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Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia.
Research Interests
Development economics
Economic history
Political Economy and culture
Contact
Vancouver School of Economics
6000 Iona Drive
Vancouver, BC Canada, V6T 1L4
Published / Accepted
Health effects of cousin marriage: Evidence from US genealogical records (with Sam Il Myoung Hwang, and Deaglan Jakob)
Forthcoming, American Economic Review: Insights, 2025 (link)
Kinship Taxation as a Constraint to Microenterprise Growth: Experimental Evidence from Kenya
The Economic Journal, 2024 (link). Press: VoxDev; TheConversation; PEDL Research Note
Linked Samples and Measurement Error in Historical US Census Data (with Sam Il Myoung Hwang)
Explorations in Economic History, 2024 (link)
Links and legibility: Making sense of historical US Census automated linking methods (Tables and figures) (Appendix) (with Arkadev Ghosh and Sam Il Myoung Hwang)
The Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2024 (link)
Economic Consequences of Kinship: Evidence From U.S. Bans on Cousin Marriage (with Arkadev Ghosh and Sam Il Myoung Hwang)
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2023 (link)
Linking Mobile Money Networks to “e-ROSCAs”: An Experimental Study (with Patrick Francois)
Science Advances, 2021 (link)
Health Knowledge and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa (with Anne E. Fitzpatrick, Sabrin A. Beg, Laura C. Derksen, Anne Karing, Jason T. Kerwin, Adrienne Lucas, Natalia Ordaz Reynoso)
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2021 (link)
Working papers
Escaping Patriarchy: Women's Insularity and Gender Attitudes in Oman (with Mohammed Al-Shafaee, Erica Field, and Seema Jayachandran)
Upcoming presentations: NBER SI 2025 DEV, and QUB 2025 Workshop on Cultural Transmission and Persistence
The Melting Pot: Industrialization and Integration in America (with Arkadev Ghosh and Sam Il Myoung Hwang)
Upcoming presentations: NBER SI 2025 DAE
Improving Historical Census Transcriptions: A Machine Learning Approach (with Christian M Dahl, Sam Il Myoung Hwang, and Torben Johansen)
Work in progress
Marriage Networks and Social Integration: Evidence from Historical US Data
Upcoming presentations: LSE Conference on Narratives and Culture in Historical Perspective, and Barcelona Summer Forum 2025 (Networks)
Kinship and Marriage: A Model of Social Network Formation
Why do societies vary dramatically in kinship intensity and marriage restrictions? I develop a model where individuals choose between marrying distant partners (gaining new connections) or close relatives (strengthening existing ties). Endogamy creates dense networks where ostracism is particularly costly because individuals lack outside connections, and this vulnerability enables higher cooperation through collective punishment. The model explains how economic development weakens kinship groups by providing alternatives to family-based cooperation, accounting for both the persistence of strong kinship systems in some contexts and the historical transition in others toward more individualistic social structures.
Long-Term Mortality Impacts of Temperature Shocks: Evidence from Historical and Genealogical Data (with Patrick Baylis)
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