My research is at the intersection of environmental and development economics, with a focus on how individuals, households, and communities decide to use natural resources and provide public goods. Much of my research uses field experiments to test theory and new policy innovations. I have done research in numerous countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and have ongoing work in South Africa, Ghana, Zambia and Niger. I co-chair the Environment and Energy sector at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT (J-PAL), am an affiliate of the Environmental Markets Lab at UCSB (emLab) and an associate editor at the American Economic Review and Econometrica.

I joined UCSB, where I have a split appointment between the Bren School and the Department of Economics, after seven years as an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Tufts University and a postdoc position at MIT, with the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI) at J-PAL. I have a bachelors degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University. Before graduate school, I spent two years in Lao PDR working for IUCN.