About

Richard Akresh is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. His primary research interests are in microeconomic development and labor economics, with a focus on children’s welfare issues in developing countries. He has examined the institution of child fostering in West Africa and its impact on human capital investment for the involved children. His current research explores the impact of civil conflicts on human capital and health investments for young children. Additionally, he is interested in issues related to migration, child labor, and intrahousehold bargaining.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Socioeconomics
• Economic history
• Economics
• Library science

Selected publications

• Reproducibility package for Medium-Term Impacts Of Integrated Social Safety Nets: Cash Transfers, Information Meetings, And Home Visits For Child Development

  Reproducibility catalog · 2026-01-09

  otherOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Medium-Term Impacts of Integrated Social Safety Nets: Cash Transfers, Information Meetings, and Home Visits for Child Development

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-12-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Cash transfers are a cornerstone of social protection. This paper evaluates an integrated program in Burkina Faso that combines cash transfers with parenting interventions delivered through group meetings or home visits. In a randomized experiment across 225 villages, households received cash alone; cash plus information on child health and development; or cash, information, and home visits reinforcing the information. Fifteen months after treatment ended, households receiving all three components had fewer pregnancies, more medically assisted births, improved health behaviors, and better educational outcomes. Adding home visits is essential for enhancing child development. Cash alone or with information produces no lasting effects.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication Package for "Long-term and Intergenerational Effects of Education: Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2022-08-28

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Replication package for: Akresh, Richard, Daniel Halim, and Marieke Kleemans. 2023. "Long-term and Intergenerational Effects of Education: Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia" <em>Economic Journal</em>, forthcoming.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication Package for "Long-term and Intergenerational Effects of Education: Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2022-08-28

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Replication package for: Akresh, Richard, Daniel Halim, and Marieke Kleemans. 2023. "Long-term and Intergenerational Effects of Education: Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia" <em>Economic Journal</em>, forthcoming.

  PublisherDOI

• Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia

  The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (World Bank) · 2021-03-01 · 7 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper studies the long-term and intergenerational effects of the 1970s Indonesian school construction program, which was one of the largest ever conducted. Exploiting variation across birth cohorts and districts in the number of schools built suggests that education benefits for men and women persist 43 years after the program. Exposed men are more likely to be formal workers, work outside agriculture, and migrate. Men and women who were exposed to the program have better marriage market outcomes with spouses that are more educated, and households with exposed women have improved living standards and pay more government taxes. Mother’s program exposure, rather than father’s, leads to education benefits that are transmitted to the next generation, with the largest effects in upper secondary and tertiary education. Cost-benefit analyses show that school construction leads to higher government tax revenues and improved living standards that offset construction costs within 30-50 years.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• First- and Second-Generation Impacts of the Biafran War

  The Journal of Human Resources · 2021 · 44 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Library science
  • Sociology

  We analyze long-term impacts of the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War, providing the first evidence of intergenerational impacts. War exposure among women results in reduced adult stature, an increased likelihood of being overweight, earlier age at first birth, and lower educational attainment. War exposure of mothers has adverse impacts on next-generation child survival, growth, and education. Impacts vary with age of exposure. For the mother and child health outcomes, the largest impacts stem from adolescent exposure. Exposure to a primary education program mitigates impacts of war exposure. War exposure leads to men marrying later and having fewer children.

  PublisherDOI

• Wars and child health: Evidence from the Eritrean–Ethiopian conflict

  Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 2020-11-04 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Conflict between and within countries can have lasting health and economic consequences, but identifying such effects can be empirically challenging. This paper uses household survey data from Eritrea to estimate the effect of exposure to the 1998–2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia war on children’s health. The identification strategy exploits exogenous variation in the conflict’s geographic extent and timing and the exposure of different birth cohorts to the fighting. The unique survey data include details on each household’s migration history, which allows us to measure a child’s geographic location during the war and without which war exposure would be incorrectly classified. War-exposed children have lower height-for-age Z-scores, with similar effects for children born before or during the war. Both boys and girls who are born during the war experience negative impacts due to conflict. Effects are robust to including region-specific time trends, alternative conflict exposure measures, and mother fixed effects.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Long-Term and Intergenerational Effects of Education: Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia

  The Economic Journal · 2018-11-01 · 32 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We study long-term and intergenerational effects of the 1970s Indonesian school construction program. Exploiting variation across birth cohorts and districts in the number of schools built suggests that 43 years later men are more likely to work formally, outside agriculture, and migrate, and that men and women have better marriage market outcomes. Households with exposed women have higher living standards and pay more taxes. The mother's program exposure leads to increased schooling for her children, with larger effects in secondary and tertiary education. Cost-benefit analyses indicate that school construction leads to higher tax revenues and improved living standards, offsetting construction costs within 18–54 years.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• First and Second Generation Impacts of the Biafran War

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2017-01-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Hunger Games: First and Second Generation Impacts of the Biafran War

  RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · 2017-08-01

  preprint1st authorCorresponding

  We analyze long-term impacts of the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War, providing the first evidence of intergenerational impacts. Women exposed to the war in their growing years exhibit reduced adult stature, increased likelihood of being overweight, earlier age at first birth, and lower educational attainment. Exposure to a primary education program mitigates impacts of war exposure on education. War exposed men marry later and have fewer children. War exposure of mothers (but not fathers) has adverse impacts on child growth, survival, and education. Impacts vary with age of exposure. For mother and child health, the largest impacts stem from adolescent exposure.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Harounan Kazianga

  Oklahoma State University

  78 shared

• Damien de Walque

  World Bank

  67 shared

• Emilie Bagby

  Mathematica Policy Research

  50 shared

• Daniel Halim

  29 shared

• Marieke Kleemans

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  29 shared

• Philip Verwimp

  European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management

  17 shared

• Harsha Thirumurthy

  California University of Pennsylvania

  16 shared

• Tom Bundervoet

  16 shared