Recent Journal articles
[2024] “The Real State: Inside The Congo’s Traffic Police Agency” (Ethics Appendix, Study Documentation)
with Kristof Titeca, Haoyang (Stan) Xie, Albert Malukisa Nkuku, Aimable Amani Lameke
American Economic Review 2024, 114(12): 3976–4014
Summary: here Media coverage: Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Africanews, Agence France Presse, The Conversation
[2023] “Monopoly of Taxation Without a Monopoly of Violence: The Weak State’s Trade-Offs from Taxation” (Study documentation; External data documentation)
with Soeren Henn, Christian Mastaki Mugaruka, Miguel Ortiz, David (Qihang) Wu
The Review of Economic Studies (Published May 28 2024)
[2021] “Whither Formal Contracts? When the Power of Society Limits the Benefits of State Contract Enforcement” (Repeated game, Companion study)
Econometrica, Vol. 89, No. 5 (September, 2021).
Winner: CESifo Distinguished Affiliate Award in Applied Microeconomics
[2020] “On the Origins of the State: Stationary Bandits and Taxation in Eastern Congo”
Journal of Political Economy, January 2020
Media: Marginal Revolution, Christopher Blattman’s blog, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Zeit, Kris Berwouts, VOXEu, BBC Radio trade series, PEDL research note
Working papers being revised for resubmission
“Moral Violence: At the Heart of One of Congo’s Major Armed Groups“
with Louis Dunia and Hilary Yu
Quarterly Journal of Economics, Reject with invitation to resubmit
Podcast on the paper and its background in the following episode of Backstory.
“Social Origins of Militias: The Extraordinary Rise of the Outraged Citizens” (Study Documentation)
with Gauthier Marchais, Christian Mastaki Mugaruka, and David (Qihang) Wu
Journal of Political Economy, Reject (and Resubmit)
“On the Importance of African Traditional Religion for Economic Behavior“
with Aimable Amani Lameke, Lewis Butinda, Nathan Nunn and Max Winkler
Econometrica, Reject (and Resubmit)
“Seeing like a Citizen: Experimental Evidence on How Empowerment Affects Engagement with the State“
with Soeren Henn, Laura Paler, Cyrus Samii, Wilson Prichard
American Journal of Political Science, Conditionally Accepted
Older Publications
[2019] “Exporting Democratic Practices: Evidence from a Village Governance Intervention in Eastern Congo”
with Macartan Humphreys and Peter Van der Windt
Journal of Development Economics, 2019, Volume 140, Pages 279-301]
Media: Financial Times, World Bank Development blog, Tim Hartford’s blog [Gated]
[2018] “Gender quotas in development programming: Null results from a field experiment in Congo“
with Macartan Humphreys and Peter Van der Windt
Journal of Development Economics, 2018, vol. 133(C), pages 326-345.
[2017] “Why Being Wrong can be Right: Magical Warfare Technology and the Persistence of False Beliefs”
with Nathan Nunn
American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 107 (5): 582-87, May 2017
Media coverage: VOXeu, CIFAR
[2012] “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
Working papers in progress
“The Social Fabric of Corruption: A Field Experiment in Congo’s Public Transport “ (Ethics Appendix)
with Aimable Amani Lameke, Albert Malukisa Nkuku, Vincent Tanutama, and Kristof Titeca
Summary by the Becker Friedman Institute: here
“From Indirect to Direct Rule: Armed Groups and Customary Chiefs in Eastern Congo”
with Soeren Henn, Christian Mastaki Mugaruka, and Gauthier Marchais
“Indirect rule and armed conflict”
with Gauthier Marchais and Soeren Henn
“Uncovering The Moral Economy of State Officials and Its Significance of Corruption”
with Kristof Titeca, Haoyang (Stan) Xie, Albert Jolino Malukisa, Aimable Amani Lameke.
“How weak are weak states? Structural estimation of state capacity and applications”
with Stan Xie and Yuting Chen
“Boatnapping: The Political Economy of Transnational Illegal Activity”
with Naor Ben-Yehoyada and Vito Pipitone
Book
A political economy of the Congo (in progress)
Policy Reports
Artisanal Mining, Livelihoods, and Child Labor in the Cobalt Supply Chain of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
with Benjamin Faber and Benjamin Krause
Social and Economic Impacts of Community Driven Development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
with Macartan Humphreys and Peter Van der Windt
The Informal, Internal Conference in Substantivist Economics and Societies, April 3rd 2025 at the Harris School.
Raúl SÁNCHEZ DE LA SIERRA 