About
My work sits at the intersection of economic development, agriculture, gender, and measurement in developing countries. I use large-scale household surveys and geospatial data to study how families, farms, and markets function, especially in settings where data are rare or difficult to collect. I earned my PhD at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and have worked with survey data at IFPRI, the IMF, and the World Bank.
I founded Dollar Scholars, a foundation that provides evidence-based financial education to adults who may never have been access to it. I also built its website and multilingual quiz .
Mbere y'ubukungu, namaze imyaka irindwi nk'umusesenguzi wabigize umwuga wa eSports, mpamagara amarushanwa ya Counter-Strike na Warcraft III kuva Seoul kugera Monza hagati ya 2004 na 2011. Ndacyakina Counter-Strike 2 na Overwatch 2, kandi nkora ibitero nka bard muri EverQuest.
Ubushakashatsi
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Impapuro z'akazi
Spreading the love around: how does agricultural labor demand respond to temporary weather shocks?
Mu bihugu bitandatu, ingo z'abahinzi zishingira cyane ku mirimo y'umuryango mu gihe cy'amapfa n'ibihe by'imvura idasanzwe. Ingo ziyobowe n'abagore ziragabanuka cyane.
Abstract
This is the first study to separately identify labor demand responses to both unanticipated droughts and periods of above normal rainfall for three forms of agricultural labor that are central to agricultural production: family, hired, and mutual exchange labor. I use a simple parcel‑level model with three labor types and monitoring costs to study how family labor is reallocated across parcels during drought. In six countries I find small but statistically significant decreases in the share of hired labor during droughts and during periods of above-normal rainfall, indicating a strong reliance on family labor during shocks. I find that farm households appear to lean heavily on exchange labor by using exchange labor more frequently during periods of above-normal rainfall. Due to the heavy reliance on family labor, household size and the gender of the household head are important moderating factors. Women-headed households appear to be significantly more constrained in how they apply labor on family farms. My findings underscore that these labor types are distinct in how they respond to temporary weather shocks. The results of my analysis have important implications for policies targeted at stimulating agricultural labor markets.
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Work in progress
Assessing land area from above: evidence from Armenia
Igeragezwa ryakorewe mu buryo budasanzwe mu bushakashatsi bw'umuryango: gukurikirana ibice ku mashusho ya satellite byatwaye igihe gito cya 42% ugereranyije no gupima hakoreshejwe GPS kandi byateye imbere ku bipimo byatangajwe, nubwo bitari ukuri ugereranyije na GPS.
Abstract
Using primary data collected by the World Bank in Armenia as part of a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate the use of a satellite image tracing to measure agricultural land in the context of a household survey. Satellite tracing offers several benefits, including a large reduction in the cost of measuring land, the potential to measure more parcels of land, and improved security for survey enumerators. We find the satellite tracing approach yields consistent results, and requires 42% less time than measuring with GPS, and provides value-added over self-reported estimates. Due to the potential cost savings, and other non-trivial benefits, we suggest that land measurement via satellite image tracing offers significant value, though is not as accurate as land area estimates conducted with a handheld GPS.
Kwigisha
He is really one of, if not the best professor I ever had at American University. He goes out of his way to have the class use real world examples of data rather than just having 'Sally has 4 apples and Dave has 15 oranges' style problems... He is everything a college professor should be and then some.
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2021 – 2024
Adjunct Professor · American University
Economic development, applied econometrics, and introductory micro- and macroeconomics, taught with real data and real-world examples.
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2015 – 2018
Graduate Institute, Geneva
Economics for International Affairs (2015–2016) and review sessions for Macroeconomics A (2017–2018).
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Umuryango
Economics Discord
A 501 (c) (3) educational nonprofit and partnered Discord server where more than 3,000 economics students, researchers and economists from around 30 countries help each other learn.
Dollar Scholars
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Uwashinze
Dollar Scholars
A foundation for adult financial education, taught in person and grounded in research, because credit cannot help people who don't know how to use it.
Porogaramu
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Iterambere ry'urubuga
dollarscholars.org
I designed, coded and auto-translated the foundation's website: a custom Django site styled with Tailwind CSS and self-hosted with nginx on an Ubuntu server, rebuilt with security in mind after a cyberattack. It comes in 44 language versions, including four right-to left languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu), and volunteer translators can check and correct any version through a simple CSV workflow.
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Financial Knowledge Study
Ubushakashatsi bw'ubumenyi bw'imari mu ndimi nyinshi n'ibibazo mu ndimi 31, kongeraho bitanu by'imikino nka Pirate Speak na 1930s Mobster. Ibibazo byakuwe muri Lusardi & Mitchell (2014) na FINRA Foundation's National Financial Capacity Study; Ubuhinduzi bwakozwe na Microsoft Copilot na Deep Translator kandi busuzumwa n'abakorerabushake aho biboneka.
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Ubushakashatsi bwa mudasobwa
Data and geospatial analysis
Python (pandas) na Stata ku makuru manini nk'ubushakashatsi bw'inzu, na GIS (ArcGIS) y'amakuru ya satellite, harimo no gushushanya amatara ya VIIRS inyuma y'uru rubuga.
Commentaire ya eSports
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2004 – 2011
Umusesenguzi wa eSports
Yitwa Counter-Strike 1.6 na Warcraft III ku binyamakuru birimo DirecTV, MTV na MTV Korea, hamwe n'ibinyamakuru nka Alex “Vansilli” Nguyen, Glenn “Boomerman” Lane na Zach “Hoo_man” Godfrey.
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Press · MTV.com (archived)
Video game play-by-play comes with a deadly challenge