About

I am a development economist interested in urban mobility. My research studies the design of public transport networks, pricing, how urban residents explore their cities, and how distance affects spatial choices and why. I use a mix of methods and approaches, including primary

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Business
• Demographic economics
• Economics
• Mathematics
• Transport engineering
• Engineering
• Geography
• Labour economics
• Telecommunications
• Econometrics

Selected publications

• Reducing Slack in Informal Transit: The Impact of Temporary Subsidies on Urban Mobility

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2026-02-04

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Exposure: Evidence from Spatial Choices in Nairobi

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2026-02-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access

  How much do people dislike opportunities they have never been exposed to, and why?We study how exposure affects work location decisions of casual workers.We offer short-term employment and randomize training locations to induce novel exposures.Participants sacrifice 22% of the median daily wage to avoid working in a location never visited before; one hour-long visit eliminates this premium.Workers anticipate two thirds of the effect exposure has on their later preferences.Results are most consistent with perceived fixed costs of exposure rather than sorting or quality uncertainty.Unfamiliar neighborhoods are also less likely to enter workers' consideration sets.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Exposure: Evidence from Spatial Choices in Nairobi

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Reducing Slack in Informal Transit: The Impact of Temporary Subsidies on Urban Mobility

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2026-02-04

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Exposure: Evidence from Spatial Choices in Nairobi

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Spatial Externalities, Inefficiency, and Sufficient Statistics

  AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2025-05-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  How much economic inefficiency is generated by spatial externalities such as agglomeration or congestion? What can we learn with data and variation around an inefficient equilibrium? We express deadweight loss in an equilibrium model with spatial externalities, building on Harberger (1964). Our expressions depend on two empirical objects, an externality matrix and a Slutsky substitution matrix. This provides a basis for assessing how modeling assumptions, especially related to patterns of demand substitution and the variation used for estimation, may constrain inefficiency conclusions. We illustrate extensions to our approach with two examples: electric vehicle chargers and peak-hour traffic congestion.

  PublisherDOI

• Education and Selection into Ethnic Identification: Evidence from Roma People in Romania

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-10-01

  reportOpen access

  How does ethnic identification vary with education among disadvantaged minorities?We study this question for Roma people, Europe's largest ethnic minority, using linked Romanian census data and birth records.We measure how individuals change reported ethnicity over time, or "pass."Roma identification strongly declines with education, from 80% for those with no education to 40% for postsecondary graduates.We estimate a model with persistent individual heterogeneity and find 3-6 times more Roma postsecondary graduates than in official data.Survey data we collect shows that most Romanians are unaware of these patterns.Such selective passing may reinforce stereotypes about marginalized groups.

  PublisherDOI

• Data and Code for "Spatial Externalities, Inefficiency, and Sufficient Statistics"

  ICPSR Data Holdings · 2025-05-16

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The paper set up a simple spatial model to quantify the economic inefficiency generated by spatial externalities such as agglomeration and congestion. Using this model, we compute the expression of optimal charges and deadweight loss. The expressions highlight the importance of two empirical objects, an externality matrix, and an equilibrium elasticity matrix, and clarify how specific model assumptions may constrain the magnitude of deadweight loss. Using data and the model from an experiment studying Peak Hour Congestion Pricing (Gabriel Kreindler, 2024, Econometrica), we illustrate the use of our spatial externality model by computing optimal charges and deadweight loss.

  PublisherDOI

• Education and Selection into Ethnic Identification: Evidence from Roma People in Romania

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Peak‐Hour Road Congestion Pricing: Experimental Evidence and Equilibrium Implications

  Econometrica · 2024-01-01 · 31 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Developing country megacities suffer from severe road traffic congestion, yet the level of congestion is not a direct measure of equilibrium inefficiency. I study the peak‐hour traffic congestion equilibrium in Bangalore. To measure travel preferences, I use a model of departure time choice to design a field experiment with congestion pricing policies and implement it using precise GPS data. Commuter responses in the experiment reveal moderate schedule inflexibility and a high value of time. I then show that in Bangalore, traffic density has a moderate and linear impact on travel delay. My policy simulations with endogenous congestion indicate that optimal congestion charges would lead to a small reduction in travel times, and small commuter welfare gains. This result is driven primarily by the shape of the congestion externality. Overall, these results suggest limited commuter welfare benefits from peak‐spreading traffic policies in cities like Bangalore.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Benjamin Olken

  12 shared

• Rema Hanna

  11 shared

• H. Peyton Young

  5 shared

• Abhijit Banerjee

  5 shared

• Oluchi Mbonu

  5 shared

• Joshua Dean

  4 shared

• Yuhei Miyauchi

  3 shared

• Edward L. Glaeser

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  3 shared