Research

Research Focus

My research focuses on structural econometrics, causal inference (point and partial identification), robust inference, and applied microeconometrics, with applications in health, population, and development economics. I am particularly interested in policy evaluation and the theoretical foundations of econometric identification.

Working Papers

• The Heterogeneous Returns to Antenatal Care: Evidence from Childhood Immunization in Senegal
  Abstract

  Antenatal care (ANC) serves both as a medical input and as a source of health information in the child health production function. We use seven waves of the Senegal Demographic and Health Surveys matched with regional health-facility data to estimate the effect of ANC adherence on childhood vaccination outcomes. We address endogeneity arising from unobserved heterogeneity in ANC utilization using a two stage copula-based control-function approach. We find that ANC adherence has no effect on full child immunization but significantly increases uptake of the three-dose diphtheria–pertussis–tetanus (DTP3) and measles vaccines by 8.2 and 6.3 percentage points, respectively. These effects are concentrated among less-educated mothers. We also document an urban son-preference bias and find no effects for unintended births.

• Help Me! If You Help Him, Are You Really Helping Him? (with Liliane Bonnal and Pascal Favard)
• The Heterogeneous Effects of Informal Care on Formal Care Use and Mental Well-being among Single-Living Elderly in Europe: A Two-Stage Free IV Approach
  Abstract

  Little is known about how gender and institutional differences in long-term care systems shape the effects of informal care on formal care use and mental well-being among older adults. Empirical evidence on such heterogeneity is limited by endogeneity concerns and by the weak relevance of child-based instruments across population subgroups. We propose a copula-based control function approach that addresses these issues without relying on external instruments. Applying this approach to data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) covering 25 European countries, we show that treating informal care as exogenous leads to biased estimates. Once endogeneity is accounted for, informal and formal home care are substitutes: informal domestic care reduces formal domestic care use by 19.5 percentage points, while informal personal care reduces formal personal care use by 5.8 percentage points. While the effects are comparable for domestic care between men and women, we find substitution effects for personal care to be nearly twice as large for women. We further find that informal domestic care reduces depressive symptoms by 31.4 percentage points and loneliness by 22.3 percentage points among women, with negligible effects for men. These mental health effects are strongest in Central and Eastern Europe. Our findings highlight strong heterogeneity in the effects of informal care and provide an economic rationale for policies that support informal caregiving.

• The Formal–Informal Care Relationship: Heterogeneous Effects by Care Needs, Social Capital, and Psychosocial Well-Being (with Liliane Bonnal, Pascal Favard and Cornel Oros)

Work in Progress

• Female Autonomy and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from Developing Countries
• The effect of family size on childhood vaccination outcomes
• Identification in Recursive Multivariate Probit Models: Do Exclusion Restrictions Really Matter?