Ted’s main research focus is African economic development, including work on the economic causes and consequences of violence; the impact of ethnic divisions on local collective action; interactions between health, education, environment, and productivity for the poor; and methods for transparent social science research. He has conducted field work in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and India. Many of the datasets used in his research are posted online, either on the relevant article page (on this website) or on Dataverse.
Featured Research
Twenty Year Economic Impacts of Deworming
Meta-Analysis and Public Policy: Reconciling the Evidence on Deworming
Destructive behavior, economic decision-making, and judgment under thermal stress
Human Capital Affects Religious Identity: Causal Evidence from Kenya
Promoting Reproducibility and Replicability in Political Science
Reproductions and replications at scale
In 2022, one of us (A.B.) founded the Institute for Replication (I4R) with the primary objective of making reproduction and replication commonplace in the social sciences. Our initial focus was on prominent economics and political science journals. As of December 2023, we have reproduced and replicated over 250 studies published in several leading outlets. Our …
Preparing for an Aging Africa: Data-Driven Priorities for Economic Research and Policy
Money or Power? Choosing Covid-19 aid in Kenya
Development of the Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK)
Replication games: how to make reproducibility research more systematic
Survey of open science practices and attitudes in the social sciences
Scaling Agricultural Policy Interventions
Donor contracting conditions and public procurement: Causal evidence from Kenyan electrification
Long-Run Effects of Aid: Forecasts and Evidence from Sierra Leone
Targeting Impact versus Deprivation
The Syrian Refugee Life Study: First Glance
The Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Countries
The illusion of stable fertility preferences
End COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Reporting all results efficiently: A RARE proposal to open up the file drawer
Improving Research Transparency in the Social Sciences: Registration, Pre-registration, and Multiple Testing Adjustments
Skill Versus Voice in Local Development
Self-reported vs Directly Observed Face Mask Use in Kenya
Evidence on Research Transparency in Economics
Elections and Selfishness
Falling Living Standards during the COVID-19 Crisis: Quantitative Evidence from Nine Developing Countries
A Framework for Open Policy Analysis
Twenty Year Economic Impacts of Deworming
Research Transparency is on the Rise in Economics
Pre-results Review at the Journal of Development Economics: Lessons Learned
Deepening or Diminishing Ethnic Divides? The Impact of Urban Migration in Kenya
Using survey questions to measure preferences: Lessons from an experimental validation in Kenya
Transparency and Reproducibility: Conceptualizing the Problem (Chapter 6) and Potential Solutions (Chapter 7)
Does Electrification Supercharge Economic Development?
Non-economic factors in violence: Evidence from organized crime, suicides and climate in Mexico
A study of the impact of data sharing on article citations using journal policies as a natural experiment
General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya
Using RCTs to Estimate Long-Run Impacts in Development Economics
Sell Low and Buy High: Arbitrage and Local Price Effects in Kenyan Markets
Economics of Mass Deworming Programs
Spillover effects in epidemiology: parameters, study designs, and methodological considerations
Spillover effects on health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review
Self-Control and Demand for Preventive Health: Evidence from Hypertension in India
Should the WHO withdraw support for mass deworming?
Reevaluating Agricultural Productivity Gaps with Longitudinal Microdata
Commentary: Assessing long-run deworming impacts on education and economic outcomes: a comment on Jullien, Sinclair and Garner (2016)
Transparency, Reproducibility, and the Credibility of Economics Research
Does Mass Deworming Affect Child Nutrition? Meta-analysis, Cost-effectiveness, and Statistical Power
Can War Foster Cooperation?
Appliance Ownership and Aspirations among Electric Grid and Home Solar Households in Rural Kenya
Experimental Evidence on the Economics of Rural Electrification
Impacts and Determinants of Health Levels in Low-Income Countries
Analysis of statistical power reconciles drought-conflict results in Africa
Methodologies to Evaluate Early Childhood Development Programs
Willingness to pay for cleaner water in less developed countries: systematic review of experimental evidence
Tracking, Attrition and Data Quality in the Kenyan Life Panel Survey Round 1 (KLPS-1)
Ethnically biased? Experimental Evidence from Kenya
The case for mass treatment of intestinal helminths in endemic areas
Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production
War and Deforestation in Sierra Leone
Estimating spillover effects in a causal inference framework: a systematic review and methods synthesis
Worms at work: Long-run impacts of a child health investment
Commentary: Deworming externalities and schooling impacts in Kenya: a comment on Aiken et al. (2015) and Davey et al. (2015)
When Should Governments Subsidize Health? The Case of Mass Deworming
Promoting an Open Research Culture
War and Local Collective Action in Sierra Leone: A Comment on the Use of Coefficient Stability Approaches
Reconciling climate-conflict meta-analyses: reply to Buhaug et al.
Climate and Conflict
Electrification for ‘Under Grid’ Households in Rural Kenya
Temperature and violence
Promoting Transparency in Social Science Research
Reconciling Temperature-conflict Results in Kenya
The Potential of Rapid Screening Methods for Schistosoma Mansoni in Western Kenya
Epidemiology of Single and Multiple Species of Helminth Infections Among School Children in Busia District, Kenya
Anaemia in Schoolchildren in Eight Countries in Africa and Asia
Economic Shocks and Democratization in Africa
Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa
Healing the Wounds: Learning from Sierra Leone’s Post-war Institutional Reforms
The Value of Democracy: Evidence from Road Building in Kenya
Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa (Book Chapter)
Collective Action in Diverse Sierra Leone Communities
Risky Transportation Choices and the Value of a Statistical Life
Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict
Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data
Reshaping Institutions: Evidence on Aid Impacts Using a Preanalysis Plan
Incentivizing Safe Sex: a Randomized Trial of Conditional Cash Transfers for HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention in Rural Tanzania
You’ve Earned It: Estimating the Impact of Human Capital on Social Preferences
Incorporating Climate Uncertainty into Estimates of Climate Change Impacts
Education as Liberation?
The Price of Political Opposition: Evidence from Venezuela’s Maisanta
Social Engineering: Evidence from a Suite of Take-up Experiments in Kenya
Spring Cleaning: Rural Water Impacts, Valuation, and Property Rights Institutions
Government Transfers and Political Support
The Long-run Impact of Bombing Vietnam
Re-examining Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict
Civil War Exposure and Violence
Being Surveyed Can Change Later Behavior and Related Parameter Estimates
Civil War
War and Local Collective Action in Sierra Leone
Deworming and Development: Asking the Right Questions, Asking the Questions Right
Warming Increases the Risk of Civil War in Africa
Incentives to Learn
Individual Ability and Selection into Migration in Kenya
Orphans and Schooling in Africa: A Longitudinal Analysis
Corruption, Norms and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets
The Impact of Child Health and Nutrition on Education in Less Developed Countries
The Electoral Cost of War: Iraq Casualties and the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election
The Illusion of Sustainability
Poverty and Violence: An Overview of Recent Research and Implications for Foreign Aid
War and Institutions: New Evidence from Sierra Leone
Anemia and School Participation
Poverty and Crime in 19th Century Germany
Does Industrialization Build or Destroy Social Networks?
Book Review: Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence by Marcel Fafchamps
Ethnic Diversity and Poverty Reduction
Who are Russia’s Entrepreneurs?
Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya
Does Social Capital Promote Industrialization? Evidence from a Rapid Industrializer
Health, Education, and Economic Development
Poverty and Witch Killing
Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities
Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach
Tribe or Nation? Nation Building and Public Goods in Kenya Versus Tanzania
Comment on: Social Capital and Growth
Reply to Sutton et al.: Relationship between temperature and conflict is robust