Mozambique Island, Mozambique, 2016
Embedded Files
Working Papers
"Concessions, Land Segregation, and Spatial Development: Evidence from Mozambique," (Job Market Paper), 2025
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Abstract: Concessions to private companies were a common form of economic and administrative organization during the colonial era in Africa. This paper examines the long-run legacy of the Mozambique Company, one of the largest and most enduring concessionary firms of the twentieth century, which governed central Mozambique from 1891 to 1942 under a Portuguese charter. I exploit the Company’s historical boundaries to estimate its impact on contemporary local development, measured by household wealth and nighttime luminosity. Using spatial regression discontinuity (RD) designs across the concession area, at its border, and within the concession by colonial district type, I find that areas historically ruled by the Company are significantly better off today. However, these effects are not uniform, reflecting colonial land segregation between settler areas and indigenous reserves, with gains concentrated in the former. Drawing on original historical data from before, during, and after the concession period, I show that this spatial heterogeneity was driven by greater investment in road infrastructure and the creation of a specialized labor force serving settler-driven activities. The findings show that even within a single concession, variation in private colonial governance produced lasting development gaps, highlighting the role of private capital in contexts of weak state capacity.
Research in Progress
"Linguistic Divides: Gendered Language and Gender Norms in India," 2025, (with N. Mantha and B. Pattath)
"Carbon Colonialism: The Local Economic Consequences of Forest Preservation Policies," 2025, (with E. Le Rossignol and G. Pincus)
Non-Academic Publications
"An Emerging but Vulnerable Middle Class: A Description of Trends in Asia and the Pacific," Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal, 2020, 27(1), 1–20
Policy Reports
"Birth Registration in Asia and the Pacific: A Classification and Regression Trees Analysis to Identify the Furthest Behind Children," 2023
"The Workforce We Need: Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific," 2022
"The Protection We Want: Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific," 2020
"Closing the Gap: Empowerment and Inclusion in Asia and the Pacific," 2019
"Poorly Protected: Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific," 2018
"Inequality of Opportunity Policy Papers," 2018–2024
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