

• Institutional Quality, Culture, and Norms of Cooperation: Evidence from a Behavioral Field Experiment, with Alessandra Cassar and Giovanna d’Adda, Journal of Law and Economics. 2014. Vol. 57 (3): 821-863 Link to paper  Link to Appendix

• A History of Violence: The Culture of Honor and Homicide in the US South, Journal of the European Economic Association. 2014. Vol 12 (5): 1285-1316 Link to paper  Link to Appendix

• Initial Endowments and Economic Reform in 27 Post-Socialist Countries, with Ariel BenYishay, Journal of Comparative Economics. 2014. Vol. 42 (4): 892-906 Link to paper
  

• Conflict and Social and Political Preferences: Evidence from World War II and Civil Conflict in 35 European Countries, Comparative Economic Studies. 2014. http://www.palgrave-journals.com/doifinder/10.1057/ces.2014.2

• Legacies of Violence: Trust and Market Development, with Alessandra Cassar and Sam Whitt, Journal of Economic Growth. 2013, Vol. 18(3): 285-318 Link to paper

• Learning, Political Attitudes and Crises: Lessons from Transition Countries, with Frantisek Ricka and Claudia Senik, Journal of Comparative Economics. 2013. Vol. 41(2): 490–505 Link to paper  (link to LITS data) 

• The Weight of History on European Cultural Integration: A Gravity Approach, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings. 2011. Vol.101 (3): 504-508 Link to paper  Click here for replication data and code 
  

• The institutional legacy of the Ottoman Empire: Islamic rule and financial development in South Eastern Europe, Journal of Comparative Economics. 2011. Vol. 39:1-16 (lead article, Montias Prize for best paper published in the Journal of Comparative Economics in 2010&2011). Link to paper

• Democracy, Market Liberalization and Political Preferences, with Claudia Senik, The Review of Economics and Statistics. 2011. Vol. 93(1): 365-381 Link to paper   

• Land Tenure Arrangements and Rural Urban migration in China, with Andreas Kontoleon and Katrina Mullan, World Development. 2011. Vol. 39(1): 123-133 Link to paper

• Maintenance Cost, Outside Options and Optimal Ownership of a Public Project, The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy. 2010. Vol. 10(1) Link to paper

• Relaxing Rural Constraints: a Win-Win Policy for Poverty and Environment in China?, with Ben Groom, Andreas Kontoleon, Tim Swanson, and Shiqiu Zhang, Oxford Economic Papers. 2010. Vol. 62(1): 132-156 Link to paper

• How Sustainable are Sustainable Development Programmes? The Case of the Sloping Land Conversion Program in China, with Andreas Kontoleon, World Development. 2009. Vol. 37(1): 268-285 Link to paper 

Book Chapters

• On the Short and Long Run Effects of Male-Biased Sex Ratios: Evidence from Convict Transportation to Australia. In The Long Economic and Political Shadow of History, Vox CEPR E-book edited by Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou, Vol II. Link to chapter

• Violence, Interpersonal, Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, edited by Jürgen Backhaus, Springer. Forthcoming.

• Violence, Civil War, with A. Cassar and S. Whitt. Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, edited by Jürgen Backhaus, Springer. Forthcoming.

• Social Preferences of Ex-Combatants: Survey and Experimental Evidence from Post-War Tajikistan, with Alessandra Cassar and Sam Whitt, in: The Economics of Conflict, edited by Karl Wärneryd MIT Press 2014. 

• Assessing the Sustainability of the Sloping Land Conversion Program: a Choice Experiment Approach, with Andreas Kontoleon. In: Choice Experiments in Developing Countries: Implementation, Challenges and Policy Implications, edited by Jeff Bennett and Ekin Birol, Edward Elgar 2010

Other Work and Publications

Policy/Reports

• “The Crisis from the Household Perspective”, with Ralph De Haas and Martin Brown. Chapter 2, 2011 EBRD Transition Report, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

• “The Intangible Transition: Democracy and Market Support After the Crisis”, with Claudia Senik and Frantisek Ricka. Chapter 3, 2011 EBRD Transition Report

• “Attitudes and Values in Transition”, with Gerard Roland. 2007 EBRD Transition Report

• “Assessing the Impact of the Sloping Land Conversion Program on Local Community Welfare”, final report to the CCICED, 2005

Book Review

• "Towards a Labour Market in China," by J. Knight and L. Song. The Economics of Transition, January 2006

Popular

• "Should Market Liberalization Precede Democracy? The Citizens’ Point of View," Vox, CEPR, August 2007
• "Voting Islamist: It's the economy, stupid," Vox, CEPR, July 2016

Older Working Papers

• Household Debt and Household Vulneraibility during the Great Recession, with Martin Brown and Ralph de Haas

• The Determinants of Performance in Building Infrastructures in Transition Economies, with Gabriela Dobrescu, Guido Friebel, and Katrin Robeck. EBRD working paper No. 106, June 2008.

Research Grants and Awards

2016-2019: Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (AUD 592,000). "On the oirgins and persistence of gender: Combining evolutionary and economic approaches to study sex differences and cultural variation", with Rob Brooks (UNSW) and Paul Seabright (IAST, TSE).

2015: UNSW Business School Research Grant (AUD 22,855)"The roles of gender and economic inequalities in the post Arab Spring Islamic Revival: experimental and survey Evidence from Tunisia".

2015: Rising Star Award. Nominated as 1 of the 20 "research leaders " of UNSW.

2013: Australian School of Business Research Grant (AUD 24,000): "Beyond local development: the role of local institutions building in fostering trust and cooperation: evidence from the Solomon Islands"

2012: Research Achievement Award Australian School of Business

2012: Montias Prize for best paper published in the Journal of Comparative Economics in 2010&2011

2012: Australian School of Business Research Grant AUD 9,000 

2011: United States Department of State Title VIII Research Award (USD 20,000): “The co-evolution of trust and institutions: evidence from the Balkans"

2010 United States Department of State Title VIII Research Award (USD 18,750):“Violence and socio-economic preferences: an empirical investigation in Tajikistan and Kosovo"

2007-2009: Ciriacy-Wantrup Post Doctoral Fellowship in Natural Resources Economics and Political Economy - University of California, Berkeley

2004: Marie Curie Research Fellowship of the European Commission, for a nine months visiting position in the Department of Economics, University College London

2003: Doctoral Scholarship, French Government

1998: Four year scholarship for entry to Ecole Normale Supérieure