I am Raúl, an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy, and a research fellow at IGC, JPAL-CVI, NBER (PE), a distinguished fellow at CESifo, and was a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar and a scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. I am one of the founders of Marakuja Kivu Research. My work in Eastern DR Congo is part of a documentary, Congo Calling.
Email: raul@uchicago.edu Phone: +1-917-488-9151
“On the Origin of States: Stationary Bandits and Taxation in Eastern Congo,” Journal of Political Economy, Forthcoming. Media coverage: Marginal Revolution, Christopher Blattman’s blog, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Zeit, Kris Berwouts, VOXEu, BBC Radio trade series
*“When Formal Contracts Fail,” Econometrica, Revision requested
*“Corruption in a Hierarchy” with Kristof Titeca. Media coverage: Foreign Affairs, The Economist, CTC International group
*“Why Being Wrong can be Right: Magical Warfare Technology and the Persistence of False Beliefs” with Nathan Nunn, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (2017). Media coverage: VOXeu, CIFAR
*“Can Externally Mandated Gender Requirements Empower Women?” with Macartan Humphreys and Peter Van der Windt, Journal of Development Economics (2018)
*“Exporting Democratic Practices: Evidence from a Village Governance Intervention in Eastern Congo” with Macartan Humphreys and Peter Van der Windt, Journal of Development Economics, Accepted. Media coverage: Financial Times, World Bank Development blog, Tim Hartford’s blog
*“Fishing, Commitment, and Communication: Comprehensive Nonbinding Registration” with Macartan Humphreys and Peter Van der Windt, Political Analysis, 2012, 21 (1) pp 1-20. Media coverage: World Bank’s Development Impact blog
*“Dis-organizing violence: stationary bandits, and the time horizon,” with Miguel Ortiz and David (Qihang) Wu
*“Indirect rule and armed conflict: Theoretical insights from Congo” with Gauthier Marchais and Soeren Henn
Work in Progress
Our research team in the DR of the Congo
*“Indirect Rule: Causes and Consequences,” with Gauthier Marchais and Soeren Henn
*“Why do people join armed groups?” with Gauthier Marchais and Qihang Wu
*“On the mechanics of Kleptocratic states: Administrators’ power, protectors, and taxpayers false confessions” with Soeren Henn, Laura Paler, Cyrus Samii, Wilson Prichard (2016)
*Corruption: protection markets and social networks, with Kristof Titeca
*Emotional factors of participation into armed groups, with Hilary Yu and the help of many others
*Supernatural private sector development, with Nathan Nunn and Max Winkler
*Injecting Administrators’ Independence, DR Congo, with Eric Mvukiyehe and Guo Xu
*Economics of state kidnaping: Sicilian Fishermen, with Naor Ben-Yehoyada and Vito Pipitone
Book
A political economy of the Congo (in progress)
Policy Report
Social and Economic Impacts of Community Driven Development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
